305321
| Question | Answer |
| Anacrusis | Up-beat, an accented note or group of notes before the first strong beat of a phrase |
| Beat | Regular pulse that can be clapped to |
| Simple time | When the main beats of the bar can be divided into two equal portions |
| Compound time | When the main beats in a bar can be divided into three equal portions |
| Harmonic rhythm | How often the harmony changes in a piece of music |
| Offbeat | Sounds in between the main beats of a piece of music |
| Polyrhythm | More than one rhythm played at the same time |
| Rest | A moment of silence (when someone is not playing) |
| Swing rhythm | When two quavers are played as a triplet crotchet and a quaver |
| Syncopation | Accenting the weak notes of a bar |
| Triplet | Three notes played in the time normally taken by two of the same type |
| Accent | Emphasis on one particular note or chord |
| Arco | Use the bow (string instruments) |
| Legato | Smoothly |
| Pizzicato (or pizz) | Plucked (string instruments) |
| Staccato | Played in a detached way |
| Vibrato | Changing the pitch of a note very fast to give resonance (on strings this means wobbling the finger on the string) |
| Binary form | With an A section followed by a B section |
| Ternary form | With a contrasting section in between two similar ones (ABA) |
| Rondo Form | A main melody alternates with contrasting sections (ABACADA) |
| Canon | The melody in one part is repeated by the others while the original continues (also known as a round) |
| Coda | Section of music that ends a piece |
| Fuge | A main theme is taken up and developed by each of the parts in turn |
| Chamber music | Music written for small groups |
| Concerto | Music for instrument soloist and orchestra (often in three movements) |
| Ensemble | Group of musicians performing together |
| Opera | Large secular musical theatre composition with orchestra, choir, and soloists |
| Oratorio | Large sacred composition with an orchestra, choir, and soloists, while an opera is theatre an oratorio is solely a concert piece |
| Sonata | Piece for soloist or duet in three or four movements |
| Symphony | Type of orchestral composition, usually in four movements. |
| Baroque | Musical period - 1600-1750 E.g. Bach, Handel |
| Classical | Musical period - 1750-1820 E.g. Mozart, Haydn |
| Romantic | Musical period - 1820-1900 E.g. Brahms, Schubert |
| Modern | Musical period - 1900-present E.g. Glass, Williams |
| Largo | Broadly |
| Adagio | Slow and stately |
| Andante | At a walking pace |
| Moderato | Moderately |
| Allegretto | Moderately fast |
| Allegro | Fast, lively and bright |
| Vivace | Lively and fast(er than allegro) |
| Presto | Very fast |
| Accelerando | Speeding up |
| Allargando | Broadening (get a bit slower and perhaps louder) |
| Rallentando/Ritenuto | Slowing down |
| Rubato | With some freedom (lit: "Robbed") of time |
| Strophic | Every verse of a song is set to the same melody |
| Through-composed | Every verse of a song is set to a different melody |
| Outro/Coda | Ending section of a piece of music |
| Melisma | When a singer slurs/spreads out a sylable over more than one note |
| Virtuoso | Highly skilled performer |
| Cadenza | Solo section within a piece for the soloist to show off their virtuosity, sometimes improvised sometimes not |
| Conductor | Person who leads an orchestra by keeping them in time and directing dynamics and tempo |
| Movement | Self-contained section within a larger piece |
| Break | A solo by an instrumentalist (jazz) |
| Improvisation | Making it up as you go along |
| ff | Fortissimo (very loud) |
| f | Forte (loud) |
| mf | Mezzo-forte (moderately loud) |
| mp | Mezzo-piano (moderately quiet) |
| p | Piano (quiet) |
| pp | Pianissimo |
| cresc. | Crescendo (get louder) |
| dim./decresc. | Diminuendo/ decrescendo (getting quieter) |
| Arpeggio | A broken chord (when the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8ve notes are played after each other rather than at the same time) |
| Blues scale | A hexatonic (6-note) scale with a flattened 3rd, 5th, and 7th |
| Glissando | A slide from one pitch to another |
| Interval | The distance between two notes |
| Intonation | Tuning/ accuracy of pitch |
| Key | The scale that a section of music is based on |
| Melody | A tune |
| Modal | Modes are scales that differ from normal major or minor scales, e.g. play a scale using only white notes starting and finishing on D (dorian mode) |
| Range | The gap between the highest and lowest notes in a piece |
| Octave | The interval between notes 12 semitones apart e.g. middle C to the C above it |
| Ornaments | Small musical additions that decorate a melody e.g. turn, trill |
| Pentatonic | Scale made of 5 notes, the tonic, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th |
| Pitch | How high or low a note is |
| Scale | Sequence of notes that moves by steps either upwards or downwards |
| Semitone | The smallest interval between two notes |
| Tonality | Whether a piece is in a major or minor key |
| Tone | An interval of two semitones |
| Trill | A rapid alternation of two pitches (type of ornament) |
| Bass line | The lowest pitched line in a piece of music |
| Call-and-response | A pair of phrases, often performed by different musicians, in which the second phrase is heard as a reply to the first. |
| Imitation | A melodic idea in one part is copied by another part at a different pitch. |
| Instrumentation | The choice of instruments for a piece of music |
| Inversion | When the intervals in a melody are turned upside down e.g. a rising 5th (C to G) becomes a falling 5th (C to F) |
| Leitmotif | A recurring motif used in a piece to represent the same person, idea, or place |
| Ostinato | A repeated pattern of notes heard throughout a section of music. |
| Sequence | Immediate repetition of a melody at a different pitch |
| Timbre | The individual sound characterisic of a particular instrument or voice |
| Walking bass | A bass line in which all the notes are on the beat and move by small steps |
| Atonal | A piece of music that is not in any key, with clashing harmonies |
| Cadence | The last two chords of a musical phrase, creating musical punctuation |
| Chord | Two or more notes played at the same time, creating a particular quality e.g. major, minor, seventh |
| Chromatic notes | Notes that do not belong to the scale of the key that the music is currently in |
| Diatonic notes | Notes that belong to the scale that the music is currently in |
| Dissonance | A combination of notes that produces a clashing sound when played together |
| Dominant | The 5th note of a scale |
| Drone | A sustained note |
| Major and Minor | Different types of intervals, chords, and keys |
| Modulation | Changing key |
| Relative major/minor | Keys that have the same key signature but a different tonic |
| Subdominant | The 4th note in a scale |
| 12 bar blues | Chord sequence used in Blues and Jazz made of the 1st, 4th, and 5th chords of a key |
| Texture | The relationship between different lines of a piece of music |
| Accompaniment | Music that supports a main performer or melody |
| Heterophony | Different versions of the same melody are heard at the same time (as in Gamelan) |
| Homophonic | All parts move in a similar rhythm, creating a chordal effect |
| Monophonic | One melodic line |
| Parallel motion | When parts are moving in the same direction, keeping the same interval between them |
| Polyphonic/Contrapuntal/Counterpoint | Two or more significant melody lines are played at the same time |