A Level Music - Many Glossary Terms Flashcards Part 2

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Motto Theme
Theme or melody which recurs through a composition, like leitmotif or ideé fixe
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Neo-Classicism
Early 20th century style which combined forms and techniques from 18th century with more modern approach to elements like rhythm, harmony and articulation.
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Orchestration
Dividing musical line, melody and harmony between orchestral instruments
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Overture
Piece of orchestral music played at beginning of (or before) the first act of an opera or musical theatre work
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Pantonality
Twelve tone music
Equal importance to all notes by prioritising them in a hierarchy in which tonic and dominant of a key take precedence.
Schönberg referred to as 'free atonality', to describe dissonant pre-serial music
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Parlando
From Italian 'to speak', recitative-like singing
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Pentatonic Scale
Scale of the five pitches
You can find one such scale by playing all black notes on keyboard
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Pitch
How high or low a note does sound
In ascending scale, pitch of music rises and notes lower down on stave have a lower pitch.
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Pluralism
Number of different approaches or styles
Both in music generally and within a musical piece
Feature of world music since 1980.
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Polyrhythm
Two different metres or musical pulses are played at the same time. E.g. two beats against three
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Programme Music
Music intended to tell a story or suggest a specific image
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Rāga music
Melodic line or mode in Indian music
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Ragtime
Developed from 1890's and onwards, by syncopated melodic line and regularly accented accompaniment and played primarily on piano.
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R&B
Abbreviation of Rhythm and Blues, style developed in the US, mostly by African Americans
Soulful and often with much vocal improvisation
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Reverb
Used in recording and short reverberation, reverb mirrors room sound, creates ambience.
Heavy reverb make it sound like track was recorded in very reflective room, like cave and bathroom
Dry signal will sound more artificial or close
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Rhythm
More time based
Concerns with length of notes and rests
How long they last as well
How they combine to create different patterns in time
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Romantic
Term referring to music in styles of 1825-1900
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Rubato
Literally means 'robbed', refers to shortening some beats and lengthening others, for free, expressive feel of the pulse
Associated particularly with Romantic Music and Jazz
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Improvised vocal music used in jazz where meaningless sounds are produced often imitating imitating sounds like trumpet
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Scherzo
Light, vigourous piece of music, usually replacing the minuet as third movement of a sonata or symphony
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Sonata-rondo form
Blend of sonata and rondo form in which B theme occurs twice 'ABACABA'
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Sonority
Quality and sound resonance
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Stretto
Telescoping of imitative parts so that entries come closer to each other than they originally did.
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Strophic
Song uses the same music for every verse as opposed to one that is through-composed
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Syncopation
Rhythmic device where emphasis is given to a moment that does not fall on the beat (weak beat)
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Synthesizer
Electronic device with keyboard that allows the player to add digital effects and to manipulate sounds being produced
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Tāla
Rhythmic patterns used in Indian music
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Tempo
Music speed. Often indicated by a tempo marking at the beginning of piece or passage of music.
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Tenuto
Italian 'to hold', this musical direction usually means that player should hold note slightly longer or sometimes slightly louder than its stated value. Form of emphasis
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Ternary form
Three part structure consisting of middle section flanked by two identical or very similar passages
Can be represented by letters ABA, or if there are differences in the A section when it returns ABA
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Texture
Effect resulting from relationship between the various simultaneous lines in a piece of music.
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Thematic transformation
Technique where a musical theme is developed by transforming it in some way, like by modulation, transposition, inversion or retrograde.

Note length transformation could be augmentation or diminuition
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Theme and variation
Piece of music which takes melody or theme and reimagines or reworks it in terms of key, tempo, rhythm over course of number of variation movements
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Tonality
Use of major and minor keys in music and ways in which they are related.
Not all music is tonal, some is modal and others based on non-Western scales like pentatonic and rāga. Western music uses no atonal keys
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Tremolo
Musical effect that refers to very quick repitition of single note on bowed or plucked string instrument or on keyboard instruments by two alternating notes
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Tritone
Interval of three tones, like B to F above
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Vibrato
Performing technique where pitch of note wavers rapidly to give sound greater vibrancy and resonance
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Wah wah
Effect produced by brass instruments, when player alternately applies and removes mute and on electric guitar, when player controls output from amplifier with pedal
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Walking bass
Bass line in which the notes are all on beat, more conjunct
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Underscore
Music played quietly under dialogue e.g. in musical theatre show
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Vamp
Term used in pop music and jazz for something similar to Classical ostinato.

Repeating phrase played as accompaniment
Can be used for intro until melody instrument or voice comes in
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Whole tone scale
Scale where every note is one whole-tone step above or below its neighbours
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Early 20th century style which combined forms and techniques from 18th century with more modern approach to elements like rhythm, harmony and articulation.

Back

Neo-Classicism

Card 3

Front

Dividing musical line, melody and harmony between orchestral instruments

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Piece of orchestral music played at beginning of (or before) the first act of an opera or musical theatre work

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

Twelve tone music
Equal importance to all notes by prioritising them in a hierarchy in which tonic and dominant of a key take precedence.
Schönberg referred to as 'free atonality', to describe dissonant pre-serial music

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
View more cards

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