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MUS 1500

Terms

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Music performed during a theatrical play.
Incidental Music
A "musical signature" associated with a specific characters and ideas in Wagner's stage works.
Leitmotif
The term used to describe the recurring transformable melody in Berlioz' "Fantastic Symphony"
Idee fixe
Music that does not intend to tell a specific story.
Absolute Music
Music that attempts to tell a story or "paint a picture" without words.
Program Music
The relative loudness/quietness of musical sound.
Dynamics
The element of "time" in music.
Rhythm
The horizontal presentation of pitch.
Melody
The vertical relationship of pitches.
Harmony
The interrelationship of simultaneously-sounding musical lines.
Texture
The characteristic sound of an instrument/voice.
Tone Color
The structural design of a musical work.
Form
[True or False] In the majority of non-Western cultures there is no such thing as "art music" [formal concert music]?
True
a long-necked stringed instrument of India.
Sitar
A Japanese plucked instrument with 13 strings and moveable bridges.

Koto
A Middle-Eastern pear-shaped, fretless stringed instrument.

'Ud
A melodic pattern used in the music of India.

Raga
A rhythmic pattern used in the music of India.

Tala
A small clay Middle-Eastern drum that changes pitch by the player's finger pressure.

Darabukkah
A pair of drums used to accompany the music of India.
Tabla
The native-African tradition of a leader's improvised phrases alternatingly "answered" by a larger group.

Call and Response
Creating new music "on-the-spot" (at the same time it is being performed).

Improvisation
Several independent rhythms sounding at the same time.

Polyrhythm
A bronze "pot"-like instrument used in the gamelan.

Bonang
A 3-stringed Japanese "banjo".

Shamisen
A traditional Mexican group comprised of guitars, violin, trumpet, etc.

Mariachi
Syllables of chanted prayers used in American Indian music.
Vocable
A 5-note family of pitches (often used in Japanese music).
Pentatonic scale
India's best-known guru/sitarist.
Ravi Shankar
Composed most of the Medieval chants.
Anonymous monks
French composer (c. 1200) known for writing organum.

Perotin
The most important composer of the late Middle Ages (French, c. 1350).

Machaut
A multi-faceted German nun and composer.

Hildegard of Bingen
Monophonic, Latin, Catholic liturgical music in a free rhythm.

Chant
An early type of Medieval POLYPHONY (uses chant in long-held notes in the lowest voice).

Organum
Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei.

Mass Ordinary
These prayers change every day to reflect the particular day of the church calendar.

Mass Proper
A sacred vocal work NOT based on a prayer from the Mass.

Motet
A Medieval dance with a strong triple meter.

Estampie
Many notes sung to one syllable of text.
Melisma
The most famous composer of the MID-Renaissance.

Josquin Desprez
The greatest composer of LATE Renaissance sacred music.

Giovanni da Palestrina
One of the leading English madrigalists at the court of Queen Elizabeth I.

Thomas Weelkes
This Italian madrigalist was a transitional figure between late-Renaissance and early Baroque styles.

Carlo Gesualdo
A Renaissance bowed string instrument.

Viol
Music designed to symbolize the specific meaning of its text.

Word-painting
A secular piece written for a small group of unaccompanied singers.

Madrigal
A sacred vocal work NOT based on a prayer text from the Mass.

Motet
A melodic or harmonic punctuation at the end of a musical phrase or section.

Cadence
A pear-shaped, guitar-like plucked string instrument.

Lute
A compositional approach when all voice-parts are conceived together phrase-by-phrase.

Simultaneous composition
A compositional technique in which lines are layered one-at-a-time.

Successive composition
Flexible echoing of material from voice-to-voice.

Imitation
Strict echoing of material from voice-to-voice.

Canon
A Renaissance philosophy intended to reconcile theological practice with scientific inquiry.

Humanism
A work that alternates a GROUP OF SOLOISTS vs. an orchestra.

Concerto grosso
A work that alternates ONE SOLOIST vs. an orchestra

Solo Concerto
A Baroque chamber work requiring 4 players.

Trio Sonata
A complex polyphonic technique of manipulating a musical "subject."

Fugue
A short melodic or harmonic pattern that repeats exactly over and over.

Ostinato
An Italian term indicating for all performers to play together.

Tutti
Tutti, solo, tutti, solo, tutti, solo, tutti, etc.

Ritornello Form
A theatrical work performed by costumed solo singers/chorus and orchestra.

Opera
A long, sacred work for singers and orchestra that is not staged/costumed.

Oratorio
A short religious composition for solo singers, chorus and orchestra.

Cantata
Speech-like singing in free rhythm with sparse accompaniment.
Recitative
A tuneful manner of singing with a steady meter.
Aria
The "back-up" band of the Baroque (usually harpsichord and cello).
Basso continuo
A set of contrasting instrumental dance movements.
Suite
Ironically, Mozart died while writing this work.

Mozart: Requiem
This comic opera is based on a French play that boldly attacked the aristocracy.

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro
A dead commander comes back from the grave to condemn a vicious aristocrat to Hell.

Mozart: Don Giovanni
This work uses the same 4-note motive as the basis for the main ideas in all movements.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
This symphony broke tradition by using solo singers and chorus.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
This work features a programmatic reference to Napolean Bonaparte.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3
Exposition, Development, Recapitulation (the usual 1st-movement Classic form)

Sonata Form
Theme, Var.1, Var.2, Var.3, Var.4, etc.

Theme & Variations
After 1800, this was the usual 3rd-movement design of a Classic 4-movement work.

Scherzo & Trio
Before 1800, this was usual 3rd-movement design of a Classic 4-movement work.

Minuet & Trio
A-B-A-C-A-B-A (or A-B-A-C-A); commonly used in last movements of Classic instrumental works.

Rondo
A small musical fragment used to build a larger idea.

Motive
The Latin term for a "work."

Opus
A multi-movement work for a solo pianist (or solo instrument with piano accompaniment).

Sonata
A multi-movement work for 2 violins, viola, and cello.

String Quartet
A multi-movement work for orchestra.

Symphony
A "Mass for the Dead."

Requiem
A 3-movement work for a soloist vs. an orchestra.

Solo Concerto
An aristocratic dance in triple meter.

Minuet
A Classic instrumental chamber work usually performed for social entertainment of the upper classes.

Serenade
Gods and mortals battle over the magic gold of the Rhine.

Wagner: Ring of the Nibelungs
Count Almaviva needs Figaro's help to win the hand of Rosina.

Rossini: Barber of Seville
A nationalistic tone poem that portrays the programmatic images of a Czech river.

Smetana: The Moldau
A sick young boy is scared to death by figments of his imagination.

Schubert: Erlkonig
A suicidal man hallucinates five "dreams" about his lost lover.

Berlioz: Fantastic Symphony
A colorful ballet based on a child's Christmastime fantasy.

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
This work chronicles the bitter-sweet romance of a dying seamstress and a struggling writer.

Puccini: La Boheme
Modern music that has no tonal center.

Atonality
An ultra-shocking, dissonant style fostered by Schoenberg.

Expressionism
An understated, static style promoted by Debussy.

Impressionism
The compositional technique besed on a pre-arranged series ("row") of 12 notes.

Serialism
A compositional style in which aspects of the work are left to chance.

Chance Music
Modern music based on the hypnotic repetition/distortion of short patterns.

Minimalism
Music that sounds in two or more keys at the same time.

Polytonality
A half-spoken, half-sung style of singing on approximate pitches.

Sprechstimme
A language that allows computers and digital music devices to communicate together.

MIDI
The process of attaching objects to the strings of a piano to create unusual new sounds.

Prepared Piano
Cowell: The Banshee
Tone clusters

Cage: 4'33"
Chance Music

Varese: Poeme Electronique
Musique concrete

Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Symphonic Poem

Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire
Song cycle

Copland: Appalacchian Spring
Ballet
Glass: Einstein on the Beach
Minimalist opera

Schoenberg: A Survivor from Warsaw
Serialism
Bernstein: West Side Story
Jazz-Influenced Musical Theatre

[TRUE or FALSE?] The audience rioted during the premiere performance of Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring"?
FALSE

(It was the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" that caused a riot in Paris in 1913)

Hot Jazz

Louis Armstrong
Swing
"Duke" Ellington
Ragtime

Scott Joplin
Bebop
Charlie Parker
Cool Jazz

Dave Brubeck
Free Jazz

Ornette Coleman
"Classic" Blues

Bessie Smith
Soul Music

James Brown
"Acid" Rock

Jimi Hendrix
Techno
The Prodigy
A "Big Band" jazz style prominent in the 1930s-50s.

Swing
An early 20th-cdeveloped around the turn of the 20th century.

Ragtime
A style of improvised jazz singing on colorful nonsense syllables.

Scat singing
A 1980s/90s popular style that focused on nature sounds, acoustic instruments, etc.

New Age Music
A "mellow"developed in the 1950s.

Cool Jazz
A lively early style of "Dixieland" jazz developed in the 1920s/30s.

Hot Jazz
A combination of Jazz and Rock styles.

Fusion
An intensely improvisatory/virtuosic style of jazz developed in the 1950s.

Bebop
A style created by the merging of Country-Western and Rhythm-and-Blues.

Rock and Roll
A modern popular style that focuses on driving, repetitive rhythms and textual clarity.

Rap (Hip-hop)

Deck Info

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