B
ballad In folk music, a narrative song.
ballet An artistic dance or series of dances.
bar lines Lines on a score used to separate the measures.
beat The pulse underlying most rhythmic patterns.
bel canto An Italian Baroque vocal style which emphasises beauty of sound.
bimodality Simultaneous use of major and minor chords.
binary form A two part form, usually in which the second part answers the first.
blue note the note in a major scale, which is played with is small flattening of pitch.  (usually the third or seventh tone).
break In jazz, a small improvised passage.
bridge Passage of secondary thematic played between two major sections, during which modulation usually takes place.
bunraku Japanese puppet theater.

C
caccia Fourteenth century Italian canon for upper parts, often supported by a lower part with notes of a longer duration.
cadence The harmonic formula which brings a musical piece to a close.
cadenza Elaborate passage for the soloist in a concerto, near the end of a movement.
canon Composition for two or more voices in which one voice enters after another in exact imitation of the first.
cavatina Short lyrical song.
chamber music Music for a small ensemble, usually with one performer to each part, and no conductor.
chord Three or more notes played simultaneously.
chordophone Any instrument which produces sound through the vibration of strings.
chromatic scale A scale made up of twelve half steps in an octave.
chromaticism The use of note which do not belong to the scale.
clef The sign at the begining of a staff which indicates the pitches of the lines and spaces.
coda The closing section of a composition or movement.
concerto Work for a solo instrument or instruments accompanied by an orchestra.
conjunct motion The melodic movement by small intervals.
consonance A term used in reference to pleasing sounds.
consort A family of instruments.
crescendo Gradual increase in volume.
cross rhythms One type of rhythmic pattern placed against a dissimilar one.

D
decrescendo Gradual decrease in volume.
diatonic scale Any major or minor scale without chromaticism.
diminuendo See decrescendo.
disjunct motion Melodic movement by large intervals.
dominant The fifth degree of a major scale.
dynamics Intensity of sound.

E
embellishment See ornament.
ensemble Small group of performers.
exposition The first section of a fugue or sonata form, in which the main melodic material is presented.

F
flat Sign indicating that the pitch is lowered by a semitone.
forte Loudly
frequency The rate of vibration of any medium, such as a violin string.
fugue Contrapunctal composition of the Baroque and later periods, based on the melody which is presented by the voice in turn.

G
gagliarda, galliard Renaissance and Baroque dance, in triple time.
gigue Baroque dance, usually in compound time, and with a quick tempo.
grace note A very short note used to embellish a principal note.
grave Very slowly and solemnly.

H
harmonic rhythm Speed at which chords change.
harmony The sounding together of two or more notes.
hymn Religious song intended for congregational singing.

I
improntu A short composition, designed to sound like an improvisation.
incidental music music incidental to the action of a play.
instrumentation Parts assigned to each instrument in an ensemble or orchestra.
interval The musical distance between two pitches.

K
key The basic scale of composition, named for its tonic note and indicated on the score by a key signature.
key signature Sharps or flats placed at the beginning of each staff of music.

L
largo Very slow broad tempo.
ledger lines Short lines on which notes are placed above or below the lines of the staff.
legato Smooth connected manner of musical performance.
lento Slow tempo.
libretto Text of an opera or oratorio, usually in a poetic form.
lining out Each line of a song or hymn being sung by a leader and immediately repeated by a group.

M
madrigal Secular composition for a small number of voices in early music.
ma non troppo "But not too"
march Music designed to accompany walking in duple time and moderate speed.
melismatic Having many notes per syllable of text.
melody The notes which takes a musical shape that has a rhythmic structure.
membranophone An instrument in which sound is produced by the vibration of a membrane.  (e.g. a drum head).
meno Less.
minuet A dance which was common in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with a triple time and a moderate tempo.
missa Mass.
moderato Moderate tempo.
molto Very.
monophony Single line of texture.
movement An independent part of a large composition, with a clear beginning and ending.

N
natural A sign indicating that a note is to be played without a sharping or flatting.
neumatic Having several notes per syllable of text, but not as many a in the melismatic style.
neume A medieval symbol for a small group of notes.
note A visual representation of a musical sound.
 

O
octave An interval in which the higher pitch has twice as many vibrations as the lower pitch.
opera Drama expressed using music, with sung dialogue.
oratorio Religious or secular work for solo voices, a chorus and an orchestra.
orchestration The use of musical instruments to acheive a variety of effects.
ornament A note or a group of notes added to the basic melody to decorate it.
ostinato A melodic phrase which is repeated persistantly, often in the bass.
overture An instrumental introduction to an orchestral suite or vocal work.

P
pandiatonicism A diatonic tonal style which does not have the restrictions of traditional chordal progressions.
parallel movement The movement of voices which remain at specific intervals apart.
pavane Slow processional dance, mainly in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
phrase A short portion of a melodic line with a clear beginning and end.
piano Quietly.
pitch The sound of a tone, determined by the number of vibrations per second.
piu More.
pizzicato A manner of playing instrument by plucking instead of bowing strings.
plagal cadence A cadence consisting of a subdominant chord which is followed by a tonic chord (VI-I).
poco Little.
polyphony Texture in which two or more voices proceed relatively independently.
presto Very fast tempo.

R
rallentando Gradual slowing of tempo.
refrain Section of a composition that occurs several times
requiem A musical mass for the dead usually featuring vocalists, chorus and orchestra.
rest A period of silence in a piece of music.
rhythm Organisation of sound in time, which is governed by tempo and meter.
ritardando Gradual slowing of tempo.

S
sarabande A baroque dance, in triple meter and slow tempo.
scale The arrangement of notes within an octave, used as the basis of a composition.
sequence The repetition of a melodic motive or short phrase at different pitch levels.
sforzando A sudden increase in loudness.
sharp A sign raising a pitch by half a step.
sonata An instrumental composition made in the seventeenth till twentieth centuries.
soprano Female voice with the highest range.
staccato Detached musical notes.
staff Series of five horizontal lines on which musical notes are written.
subdominant The fourth note of a major or minor scale.
symphony An orchestral composition, usually with four movements.
syncopation The use of an accent on a note that is not usually accented.

T
tempo The speed at which a composition is performed.
tenor The highest of ordinary male voice types.
ternary form Three part form in which the third section is a semi-repeat of the first.
texture The number and relationship of musical lines in a composition.
theme The principal melody in a composition.
timbre The specific quality of sound that distinguishes instrument and voices.
time notation Notation in which duration depends on the lengths of notes.
tonality The effect of music centered around one note or based on a particular key.
tonic The first note of a scale.
triad Chord consisting of three notes with a certain interval difference between each other.
trill An ornament, usually indicated by the abbreviation tr or a wavy line, played in rapid alteration with the note just above it.

V
variation The compositional style in which musical ideas are repeated with some changes.
virtuoso an instrumental performer of exceptional skills.
vivace Very fast tempo.

W
waltz Dance popular in the nineteenth century, in triple meter and a moderate tempo.
 

 
 
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