MUSIC KEYWORDS

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  • Music
    • Structure and Form
      • Introduction - a section that starts a piece before the voice/main tune enters
      • Verse/Chorus - Only in sung excerpts (not instrumental music)
      • Binary - AB (two different musical ideas)
      • Ternary - ABA
      • Repetition - Exactly the same played more than once (e.g. AA)
      • A1A2 - A1 original musical material but slightly altered for A2
      • Cadenza - A section when the soloist plays solo, usually demonstrating his/her virtuosity
      • Ground Bass - A short musical idea usually heard in the bass part throughout a piece
      • 12-bar blues - Characteristic form in chord structure ( I I I I IV IV I I V IV I I)
    • Tempo
      • Tempo - speed of music
      • Allegro - fast
      • Moderato - medium
      • Andante - slow
      • Rubato - flexible time
      • Accelerando - getting faster
      • Rallentando - getting slower
    • Rhythmic Devices
      • Syncopation - Off beat
      • Triplets - 3 notes played in the time of 2
      • Augmentation - rhythm repeated in a longer version, notes doubled
      • Diminution - rhythm repeated in a shorter version, notes halved
      • Cross-rhythms - when two conflicting rhythms are played at the same time
      • Polyrhythms - Two or more rhythms played at the same time
      • Hemiola - where 2 bars of 3/4 sound like 3 bars of 2/4
    • Harmony and Tonality
      • Consonant - notes that sound pleasing together
      • Dissonant - notes that sound clashing together
      • Chromatic - movement by semitones
      • Diatonic - music that uses notes from the key (mostly consonant)
      • Pedal - A note that is repeated/held (usually played by the bass or any low-pitched instruments) with changing harmonies on top
      • Drone - one or two notes held for a really long time
      • Atonal- no key
      • Tierce de Picardie - when a piece in a minor key ends with a major chord
      • Modal - based on a 7-note scale called a mode
    • Timbre
      • Vibrato - a rapid and regular fluctuation in pitch, used by vocalists/ instrumentalists to produce a richer sound
      • Falsetto - a vocal technique used by men to sing notes higher than their normal range
      • Tongued  - notes played separately
      • Slurred - notes played smoothly
      • Reverb - echo
      • Con arco - with bow
      • Pizzicato - plucking of the the strings ( usually on the violin)
      • Double stopping - two or more strings being played at once
      • Tremolando -  fast bowing
    • Texture
      • Monophonic - single melody
      • Octaves - played simultaneouslybut at a different pitch
      • Unison - all the instruments playing notes at the same pitch
      • Melody with accompaniment - melody (vocal or instrumental) with the piano or band providing accompaniment (pop songs)
      • Homophonic - melody and accompaniment moves mainly to the same rhythm (chordal music)
      • Polyphonic - two or more melodies of equal importance played at the same time. Sometimes called contrapuntal
      • Imitative - most of the melody copied in another part (melody exactly the same = canon)
      • Heterophonic - two or more melodies simultaneouslyperforming variations of the same melody
      • Antiphonal - two separate groups (e.g 'Oh Happy Day'/ 'California Dreaming') call and response part of this texture
    • Scales
      • Pentatonic - scale made from 5 notes
      • Chromatic - scale which plays all notes (semitones only)
      • Whole tone - six note scale made from tones only
      • Blues scale - major scale with bIII bV and bVII
    • Melody
      • Trill - rapid move to back and forth between the note and the note above
      • Slide/glissando/portamento - sliding from one note to another
      • Acciaccatura- quick note preceding the main note (flick)
      • Ornamentation - embellishing a melody
      • Sequence - a group of notes directly repeated at a different pitch
      • Ostinato/riff - a repeated melodic pattern
      • Staccato - short and snappy
      • Legato - long and smooth
      • Accent - emphasised note
      • Ascending - melody rises in pitch
      • Descending - melody descends in pitch
      • Triadic - melody moves using the notes from the triad
      • Conjunction - movement is mostly stepwise
      • Disjunct - movement in larger intervals (quite jumpy)
      • Arch-shape - up then down, or down then up
      • Arpeggio - also known as broken chords, the notes of the chord are played individually

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