Functional Music
music that fulfills a social purpose outside itself
Art Music
music mean primarily for attentive listening
Rhythm
the durational patterns of sound and silence in a piece of music
Beat (pulse)
the division of musical time into regular recurring units
Tempo
the speed of the beat
Meter
the organization of the beat into regular recurring patterns
Measure (bar)
the regular grouping of beats into given meter
Swing
the propulsive rhythmic intensity in a jazz performance defined in part by accented upbeats and an alternating long-short/long-short rhythmic pattern at the eighth note
Syncopation
the accentuation of rhythms that ordinarily go unaccented
Melody
linear succession of pitches that we hear as coherent melody
Pitch
the highness/lowness of a sound as determined by the speed of the sounds vibration; a note
Notation
music that is written down
Motive
a short musical idea that serves as a building block for melodies
Interval
the vertical distance (highness/lowness) between any two pitches
Scale
an abstract collection of pitches from which musicians draw to create melodies
Octave
the interval of an eighth note
Harmony
the simultaneous sounding of two or more pitches
Key
in most jazz before 1960 the tonal center or central pitch around which all other pitches seem to gravitate
Modulation
the process of changing from one key to another
Mode
a harmonic quality conveying certain emotional effects in a piece
Major mode- sounds bright/happy
Minor mode- sounds darker/complex
Consonance
state of harmonic rest
Dissonance
state of harmonic tension
tone color (timbre)
that dimension of a sound that allows you to distinguish between one instrument and another
Instrumentation
the particular instruments chosen for a given piece or performance
Orchestration
the way a composer or arranger uses the available instruments in a given piece
Texture
the overall musical fabric created by the simultaneous presentation of musical lines/parts
Unison
the texture produced by a group of instruments all playing the same melody
Polyphony (counterpoint)
a texture of two or more melodies proceeding simultaneously
Homophony
a texture often defined as melody with accompaniment
Dynamics
the patterns of loud and soft in music
Form
the shape of a piece of music as determined by its pattern of repetition, contrast, and variation
Chorus
a fundamental cord progression that repeats again and again
Chord Progression
in any given piece, a repeating sequence of chords that provide the harmonic basis for jazz arrangements and improvision.
Cadence
a melodic or harmonic gesture that creates a sense of resolution at the end of a melody, chord progression or other formal section of music
Composition
the process of creating a piece of music in advance of its first performance
Improvisation
process of spontaneously creating a musical statement during the act of a performance
Notated Tradition
method of musical transmission that involves preserving musical details by writing them down
Aural Tradition
method of musical transmission that involves passing down music from one generation to another through memorized recreations of live performances
Swing Eighth Notes
eighth notes that proceed in uneven (long-short/long-short) alternation with accented upbeats
Chords
in its fundamental form, a harmonic unit composed of three to seven pitches, each spaced a third apart from the next one
Call-and-Response
an alternating dialogue between individuals or groups common in jazz
Chordal Harmony
a texture in which each melody note is supported by an underlying chord
Diatonic Scale
scale having the following intervallic structure whole-step/whole-step/half-step/whole-step/whole-step/whole-step/half-step
Coda
brief concluding section in a piece of music
Decrescendo
gradually softer