Music History terms
• psalm tone: a melodic formula for singing psalms in the office (series of 8 prayer services) There is one psalm time for each mode
• neume: a sign used in notation of chant to indicate a certain number of notes and general melodic dictation or particular pitches
• organum: one of several styles of early polyphony from the ninth through 13th centuries involving the addition of one or more voices to an existing chant
• forms fixes: schemes of poetic and musical repetition, each feature a refrain used in late medieval in 15th century French chansons
• Franconian notation: system of notation described by Franco of cologne around 1280 using note shapes to indicate durations
• Ars nova: “new art” style of polyphony from 14th century France, distinguished from earlier styles by a new system of rhythmic notation that allow dual or triple divisions of note, values, syncopation, and great rhythmic flexibility
• isorhythm: (“equal” rhythm) repetition in a voice part (usually the tenor) of an extended pattern of duration throughout a section or an entire composition
• cantus-firmus mass: polyphonic mass in which the same Canta furnace is used in each movement normally in the tenor
• paraphrase mass: polyphonic mass in which each movement is based on the same monophonic melody, normally a chant which is paraphrased and most are all voices rather than being used as a cantus firmus in one voice
• motet: (“word”) polyphonic vocal composition
• chorale: strophic hymn in the Lutheran tradition intended to be sung by the congregation
• madrigal: 14th century Italian poetic form and its musical setting having two or three stanzas followed by a ritornello
• seconda pratica: Monteverde’s term for a practice of counterpoint and composition that allows the rule of 16th century counterpoint (the prima practica) to be broken in order to express the feelings of a text.
• oratorio: genre of dramatic music that originated in the 17th century, combining narrative, dialogue and commentary through aria’s ratatouille, ensemble, chorus, and instrumental music like an unstaged opera, usually on a religious or biblical subject
• da capo aria: aria formed with two sections. The first section is repeated after the second section’s close, which carries the instruction de Capo creating an ABA form.
allemande: “German dance” highly stylized dance in binary form in moderately slow quadruple meter with almost continuous movement beginning with an upbeat.
courante: a dance in binary form in compound meter at a moderate tempo with an upbeat featured as a standard movement of the Baroque dance suite
sarabande
gigue: stylized dance movement of a standard baroque suite, and binary, formed, marked by fast compound in meter with wide melodic, leaps and continuous triplets
• cantata: “to be sung” a vocal chamber work with continuo usually for solo voice, consisting of several sections or movements that include Reeves and arias and setting a lyrical or quasi-dramatic text
• Galant style: “elegant” 18th century musical style that featured song like melodies short phrases, frequent cadences, and light accompaniment
• program music: instrumental music that tells a story or follows a narrative or other sequence of events often, spelled out in accompanying text, called a program
• character piece: a piece of characteristic music (instrumental music that depicts or suggests a mood personality or scene usually indicated in its title), especially one for piano
• mazurka a type of Polish folk dance, in triple meter characterized by accents on the second or third beat and often by dotted figures on the first beat or style piano piece on such a dance
• nocturne: type of short, piano piece popular during the romantic period marked by highly embellished melody, sonorous accompaniments, and a contemplative mood vocative of the night.
• leitmotif: “leading motive” in an opera or film, score a motive theme or musical idea, associated with a person thing mood or idea which returns an original or altered form throughout
• symphonic poem: term coined by Liszt for a one-movement work of program music for Orchestra that conveys a poetic idea, story, scene, or succession of moods by presenting themes that are repeated, varied, or transformed
• march: a piece in duple or 6/8 meter comprising an introduction and several strains each repeat repeated.
• impressionism: term derived from art used for music that invokes mood and visual imagery through colorful harmony and instrumental timbre
• atonality: term for music that avoids establishing a center pitch or tonal center
• Sprechstimme: (“speaking voice”) a vocal style developed by Schoenberg, in which the performer approximates the written pitches in the gliding tones of speech, while following the notated rhythm
• 12-tone music: a form of a tonality based on the systematic ordering of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale into a row that may be manipulated according to certain rules
• neo-classicism: trending music from the 1910s to the 1950s in which composers survived imitated or evoked the styles genres and forms of pre-romantic music, especially those of the 18th century
• 12-bar blues: standard formula of the blues with a harmonic progression in which the first four measure phrase is on the tonic, the second begins on the subdominant and ends on the tonic, and the third starts on the dominant and returns to the tonic.
• popular song form: song that is intended primarily to entertain an audience, accommodate amateur performers and sell out many copies as possible
• total serialism: the application of the principles of the 12-tone method to musical parameters, other than pitch, including duration, intensity, and timbres
• electro-acoustic music: music based on sounds that are produced or modified through electronic means
• indeterminacy: an approach to composition pioneered by John Cage, in which the composer leaves certain aspects of the music unspecified
• minimalism: popular in the late 20th century where materials are reduced to a minimum and procedures simplified so that what is going on in the music is immediately apparent.
• polystylism: term coined by Alfred Schnittke for a combination of newer and older musical styles created through quotation or stylistic allusion