Affections
emotions or states of mind that could be aroused by music.
Prima pratica
Monteverdi’s term for the style and practice of sixteenth-century polyphony
Seconda pratica
Monteverdi’s term for a practice of counterpoint and composition that allows the rules of sixteenth-century counterpoint to be broken in order to express the feelings of a text.
Basso continuo
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1) instrumental bass line is written out and one or more players of keyboard, lute, or similar instruments fill in the harmony with appropriate chords or improvised melodic lines. 2) the bass line itself. (not necessarily figured bass)
Continuo instruments
instruments used to realize a basso continuo, such as harpsichord, organ, lute, or theorbo.
Figured bass
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a form of basso continuo in which the bass line is supplied with numbers or flat or sharp signs to indicate the appropriate chords to be played.
Realization
performing (or creating a performable edition of) music whose notation is incomplete, as in playing a basso continuo or completing a piece left unfinished by its composer.
Concertato medium
the combination of voices (singing) with one or more instruments, where the instruments do not simply double the voices (singing) but play independent parts
Sacred concerto
in the seventeenth century, a composition on a sacred text for one or more singers and instrumental accompaniment
Ornamentation
The addition of embellishments to a given melody, either during performance or as part of the act of composition.
Cadenza
Highly embellished passage, often improvised, at an important cadence, usually occurring just before the end of a piece or section.
opera
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Drama with continuous or nearly continuous music, staged with scenery, costumes, and action.
tonality
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The system, common since the late seventeenth century, by which a piece of music is organized around a tonic note, chord, and key, to which all the other notes and keys in the piece are subordinate.
libretto
Literary text for an opera or other musical stage work.
pastoral drama
play in verse with incidental music and songs, normally set in idealized rural surroundings, often in ancient times; a source for the earliest opera librettos.
madrigal cycle
a series of madrigals that represents a succession of scenes or a simple plot.
intermedio
musical interlude on a pastoral, allegorical, or mythological subject performed before, between, or after the acts of a spoken comedy or tragedy.
monody
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1) an accompanied solo song
2) the musical texture of solo singing accompanied by one or more instruments
aria
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1) any section of an Italian strophic poem for a solo singer.
2) lyrical monologue in an opera or other vocal work such as cantata and oratorio.
solo madrigal
a through-composed setting of a nonstrophic poem for solo voice with accompaniment
recitative style
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a type of vocal singing that approaches speech and follows the natural rhythms of the text.
ritornelo
in vocal music, instrumental introduction or interlude between sung stanzas.
3) in an aria or similar piece, an instrumental passage the recurs several times, like a refrain. Typically, it is played at the beginning, as interludes (often in modified form), and again at the end, and it states the main theme.
4) in a fast movement of a concerto, the recurring thematic material played at the beginning by the full orchestra and repeated, usually in varied form, throughout the movement and at the end.
sinfonia
1) generic term used throughout the seventeenth century for an abstract ensemble piece, especially one that serves as an introduction to a vocal work.
2) Italian opera overture in the early eighteenth century.
strophic variation
vocal genre, a setting of a strophic poem, in which the melody of the first stanza is varied by the harmonic plan remains essentially the same, although the duration of harmonies may change to reflect the accentuation and meaning of the text.
stile concitato
Italian – “Excited style”
style devised by Monteverdi to portray anger and warlike actions, characterized by rapid reiteration of a single note, whether on quickly spoken syllables or in a measured string tremolo.
arioso
1) recitativo arioso
2) short, aria-like passage
3) style of vocal writing that approaches the lyricism of an aria but is freer in form.
castrati
male singers who were castrated before puberty to preserve their high vocal range, prominent in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, especially in opera.
concerted madrigal
madrigal for one or more voices accompanied by basso continuo and in some bases by other instruments.
basso ostinato
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a pattern in the bass that repeats while the melody above it changes
ground bass
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see Basso Ostinato
cantata
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1) a vocal chamber work with continuo, usually for solo voice, consisting of several sections or movements that include recitatives and arias and setting a lyrical or quasi-dramatic text.
sacred concerto
a composition on a sacred text for one or more singers and instrumental accompaniment.
stile antico
style used in music written after 1600, in imitation of the old contrapuntal style of Palestrina, used especially for church music.
stile moderno
seventeenth-century style that used basso continuo and applied the rules of counterpoint freely.
small sacred concerto
genre of sacred vocal music featuring one or more soloists accompanied by organ continuo (or modest instrumental ensemble)
oratorio
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genre of dramatic music that originated in the seventeenth century, combining narrative, dialogue, and commentary through arias, recitatives, ensembles, choruses, and instrumental music, like an unstaged opera. Usually on a religious or biblical subject.
musical figures
in baroque music, a melodic pattern or contrapuntal effect conventionally employed to convey the meaning of text.
historia
in Lutheran music of sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, a musical setting based on a biblical narrative.
Passion
a musical setting of one of the biblical accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion, the most common type of historia.
toccata
Italian – “Touched”
piece for keyboard instrument or lute resembling an improvisation that may include imitative sections or may serve as a prelude to an independent fugue.
fantasia
Italian – “fantasy”
1) instrumental composition that resembles an improvisation or lacks a strict form.
2) imitative instrumental piece on a single subject.
prelude
introductory piece for solo instrument, often in the style of an improvisation, or introductory movement in a multimovement work such as an opera or suite.
ricercare
1)a prelude in the style of an improvisation
2) from the late sixteenth century on, an instrumental piece that treats one or more subjects in imitation.
fugue
composition or section of a composition in imitative texture that is based on a single subject and begins with successive statements of the subject in all voices.
canzona
Italian – “song”
1) sixteenth-century Italian genre, an instrumental work adapted from a chanson or composed in a similar style
2) in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, an instrumental work in several contrasting sections, of which the first and some of the others are in imitative counterpoint.
sonata
Italian – “sounded”
1) a piece to be played on one or more instruments
2) baroque instrumental piece with contrasting section or movement, often with imitative counterpoint.
3)genre in several movements for one or two solo instruments.
chorale prelude
relatively short setting for organ of a chorale melody, used as an introduction for congregational singing or as an interlude in a Lutheran church service.
chaconne
variation over a basso continuo.
passacaglia
baroque genre of variation over a repeated bass line or harmonic progression in triple meter.
suite
a set of pieces that are linked together in a single work. usually referred to a set of stylized dance pieces.
organ mass
setting for organ of all sections of the mass for which the organ would play, including organ verses and other pieces.
cantus-firmus variations
instrumental genre of the late 1500s and early 1600s comprising a set of variations in which the melody repeats with little change but is surrounded by different contrapuntal material in each variation.
orchestra
ensemble whose core consists of strings with more than one player on a part, usually joined by woodwinds, brass, and percussion instruments.
tragedie en musique
French form of opera, pioneered by Jean-Baptiste Lully, that combined the French classic drama and Ballet traditions with music, dances, and spectacles.
tragedie lyrique
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French – “lyric tragedy”
later form of tragedie en musique
French overture
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used in tragedie en musique and other genres, that opens with a slow, homophonic, and majectic section, followed by a faster second section that begins with imitation.
recitatif simple
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In French baroque opera, recitative that shifts frequently between duple and triple meter to allow the natural speechlike declamation of the words.
recitatif mesure
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In French baroque opera, recitative in a songlike, measured style, in a uniform meter, and with relatively steady motion in the accompaniment.
notes inegales
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convention of performing French music in which passages notated in short, even duration, such as a succession of eighth notes, are performed by alternating longer notes on the beat with shorter offbeats to produce a lilting rhythm.
overdotting
performing practice in French Baroque music in which a dotted note is held longer than written, while the following note is shortened.
agrement
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ornament in French music, usually indicated by a sign.
clavecin
French term for harpsichord.
style luthe/style brise
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Broken or arpeggiated texture in keyboard and lute music from seventeenth-century France. The technique originated with the lute, and the figuration was transferred to the harpsichord
binary form
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A form comprised of two complementary sections, each of which is repeated. The first section usually ends on the dominant or the relative major, although it may end on the tonic or other key; the second section return to the tonic.
suite
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A set of pieces that are linked together into a single work. During the baroque, a suite usually referred to a set of stylized dance pieces.
unmeasured prelude
A French baroque keyboard genre, usually the first movement in a suite, whose nonmetric notation gives a feeling of improvisation.
allemande
Highly stylized dance in binary form, in moderately fast quadruple meter with almost continuous movement, beginning with an upbeat. Popular during the Renaissance and Baroque; appearing often as the first dance in a suite.
courante
a dance in binary form in triple meter at a moderate tempo and with an upbeat, featured as a standard movement of the baroque dance suite.
sarabande
In French baroque music, a slow dance in binary form and in triple meter, often emphasizing the second beat; a standard movement of a suite.
gigue
stylized dance movement of a standard baroque suite, in binary form, marked by fast compound meter such as 6/4 or 12/8 with wide melodic leaps and continuous triplets. The two sections usually both begin with imitation.
gavotte
baroque duple-time dance in binary form, with half-measure upbeat and a characteristic rhythm of short-short-long.
minuet
dance in moderate triple meter, two-measure units, and binary form.
masque
seventeenth-century English entertainment involving poetry, music, dance, costumes, choruses, and elaborate sets, akin to the French Court Ballet.
semi-opera
modern term for dramatic opera
da capo aria
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Aria form with two sections. The first section is repeated after the second section’s close, which carries the instruction da capo (Italian, “from the head”), creating an ABA form.
sonata da camera
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baroque sonata, usually a suite of stylized dances, scores for one or more treble instruments and continuo.
sonata da chiesa
baroque instrumental work intended for performance in church; usually in four movements (slow-fast-slow-fast) and scored for one or more treble instruments and continuo.
trio sonata
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a sonata for two treble instruments (usually violins) above a basso continuo. A performance featured four or more players if more than one was used for the continuo part.
walking bass
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bass line in baroque music, and later in jazz, that moves steadily and continuously.
concerto (instrumental)
ensemble of instruments or of voice with one or more instruments, or a work for such an ensemble
orchestral concerto
orchestral genre in several movements, originating in the late seventeenth century, that emphasized the first violin part and the bass, avoiding the more contrapuntal texture of the sonata.
concerto grosso
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instrumental work that exploits the contrast in sonority between a small ensemble of solo instruments (concertino), usually the same forces that appeared in the trio sonata, and a large ensemble
solo concerto
concerto in which a single instrument, such as a violin, contrasts with an orchestra.
tutti
1) in both the solo concerto and the concerto grosso, designates the full orchestra. Also called ripieno.
2) instruction to an ensemble that all should play.
ripieno
designates the full orchestra
fugue
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composition in imitative texture based on a single subject, beginning with successive statements of the subject in all voices
exposition
a set of entries of the subject in a fugue
subject
theme, used especially for the main melody used in a ricercare, fugue, or other imitative work.
answer
in the exposition of a fugue, the second entry of the subject
episode
the passage of free counterpoint between statements of the subject in a fugue.
chorale
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strophic hymn in the Luteran tradition, intended to be sung by the congregation.
chorale prelude
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relatively short setting for organ of a chorale melody used as an introduction for congregational singing or as an interlude in a Lutheran church service.
orchestral suite
German suite for orchestra patterned after the groups of dances in French ballets and opera.
ritornello form
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A ritornello for full orchestra that alternates with episodes characterized by virtuosic material played by one or more soloists.
Standard form for fast movements in concertos.
fundamental bass
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term coined by Jean-Philippe Rameau to indicated the succession of the roots or fundamental tones in a series of chords.
tonic
1)the first and central note of a major or minor scale.
2) the main key of a piece or movement, in which the piece or movement begins and ends and to which all other keys are subordinate.
dominant
in tonal music, the note and chord a perfect fifth above the tonic.
subdominant
in tonal music, the note and chord a fifth below the tonic
modulation
in tonal music, a gradual change from one key to another within a section of a movement.