Alto clef
the clef used for viola parts

Anacrusis
a group of notes at the start of a phrase of music that fall before the main beat or pulse of the actual piece

Antecedent
the first voice in a canon

Antiphony
musical effect drawn from two groups stationed apart, for example in the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Church when two groups on either side of the church sing the service

Anthem
short solemn vocal composition

Aria
a vocal solo in an opera or an oratorio

Arpeggio
a chord that is performed "spread out" ie. one note after the other

Atonality
a piece of music is considered atonal when it does not rely on a specific key

Auditorium
the area where an audience sits at concerts

Augmentation
the process of lengthening a melody, usually doubling the time values of the notes

Augmented
the term used to describe the process of increasing an interval, for example C to G is a fifth but C to G# is an augmented fifth

Ballade
an instrumental piece of music, usually piano, with extra musical connotations

Baton
a stick used by the conductor to direct the orchestra

Bass clef
the lowest clef, it indicates F below middle C and is used for the left hand of piano music, and other instruments with a low pitch range eg double bass.

Beat
the regular pulse of music

Bell
the opposite end to the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument, the open end

Boehm System
the key mechanism invented by German flautist Theobald Boehm to replace finger holes on woodwind instruments

Bore
the diameter of the tube of a wind instrument

Bowing
the marking for stringed instruments to show which notes should be played to which stroke (up or down) of the bow

Canon
a type of counterpoint where one musical phrase is played at the same time as itself at another interval in time, the first voice is called the antecedent and the second the consequent

Cantata
a choral work with or without solo voices, similar to a short oratorio

Chalumeau
a predecessor to the clarinet, a single reed instrument with a distinct lower register

Chamber music
music intended for a room as distinct from a large hall

Chant
Sung: Usually as simple melodic line of narrow range and pitch. Spoken: usually in a "sing-song" and strongly rhthmical manner.

Chance music
also known as aleatory music, this method of composition is usually undetermined by the composer, who basically devises numerous musical applications which are then randomly chosen and played, for example, the choice of application could be determined by the roll of a dice

Chord
two or more notes played simultaneously

Chordal progression
a row of chords which relate to each other harmonically

Choreography
Arranging or designing of ballet or stage-dance

Chromatic
the opposite of diatonic, the relationship between intervals a semitone apart

Claves
pair of cylindrical sticks

Clavichord
a keyboard instrument, unlike the piano which uses hammers to strike the strings or the harpsichord that plucks the strings, the clavichord puts pressure on the strings from below - as a result the clavichord has a much softer tone

Clef
a sign that indicates the location of specific notes on a staff

Coda
final short section of a composition

Col legno
literary 'with wood", bouncing the back of the bow over the string of a string instrument

Commissioned Work
one for which a composer is given a specific contract

Concerto
a work using and contrasting solo instrument(s) and orchestra - generally in three movements

Concerto Grosso
an orchestral work that involves the interplay of two different groups of instruments

Conductor
the director of the orchestra

Consequent
the second voice to enter a canon

Continuo
or Figured bass, a bass line accompanied by figures which represent various chords and harmonic devices

Counterpoint
the combination of one voice added to another to make a musical work

Crescendo
gradually becoming louder

Curtal
a family of musical instruments from sixteenth century England of which the bassoon is the only instrument still in use

Decrescendo
gradually becoming softer

Desk
a music stand

Diatonic
the opposite of chromatic, major or minor

Diminuendo
gradually becoming softer

Diminished
the term used to describe the reduction of an interval, for example C to G( is a diminished fifth, this is the opposite to augmented

Diminution
the process of decreasing the time values of the notes of a melody

Dissonance
two or more notes of different intervals that clash and need to be resolved in order for the ear to be satisfied

Divertimento
literary 'amusing', a small instrumental work

Double stopping
on string instruments when the player puts his/her finger on two strings to determine the amount of string able to vibrate and thus produce sound, this term can also be applied more loosely to when the player just plays on two strings

Drone (Bass)
note(s) sounding of fixed pitch continuing as a permanent bass

Dulcimer
an instrument, of a sound box with strings stretched across it, struck with two wooden hammers, still used in traditional folk music in Eastern Europe

Duplet
two notes played in the time of three

Dynamics
varying degrees of volume (loudness) in music

Early music
term used to describe music from 1400 to approximately 1700

Electronic music
music that relies on electronic devices to produce sound

Ensemble
a group of players performing as a team

Ethnomusicology
the study of music of one or more cultures

Expressionism
a term usually used to describe painting, it is used to describe music that is not an impression, that is an outward observation, but more of an inner experience

Fanfare
an awakening; a flourish of trumpets

Figured bass
see continuos

Form
the structure of a composition (e.g. ABA)

Fugue
the interweaving of specific voices of melody to create a piece of music strongly characterised by imitation.

Gamelan
native Indonesian instrumental ensemble using string, wind and percussion instruments

Genre
a kind or style, especially in music, art and literature

Glissando
sliding up and down the a series of notes (plural: glissandi)

Harmonics
the vibration of an air column or string is divided into fractions (for example, two halves, three thirds, etc) which sound simultaneously to produce sound

Harmony
the simultaneous playing of tones

Hautbois
'high wood', the French name for an oboe

Homophonic
'same sound', only one voice evident in a piece of music and is supported by accompaniment

Impressionism
a term usually used to describe paintings, it is used to describe music by composers such as Ravel and Debussy who tried to leave the listener with an impression rather than a definite description

Interval
the distance between two notes, for example, a fifth C to G, a fourth C to F

Intermezzo
'in the middle', either a short concert piece to be performed between two major works or an instrumental piece in an opera

Jack
the vertical piece of wood in a harpsichord that activates the plectrum to pluck the string

Jazz
a style of music that originated from Negro music in the United States of America, it relies on improvisation, syncopations and strong rhythmic patterns

Key
the recognition of the notes of a scale and their relationship with each other

Key clicks
the sound made by woodwind instruments when the key hits the body of the instrument as requested by the composer, for example in Stuart Greenbaum's Ninety Minutes Circling the Earth

Legato
smoothly and well connected

Leitmotiv
a theme associated with a particular person or event

Libretto
text of an opera or sometimes of an oratorio

Lieder
German art songs from the Nineteenth-century

Ligature
the metal band that binds the reed to the mouthpiece of instruments such as a clarinet or saxophone

Lute
an ancient string instrument played by plucking the strings

Major
a diatonic scale consisting of tones and semitones between scale degrees3-4 and 7-8

Metre
the pattern of pulse units in music

Minimalism
music made up of the reiteration of one theme over an extended period of time

Minor
a diatonic scale consisting of tones and semitones between scale degrees 2-3, 5-6 and 7-8

Modulation
the process of changing from one key to another within a musical work

Motif
a short melodic or rhythmic pattern

Mouthpiece
the top piece of a wind instrument where the mouth blows

Movement
the primary self-contained division of a large composition - usually having a separate tempo, hence the name

Mute
a device to reduce the volume of an instrument and/or modify its tone

Music drama
Wagner first used the term to refer to his own works which were a new concept of drama with continuous expressive music

Nationalism
portraying a particular culture through music

Neo-classicism
music of the early twentieth-century which rejected the overt and exaggerated expression of Romantic music and attempted to revive clear, balanced form and structure of the Classical period

Non-Western music
term used to describe music not from the Western European music tradition, including gamelan orchestra from Indonesia, Peking opera from China etc.

Note
a musical tone at a specific pitch

Notation
written music, the notes on a page

Octave
an interval of eight pitches, for example, from middle C to the C above

Opera
a dramatic performance presented through music in which all or most of the characters sing the story line

Operetta
light opera with spoken dialogue

Ophicleide
a brass bass instrument now replaced by the tuba, itself a development from the serpent (see serpent)

Oratorio
musical composition consisting of an extended setting of a religious text

Orchestration
the process of arranging music for an orchestra

Ornamentation
melodic decoration, florid embellishment of notes

Ostinato
a repeated rhythmic or melodic pattern

Overture
work of orchestral music preceding an opera, oratorio or ballet

Patsch
to lightly slap thigh

Pentatonic
scale comprising only five notes - particularly represented by the five black keys on the piano (or other notes in the same position relative to each other)

Pedal Note
a sustained bass note below changing harmony and/or melody

Pivotal modulation
changing from one key to another at a specific chord or note, called a pivot chord or pivot note

Pitch
the frequency of vibrations that cause a sound to be 'high' or 'low'

Pizzicato
plucking strings instead of bowing them

Podium
a raised platform for the conductor

Polyphonic
'many sounds', meaning more than one voice evident in a piece of music

Postlude
final work - opposite of prelude

Prelude
a work preceding something but the term is also used for a short self-contained work

Program Music
music that depicts a story or scene

Range
the measured distance between the highest and the lowest note an instrument can produce

Reed
a thin piece of cane found on wind instruments, which cause vibrations in an air column which in turn produce sound

Register
part of an instrument which has its own distinct tone quality

Recitative
vocal music which relies on the natural inflections of speech and gives less stress to ordered rhythm and metre, spoken music

Rhythm
the pattern of sounds in time

Rim shot
a percussion technique usually used on the snare drum, involving hitting the rim of the drum

Ritornello
a form which features a regularly repeated tutti section

Roll
a percussion technique usually used on the snare drum, a rapid succession of beats

Rubato
a freedom of tempo with the intent of making the music more expressive

Sackbut
the predecessor to the trombone

Score
a copy of the music in orchestral order which contains all the individual parts that the performers have

Scale
a stepwise progression of notes from one note to an octave above or below, for example, C to C

Secular
term used to describe early music with no connection to religion, that is not sacred music

Semitone
the smallest interval between two notes

Sequence
a musical phrase that is repeated at a pitch higher or lower than it originally appeared

Serialism
a method of composition from the early twentieth-century which relies on a set of fixed elements, mainly the order of the notes rather than their relationship to one another, hence this method of composition rejects tonality

Serpent
an eight foot long zigzag shaped instrument (hence the name) of bass pitch, now obsolete but related to the tuba

Shaum
a predecessor to the oboe, a double reed woodwind instrument

Side blown
rather than blowing directly into the instrument the player blows across the mouthpiece e.g. flute

Speed of attack
the speed at which a player's finger hits a note on the keyboard of a harpsichord or piano

Spiccato
'separated', a string technique using the bow to bounce off the strings to produce short detached notes

Sonata
a work for one or two players consisting of four movements

Sostenuto pedal
sustaining pedal

Staccato
short and detached

Stop
the collection of pipes on an organ activated by one lever

Structure
the overall plan of the composition

String quartet
a small string ensemble consisting usually of two violins, one viola and one cello

Style
the expressive use of selected instruments and the elements of music to create

Suite
A set or series of pieces originally based on the ancient dance forms of Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue.

Symphonic Poem
a single movement orchestral work inspired by a poem, painting, scene from nature, or other dramatic or moving event

Symphony
literally means "sounding together". Orchestral work of a serious nature and substantial in size - usually in four movements

Syncopation
a displacement of accent on to a beat that is normally unaccented

Tempo
the speed of the beat in a composition

Temple block
a percussion instrument, a wooden skull shaped block struck with a drum stick

Tessitura
the range of notes that determine the general position of a voice, for example the tessitura is centred within a certain octave

Texture
a term referring to any of the vertical aspects of music structure, usually with regard to the way in which individual parts or voices relate to each other. for example: homophonic or polyphonic etc.

Theme
a main musical idea of a composition

Timbre
the characteristic sound of an instrument

Tonality
the recognition of a specific key within a musical work

Tone
1) a specific, identifiable musical sound, 2) an interval made up of two semitones,

Tone Colour
same as 'timbre'. Some writers indicate the characteristic combined sound of a group of instruments by 'tone-colour' in contrast to 'timbre' which is the particular sound of one instrument. However, other writers think the reverse

Tone Poem
see symphonic poem

Transpose
to perform or write down music at a different pitch from the original composition; a transposing instrument is one that sounds a different note from the actual written note

Treble clef
the clef used for high pitched instrument parts, it indicates G above middle C and is used for the right hand part of piano music

Tremolo
(Italian for "a trembling" or "a shaking") the alternation between two notes as rapidly as possible

Triplets
three notes played in the time of two

Tutti
'all'- a direction for all performers to play together

Up-beat
the upward motion of the conductor's stick or hand, especially as indicating the beat before the bar line

Valve
the device on a brass instrument that, indicated by the player's finger, determines the flow of air in the instrument and the amount of tubing that the air flows through

Variation
a varied version of a previously heard theme