Glossary of Musical Terms

cadence

A musical punctuation mark. A cadence is a series of two chords (usually) that marks the end of a musical statement or substatement, or thought. They are like commas, periods, and other marks. They are often indicated by a couple of Roman numerals indicating the roots (note on which a triad is built) of the two triadic chords that make up the cadence.

chord

A bunch of notes being played together that usually sound good.

degree

Each note in a scale has a name. They are as follows:
  1. Tonic
  2. Super-Tonic
  3. Mediant
  4. Sub-Dominant
  5. Dominant
  6. Sub-Mediant
  7. Leading Tone
  8. Tonic

Gregorian Chant

Also known as plain-song. A musical form from the early Catholic Church wherein all voices sing one part in unison. The music has no feeling of tempo, and most of the motion of the notes is step-wise. This is meant to remind the listener of God. It is medatative music. If it had a beat, one would want to dance or move around. This draws the focus away from God.

harmony

Other threads of music that aren't meant to stand alone. They exist only to support the melody and augment whatever feeling the melody is trying to convey.

instrument definitions

It is possible with certain music programs and music file formats to define how an instrument sounds. For instance, if You wanted to have a piano play a tune, You could have a whole long recording of it that could easily take many megabytes of space, or, You could tell a program how a piano sounds and then tell it what notes to play. Because You don't have an actual performance where the sound is sampled around 44,000 times a second, You will get a smaller file using instrument definitions. You will also get a file that, when played, sounds not quite real.

interval

A distance between two notes. The interval between to adjacent keys on a piano is a half-step (for instance, B to C). The interval between two keys that have one key in between them is a whole step, or two half-steps (for instance, C to D). Three half-steps are a minor third, four are a major third, and so on. Some intervals have traditional tunes associated with them.

melody

The main idea in a piece of music. What You hum when You listen to a song or other piece of music. Usually the most memorable and singable line of music in a piece.

mode

A series of intervals that define, given a starting pitch, what notes may be used while still staying in that mode. The scale we are used to, the one made famous in Do A Deer from The Sound of Music, is the major scale. It is the series of notes that makes up the Ionian mode. If You started on C and played only white keys, when You reached the next C up, You will have played all of the notes in the Ionian mode. The Aeolean mode corresponds to the minor scale. Play A to A on white keys to hear the minor scale. Other prominant modes are Dorian, Lydian, Phrygian, and Mixo-Lydian.

modulation

To take a section of music and move it to a different mode.

non-chordal tones

Notes played that aren't in the same triadic chord with the other notes being played. There are many kinds of non-chordal tones, and many of them are listed in this project. We will not define them here, but any basic music theory book should.

opera

A form of music in which an orcherstra plays and singers sing. Operas have a plot and are meant to tell a story. Some are funny, some are tragic. Essentially, they are stories put to music. There is very little, if any, spoken text in an opera.

parallelism

When two notes are a certain distance apart and move the same interval at the same time in the same direction. A parallel third, for instance, would be when two notes are a third apart (C and E, for example), and they move, say, a step upward. Parallel thirds and sixths are supposed to sound good, while parallel fifths and octaves are supposed to sound bad.

polyphony

A musical technique where many voices are singing at once (or many instruments are playing at once), but each one has its own melody. None of the voices are meant to back any of the others up, i.e. there is no harmony. It can sound chaotic at times.

repetition

Taking the same theme and, quite simply, repeating it. Example: Three Blind Mice. The 4-6 notes are a repetition of the 1-3.

rests

Markings to indicate that a player should not play for a certain length of time.

sequence

Taking a theme, playing it, then moving the whole theme up or down some and playing it again. Example: Beethoven's 5th. The first four notes are the theme. Beethoven creates a sequence by then moving the theme down. After that, he continues the sequence by moving it up and playing it three times

step-wise motion

When a tune moves up or down to the next note in the key and doesn't skip any in between.

tempo

How fast a piece of music goes. How many beats, or pulses, there are in a minute.

theme

A very short (often three or four notes) wisp of music that is a basis for or recurring theme in a piece of music. Example: Beethoven's 5th. The first four notes are the theme, and most everything after that is based on that theme.

timbre

How an instrument sounds. The technical definition has to do with how an instrument amplifies the overtones of a note. Intuitively, it's that distinct sound that makes a piano a piano and not an oboe. If someone played a note on a piano, You would know, without looking, that a piano had been played, and not some other instrument.

transformation

Altering a theme to produce variety. Various kinds of transformations exist, including repetition, sequences, and modulation.

triad

A chord with the tonic, mediant, and dominant (or, as they are otherwise known, the root, the third, and the fifth).

twelve tone technique

If You look at a piano, You'll find that if You start on any note and play every key going up until You reach an octave above the note You started on (the repeated note does not count) that there are twelve notes in an octave. (Incidentally, the scale You just played is called a chromatic scale.) The basic idea behind twelve tone technique (invented by Arnold Schoenberg) is that the composer starts with a twelve tone row, or a series of notes that uses all of the twelve notes of a chromatic scale. The rule is that when You're on a note, You can repeat that note as much as You want, but once You move to the next note, You can't go back to any of the other notes You've already used until You complete the twelve tone row. Then, throughout the piece, that row is repeated, inverted, and reversed.