singspiel
(German, “singing play”) German genre of opera, featuring spoken dialogue interspersed with songs, choruses, and instrumental music.
da capo aria
aria form with two sections. The first section is repeated after the second section’s close, which carries the instruction “from the head”, creating an ABA form.
period
In musical form, especially since the eighteenth century, a complete musical thought concluded by a cadence and normally containing at least two phrases.
periodic
Organized in discrete phrases or periods.
periodicity
The quality of being periodic, especially when this is emphasized through frequent resting points and articulations between phrases and periods.
phrase
A unit of melody or of an entire musical texture that has a distinct beginning and ending and is followed by a pause or other articulation but does not express a complete musical thought.
Alberti bass
Broken-chord accompaniment common in the second half of the eighteenth century named after its creator, who used the figuration frequently.
ballad opera
genre of eighteenth-century English comic play featuring songs in which new words are set to borrowed tunes.
opera seria
Eighteenth-century genre of Italian opera, on a serious subject but normally with a happy ending, usually without comic characters and scenes.
querelle des bouffons
War of the Buffooons- Argument over the best language for opera–French or Italian
recapitulation
In sonata form, the third main section, which restates the material from the exposition, normally all in the tonic.
coda
A supplementary ending to a composition or movement; a concluding section that lies outside the form as usually described.
clavichord
Keyboard instrument popular between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. The loudness, which depends on the force with which a brass blade strikes the strings, is under the direct control of the player.