Glossary

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Forms

9 forms

Fugue

Also called fugato, fugal writing

A fugue is built from one short melody, the subject, which enters in one voice alone and is then taken up by each of the other voices in turn while the earlier voices continue with new counterpoint. That opening round of entries is the fugue's exposition. What follows alternates episodes, where the subject is absent or only hinted at, with further entries of the subject in new keys.

Composers can transform the subject: play it upside down (inversion), slow it down (augmentation), speed it up (diminution), or overlap entries so closely that one begins before the previous one ends (stretto). Beethoven used all of these in the finale of the Hammerklavier sonata Op. 106. A passage of fugal writing inside a movement that is not a fugue overall is called a fugato; the first movement of Op. 111 has one in its development.

In this catalog fugues appear inside larger movements: the finales of Op. 106 and Op. 110, the double fugue in the finale of Beethoven's Ninth, and the fugato passages in several symphonic finales.

How to hear it

Count the entries at the start. Each new voice that begins the subject is one entry; when the count matches the number of voices, the exposition is over.

Every later return of the subject is a structural point. Try to catch whether it is in a new key, upside down, or slower.

Episodes feel lighter and more sequential: the same short figure moved up or down step by step.

Near the end, entries pile up close together (stretto) and the texture thickens. That is the fugue's climax.

Lesson: The fugue 49 works in the catalogRelated: Theme and variations, Piano sonata, Symphony

Source: Fugue

Minuet and trio

Also called menuetto, scherzo and trio, dance movement

The minuet was a court dance in triple time. In a symphony or sonata the minuet movement has three parts: the minuet, a contrasting second dance called the trio, and the minuet again. The trio got its name from the Baroque habit of scoring it for three instruments; by Haydn's time the name stayed but the scoring was free. The trio is usually lighter, quieter, or in a different key.

Beethoven kept the layout but usually replaced the minuet with the scherzo (the Eighth Symphony keeps a Tempo di Menuetto), a much faster movement, often in one beat to the bar, sometimes with an aggressive or joking character. Scherzo means joke in Italian.

Each half of the minuet and each half of the trio carries a repeat sign in the score. When the minuet returns after the trio (the da capo), the repeats are normally left out. Performers differ in how many repeats they take, which is why the same movement can be much longer in one recording than in another.

How to hear it

Count the three big blocks: minuet, trio, minuet again. The last block is the first block heard a second time.

The trio is the point of contrast. Listen for fewer instruments, a softer dynamic, a change of key, or a smoother melody.

Inside the minuet, listen for the repeat of each half. If the first phrase comes back immediately, the performer is taking the repeats.

In a scherzo the pulse is fast and often felt in whole bars rather than beats. Beethoven's scherzos frequently have a trio that sounds slower even when the tempo does not change.

Lesson: Minuet and trio 170 works in the catalogRelated: Ternary form, Symphony, Piano sonata

Source: Minuet

Prelude

Also called character piece

A prelude is short and does not argue. It states an idea, works its surface for a minute or two, and stops. That is the opposite of sonata form, where material is taken apart and put back together, and it is why a prelude can be over before a sonata movement has finished its first subject.

The name comes from music that introduced something else: a prelude before a fugue, or before a suite. By Chopin's time it had become a piece in its own right, and a set of preludes is a tour of the keys rather than an introduction to anything.

Internally most preludes are binary (two halves) or ternary (an idea, a contrast, a return). Some are a single unbroken sweep with no seam at all, which is why an analysis may label only a couple of points, or none.

How to hear it

Find the figure. Most preludes are built on one accompaniment pattern or one rhythmic cell that runs almost throughout; identify it in the first bars and you have the piece's spine.

Listen for one point of contrast. If there is a middle section it usually changes key or mode, and often thins or thickens the texture rather than introducing a new tune.

Notice how it ends. Preludes often stop rather than conclude: a thinning out, a single line, one chord.

In a complete set, the joins matter. A loud short piece next to a slow long one is a deliberate pairing.

Lesson: Preludes and tone poems 1 work in the catalog

Source: Prelude (music)

Rondo

Also called rondo form, refrain form

A rondo is built on one tune that keeps coming back. That tune is the refrain, labelled A. Between its returns come contrasting episodes, labelled B, C and so on. A short rondo runs A B A; a fuller one runs A B A C A, often with a final B and a coda.

The refrain returns in the home key every time, which is what makes it feel like a homecoming. The episodes go elsewhere: a new key, a new tune, sometimes a minor-key darkening in the middle.

Rondos are usually finales. Their character is light and quick, and the return of the refrain is meant to be recognised immediately.

How to hear it

Learn the opening tune in the first thirty seconds. Every time it comes back, unchanged and in the home key, you are at an A.

Between returns, listen for what is different: a new key, a new melody, a change of texture. That is an episode.

The central episode (C) is usually the longest and the most distant in key. Some composers turn it into a short development.

When a return of the refrain is decorated or shortened the label reads A1, A2. It is still the refrain.

Lesson: Rondo 83 works in the catalogRelated: Sonata-rondo, Ternary form, Symphony, Concerto

Source: Rondo

Sonata form

Also called first-movement form, sonata-allegro form

Sonata form is the design used for most first movements, many finales and some slow movements from Haydn onwards. It is not a fixed template but a way of organising a movement around a departure from the home key and a return to it.

The movement has three main parts. The exposition presents the material: a first subject in the home key, a transition that moves away, a second subject in a new key (the dominant in a major-key work, the relative major in a minor-key work), and a codetta that closes the exposition. In Classical works the whole exposition is then repeated. The development takes fragments of that material and pushes them through unstable keys. The recapitulation brings the first subject back in the home key and then, crucially, keeps the second subject in the home key too, so the tension set up by the exposition is resolved. A coda may follow.

Some movements add a slow introduction before the exposition. Some slow movements use sonata form without a development, which the labels in this catalog call truncated sonata form.

How to hear it

The exposition repeat is the easiest landmark. When you hear the very opening again after a minute or two, you have just heard the whole exposition once.

The transition is where the music leaves home. It often gets louder, busier, and settles on a long dominant chord before the second subject arrives.

The development sounds restless: short fragments, quick key changes, no long tunes. When it calms down onto one sustained chord, the recapitulation is about to start.

In the recapitulation, listen to the second subject. It is the same tune as before but now it stays in the home key. That is the point of the whole form.

The coda starts after the recapitulation has finished the material of the exposition. In Beethoven it can be as long as a second development.

Lesson: What is sonata form?479 works in the catalogRelated: Sonata-rondo, Symphony, Piano sonata, Concerto

Source: Sonata form

Sonata-rondo

Also called rondo-sonata

A sonata-rondo keeps the returning refrain of a rondo but organises the episodes the way a sonata form organises its subjects. The usual plan is A B A C A B A: the first B is in a contrasting key like a second subject, the central C behaves like a development, and the second B returns in the home key like a recapitulated second subject.

Mozart and Beethoven used it for finales because it combines the immediacy of a refrain with the tension and resolution of sonata form. The result feels playful on the surface and tightly argued underneath.

How to hear it

Treat the opening tune as the refrain and count its returns, as in a rondo.

Notice that the first contrasting episode is in a different key, and that the same episode comes back later in the home key. That return is the sonata side of the form.

The middle section usually breaks the refrain into fragments and wanders through keys. In the labels it may be called C, Development, or Episode.

Some analysts label these movements with letters, others with Exposition and Recapitulation. Both describe the same shape.

Lesson: Sonata-rondo 17 works in the catalogRelated: Rondo, Sonata form, Symphony, Concerto

Source: Sonata rondo form

Symphonic poem

Also called tone poem

A symphonic poem is a single orchestral movement that follows a story, a character or a scene instead of a standard musical plan. There is no fixed plan and no set number of sections, although some symphonic poems, such as Liszt's Tasso, can also be heard as a free sonata form. The shape comes from the subject.

That does not mean the music is shapeless. Composers kept the tools of sonata form and variation and used them where the subject allowed: a battle can be a development section, a portrait can be a theme and its variations. So a listener still hears themes stated, taken apart and brought back, just not in a fixed order.

The form grew out of the concert overture in the 1840s and reached its largest scale around 1900, when a single movement could run for forty five minutes and use an orchestra of a hundred players.

How to hear it

Learn the main theme in the first minute. In most symphonic poems one idea stands for the subject and everything else is measured against it.

Listen for the return. When the opening theme comes back changed, slower, quieter, in a different key, that is usually the point of the piece.

Follow the orchestration rather than the key. A new character often arrives as a new instrument, not a new tonality.

Section titles are a guide, not a wall. Sections run into one another without a break, so the joins are where the music changes texture, not where it stops.

Lesson: Preludes and tone poems

Source: Symphonic poem

Ternary form

Also called A B A form, three-part form

Ternary form is the simplest three-part design: a first section, a contrasting middle, and a return of the first section. The labels are A, B, A. When the return is changed, usually by adding decoration or shortening it, it is labelled A1.

Slow movements use it constantly. So do dance movements, where the minuet-and-trio layout is itself a large ternary form. Songs and character pieces use it too. The contrast in the middle is often a change of key, mode (major to minor or the reverse) or texture.

How to hear it

The first section usually ends with a clear cadence, a full stop in the music. What follows is the middle.

The middle section changes something you can name: the key, the mood, the accompaniment pattern, the instruments carrying the tune.

The return is the opening again. Listen for whether it is exact or decorated; a decorated return means the composer wanted you to hear the tune as remembered rather than repeated.

A short coda may round the movement off after the return.

Lesson: Ternary form 53 works in the catalogRelated: Minuet and trio, Rondo, Theme and variations

Source: Ternary form

Theme and variations

Also called variation form, variations

A theme is stated plainly, then repeated several times with something changed each time. What stays fixed is usually the length of the theme and the sequence of its harmonies. What changes is everything else: the melody is decorated, the rhythm is doubled or tripled in speed, the tune moves to the left hand or the bass, the mode flips from major to minor, the texture becomes a march or a fugue.

Classical composers used the form for slow movements and finales; Beethoven made it a vehicle for some of his most searching music, including the finales of the sonatas Op. 109 and Op. 111. There the last variations dissolve the theme into trills and long lines rather than decorating it.

How to hear it

Learn the theme's length. Most variations are exactly as long, so once you know the theme you can count where each variation begins.

Listen for the one variation in the opposite mode. In a major-key set it is the minor variation, and it usually sits near the middle.

Late in the set expect a slow variation and then a fast one; the slow variation is often the emotional centre.

A coda after the last variation usually brings the plain theme back, or a fragment of it.

Lesson: Theme and variations 110 works in the catalogRelated: Ternary form, Piano sonata, Symphony

Source: Variation (music)

Kinds of work

15 kinds

Symphony

Also called symphonic form

A symphony is a large work for orchestra, usually in four movements that follow a standard order. The first movement is fast and in sonata form, sometimes preceded by a slow introduction. The second is slow. The third is a dance: a minuet and trio in Haydn and Mozart, a scherzo from Beethoven onwards. The finale is fast, in rondo, sonata or sonata-rondo form.

Haydn fixed this plan over more than a hundred symphonies. Beethoven kept it but enlarged every part: longer developments, codas the size of a second development, in most symphonies a scherzo instead of a minuet (the Eighth keeps a minuet), and in the Ninth a chorus and soloists in the finale. Brahms and Bruckner kept the four-movement plan while stretching the length; Mahler added movements, songs and huge orchestras, so that his symphonies can run over ninety minutes.

Slow movements are the exception to the fast-movement rule: they may be in sonata form, ternary form, variations or rondo, and this catalog labels each one according to what its analyst found.

How to hear it

Expect the weight of argument in the first movement and the finale. The two middle movements are where a composer relaxes or plays.

The dance movement is the easiest to follow: minuet or scherzo, then trio, then the first part again.

In Beethoven and later, listen to how the finale answers the first movement. A minor-key first movement often gets a major-key finale, and that switch is the point of the whole work.

In Mahler, movements may run into each other without a pause (attacca) and songs may replace instrumental movements. The labels in this catalog mark those joins.

Lesson: The symphony 87 works in the catalogRelated: Sonata form, Minuet and trio, Rondo, Sonata-rondo, Concerto

Source: Symphony

Concerto

Also called solo concerto

A concerto sets one soloist, or a small group of soloists, against an orchestra. The Classical concerto has three movements: a fast first movement, a slow middle, and a quick finale that is usually a rondo.

The first movement is a sonata form with a twist. The orchestra usually plays the exposition alone first, staying in the home key (Mozart sometimes lets the soloist in early, as in K. 271); then the soloist enters and the exposition is played again, this time moving to the second key as a normal exposition would. This catalog labels those two passes Exposition 1 and Exposition 2. Development and recapitulation follow as usual. Near the end the orchestra stops on a chord and the soloist plays alone: the cadenza, originally improvised, later written out by the composer. The coda comes after it.

Baroque concertos like Bach's Brandenburgs work differently: a returning orchestral passage (the ritornello) alternates with solo episodes, closer to a rondo than to sonata form. Romantic concertos loosen the double exposition and sometimes let the soloist begin at once.

How to hear it

In a Classical first movement, wait for the soloist's first entry. Everything before it is the orchestral exposition; the soloist then starts the material again.

The cadenza is easy to spot: the orchestra falls silent, the soloist plays freely, and a long trill signals the orchestra's return.

In the finale, count the returns of the refrain as in any rondo. The soloist and orchestra often trade it back and forth.

In Bach, listen for the ritornello: the full-group passage that opens the movement and keeps coming back between solo stretches.

Lesson: The concerto 99 works in the catalogRelated: Sonata form, Rondo, Symphony

Source: Concerto

Works for soloist and orchestra

Also called concertante work, Konzertstück, Konzertstücke

These are works for one or more soloists with orchestra that are not called concertos: romances, fantasies, rhapsodies, sets of variations, single concert pieces (in German, Konzertstück) and a few larger works that sit between the concerto and the symphony. Most are in one movement and are written for a virtuoso soloist.

The title usually names the plan. A romance is a lyrical, tender piece. Beethoven's two Romances for violin and orchestra are often described as loose sets of variations; the analyses used here instead label a main tune that returns between contrasting sections, closer to a rondo. A rhapsody is one movement of strongly contrasted episodes with an improvised air, freer than a set of variations. Pieces called Introduction and Rondo or Introduction and Allegro start with an introduction and then turn to the main section: in this catalog a rondo in one case and a sonata form in the other.

Some works sit on the border. Berlioz's Harold en Italie is a symphony in four movements in which a solo viola stands for the hero, but the viola is not treated as a concerto soloist: Paganini, who had asked for a viola piece, was disappointed by all the rests in its part. Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme, the closest he came to a cello concerto, has seven variations in the version by the cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen recorded here.

How to hear it

In a set of variations, learn the theme when the soloist first plays it. In the Rococo Variations the cello states it after a short orchestral introduction, and in the first variation the orchestra brings it back under the cello's faster notes.

Listen for the cadenza, the passage where the orchestra stops and the soloist plays alone. It need not wait for the end: in the Rococo Variations one comes as early as the second variation.

In Harold en Italie, listen to how the viola first presents its theme in the opening movement: it repeats the first phrase hesitantly before the whole melody comes out.

Lesson: Romances, rhapsodies and fantasies 26 works in the catalogRelated: Concerto, Theme and variations, Rondo, Sonata form, Symphony, Orchestral music

Sources: Concert piece, Harold en Italie, Variations on a Rococo Theme

Orchestral music

Also called orchestral works, orchestral suite, concert overture, ballet music

This page covers orchestral music that is neither a symphony nor a concerto: overtures, suites, ballet music, dances, marches, sets of variations and single orchestral pieces. Symphonic poems have a page of their own.

An overture began as the instrumental opening of an opera, a ballet or an oratorio. Early in the nineteenth century Beethoven and Mendelssohn wrote overtures that stand alone as concert pieces, usually on a literary subject; Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream overture of 1826 is generally counted as the first concert overture. From the 1850s the symphonic poem took over much of that role. The suite began as a set of Baroque dances and came back in the later nineteenth century as a set of extracts from a ballet or a play, such as Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, or as a set of newly written movements, such as Grieg's Holberg Suite. In ballet itself, music was long a string of danceable tunes and only gained weight of its own in the later nineteenth century.

Most overtures in this catalog are analysed as a sonata form, and most begin with an introduction. Dance movements are short; a pair of dances is often played first, second, then first again, the same plan as a minuet and trio. Orchestral variations follow theme and variations.

How to hear it

In an overture, let the introduction set the scene, then wait for the faster main section: that is where the first subject of the sonata form begins, and the labels follow the usual exposition, development and recapitulation.

In an opera overture, listen for tunes that will come back in the opera. From the later eighteenth century many overtures were written as a preview of the drama that follows.

In a suite or ballet music, each movement is a separate dance or scene. Find the dance in the rhythm first, a waltz in three beats or a march in two, then listen for the point where the tune and the key change.

Follow the orchestration. In a single orchestral piece a theme often returns on a different instrument, and that change of colour can be the main event.

Lesson: Overtures, suites and tone poems 117 works in the catalogRelated: Symphonic poem, Symphony, Sonata form, Minuet and trio, Theme and variations, Wind band, Works for soloist and orchestra

Sources: Overture, Suite (music), Ballet (music)

Wind band

Also called concert band, military band

A wind band, also called a concert band, is made up of woodwind, brass and percussion and usually no string instruments apart from an occasional double bass; that is the main difference from an orchestra. Without a string section, the melodies go to woodwind and brass instruments, and the percussion section usually has more to do.

Through the nineteenth century, large wind groups in Britain and America were mostly military bands for ceremonies. They played marches and arrangements of orchestral and operatic music, because there was little original concert music for them, partly because no two bands had the same line-up. Holst's First Suite in E-flat, completed in 1909 and first performed officially in 1920, is one of the first important original works for band: Holst wrote nineteen essential parts and marked the rest optional, so any band could play it. It persuaded other composers to write for band, Vaughan Williams among them: his English Folk Song Suite was first published for band, as Folk Song Suite, and first performed in 1923.

Band music uses the forms of orchestral music on a smaller scale, and suites and marches are at its centre. Holst's suite opens with a chaconne, a set of variations over an eight-bar theme that is heard sixteen times, and ends with a march. The first march of the English Folk Song Suite strings three folk songs together in an arch: A, B, C, B, A.

How to hear it

In Holst's Chaconne, learn the theme as the low brass play it at the start, then follow it through each repetition as it moves around the band. Two of the repetitions turn it upside down.

In the English Folk Song Suite march, count the tunes: Seventeen Come Sunday in the woodwind, Pretty Caroline as a quiet solo for clarinet or cornet, Dives and Lazarus in the low instruments, then back through the second tune to the first.

Listen to the percussion: the march of Holst's suite opens with a solo for bass drum, which is rare in band music.

Holst asked for the three movements of his suite to follow each other without a break, so listen for the joins rather than waiting for pauses.

Lesson: Music for wind band 2 works in the catalogRelated: Orchestral music, Theme and variations, Ternary form, Chamber music

Sources: Concert band, First Suite in E-flat for Military Band, English Folk Song Suite

String quartet

A string quartet is a piece for two violins, a viola and a cello; the same name is used for the group that plays it. There is no keyboard to fill in the harmony, so the four parts are near equals: a tune started by the first violin may be answered a moment later by the viola or the cello.

Haydn gave the genre its lasting shape. His earliest quartets have five movements, with two minuets; in the sets of the early 1770s (Opp. 9, 17 and 20) he settled on four, and three of the six Op. 20 quartets end with a fugue. Beethoven's late quartets of the 1820s move far from the standard plan, and in the twentieth century Bartók and Shostakovich made the quartet central to their work.

The Classical plan matches the symphony: a first movement in sonata form, a slow movement, a minuet and trio (later often a scherzo), and a finale, often a rondo or sonata-rondo. The middle movements can swap places: of the six quartets Mozart dedicated to Haydn, three put the minuet second and three put it third. The Grosse Fuge in this catalog was first written as the finale of Beethoven's Op. 130.

How to hear it

Follow one player instead of the whole group. The cello is usually the bass, so when it climbs up to take the tune the whole sound changes.

Listen for a short figure passed from one instrument to another. This give and take is why writers so often compare a quartet to a conversation.

In a fugal finale, such as those of three Haydn Op. 20 quartets, or in the Grosse Fuge, count the entries at the start: four players, four entries of the subject.

Notice changes of colour: plucked notes (pizzicato), muted strings, a long held note under a moving line. With only four instruments, such a change often marks a new section.

Lesson: The string quartet 59 works in the catalogRelated: Sonata form, Minuet and trio, Rondo, Sonata-rondo, Fugue, Chamber music, Symphony

Sources: String quartet, Scherzo

Chamber music

Also called chamber works

Chamber music is written for a small group with one player to each part, unlike an orchestra, where many players share a string part. String quartets have their own page; this one covers the rest: sonatas for an instrument and piano, piano trios, quartets and quintets, string quintets and sextets, and music for wind groups.

In the later eighteenth century the piano moved to the centre. Haydn's piano trios are close to piano sonatas, with the violin and cello mostly doubling the piano; Mozart gave the strings parts of their own and brought the clarinet, still a new instrument, into chamber music in the Kegelstatt Trio and the Clarinet Quintet. After Schumann's Piano Quintet of 1842, piano with string quartet became the usual quintet line-up.

Most works here follow the sonata plan: a first movement in sonata form, a slow movement (often ternary form or theme and variations), a minuet and trio or a scherzo, and a finale, often a rondo. Many of Mozart's violin sonatas have only two movements, and their order and tempos vary: K. 301 has two quick movements, while K. 378 has three. Single pieces for an instrument and piano, such as a ballade or an élégie, are one movement; in this catalog most are labelled A, B and a return of A.

How to hear it

In a sonata for violin or cello and piano, the two are partners, not soloist and accompanist. Listen for a theme stated by one and then taken over by the other.

In a piano trio, quartet or quintet, listen for the strings playing as one block of sound against the piano, then splitting into separate lines.

In a mixed group, follow the instrument that sounds different. In a clarinet quintet the clarinet stands out against four strings, so a tune passed between them is easy to track.

In the finale of Schumann's Piano Quintet, listen for the opening theme of the first movement coming back: Schumann combines it with the finale's own theme in a double fugue, a fugue on two subjects.

Lesson: Chamber music 100 works in the catalogRelated: Sonata form, Ternary form, Theme and variations, Minuet and trio, Rondo, String quartet, Piano sonata

Sources: Chamber music, Piano quintet, Violin sonata

Piano sonata

Also called sonata (genre), keyboard sonata

A piano sonata is a multi-movement work for piano alone, normally in three or four movements arranged like a small symphony: a sonata-form first movement, a slow movement, often a minuet or scherzo, and a finale in rondo or sonata form. Haydn and Mozart wrote mostly three-movement sonatas; Beethoven's early ones have four.

Beethoven's thirty-two sonatas are the backbone of this catalog because they cover his whole career and show him testing every part of the plan. Op. 26 opens with variations instead of a sonata form. Op. 27 No. 2, the Moonlight, puts the slow movement first and calls itself sonata quasi una fantasia. Op. 53, the Waldstein, joins its short slow introduction straight into the finale. Some have only two movements (the two small sonatas of Op. 49, Op. 54, Op. 78, Op. 90 and Op. 111), and late ones end with variations (Op. 109, Op. 111) or a fugue (Op. 106, Op. 110).

Repeats matter in sonatas more than anywhere else. The score asks for the exposition to be repeated and for each half of a minuet to be repeated; pianists choose which to observe. The timings in this catalog follow the recording, so a movement with the repeat taken is longer than the same movement without it.

How to hear it

In the first movement, find the exposition repeat if the pianist takes it; the labels show the section names twice.

Slow movements in Beethoven are often ternary or variation form; listen for the return of the opening tune, decorated.

In the minuet or scherzo, listen for the trio and then the return of the first section.

Late Beethoven: expect fugues, variations, and trills used as texture rather than ornament. The forms are the same as before; the surface is not.

Lesson: The piano sonata 99 works in the catalogRelated: Sonata form, Rondo, Minuet and trio, Theme and variations, Fugue

Source: Piano sonata

Piano music

Also called piano pieces, piano four hands, étude

This page covers piano music other than sonatas: études, nocturnes, preludes, waltzes, mazurkas, polonaises, ballades, impromptus, intermezzi, fantasies and sets of variations, plus music for piano four hands or two pianos. Most are single movements, often published in sets.

Much of this music grew with the piano in the early nineteenth century. Many of the pieces are character pieces: short works that hold one mood or idea, usually named in the title. John Field wrote the first pieces called nocturnes, a singing melody over a broken-chord accompaniment, and Chopin took the form up. The étude began as a practice piece for one skill; the études of Chopin, Liszt and Debussy are concert pieces as well. Schumann wrote sets of short pieces meant to be played as one work, such as Carnaval.

Many character pieces are in ternary form: a first section, a contrasting middle, and a return of the first, often changed. Sets of variations follow theme and variations, and some end with a fugue. Larger single pieces are built more freely. Chopin's four ballades are a variant of sonata form: when the two main themes return, they can come back in reverse order.

How to hear it

Start with the title. A nocturne sings over a broken-chord accompaniment; an étude works at one technical problem, often with one figure kept up almost throughout. Find that figure or texture in the first seconds, because the piece is built on it.

In a piece in ternary form, wait for the middle section: a change of key, texture or speed. Then listen for the return of the opening, often decorated or shortened.

In a Chopin ballade, learn the two main themes in the first half. When they return later, notice the order: Chopin can bring back the second before the first.

In a set such as Carnaval, each short piece has its own title and character. The set is meant to be heard as one work, so listen to how each piece answers the one before.

Lesson: Short piano pieces 250 works in the catalogRelated: Prelude, Ternary form, Theme and variations, Rondo, Piano sonata, Baroque keyboard music

Sources: Character piece, Étude, Ballades (Chopin)

Baroque keyboard music

Also called harpsichord music, clavier music

Until the piano took over in the late eighteenth century, keyboard music was written mainly for the harpsichord and the clavichord. The harpsichord plucks its strings, and a note sounds equally loud however hard the key is pressed, so contrast comes from the number of voices, from register, and on larger instruments from a second keyboard with a different sound. The quieter clavichord was an instrument for the home. Most recordings in this catalog use a modern piano.

Much of this music is counterpoint: two or more independent lines at once. Bach's inventions are short teaching pieces in two parts and his sinfonias the same in three. The Well-Tempered Clavier pairs a prelude and a fugue in each of the twenty-four major and minor keys; its fugues have from two to five voices. Domenico Scarlatti wrote 555 sonatas, each a single movement and most in binary form: two halves, each repeated, the first moving away from the home key and the second finding its way back.

An invention works like a simple fugue: the opening idea is stated in one voice and repeated in the other, then episodes lead it through related keys before it comes home. Pieces in the style of an Italian concerto alternate a returning full passage, the ritornello, with lighter episodes.

How to hear it

In an invention, listen for the opening idea in the right hand, then hear it again in the left hand a moment later. Each later return of that idea, in a new key, is a landmark.

In a Scarlatti sonata, listen for the end of the first half, where the music settles in a new key before the repeat. The second half sets out from there and works its way home; in this catalog's sonata the labels show the later ideas of the first half coming back near the end.

In a movement in concerto style, listen for full, loud passages (ritornello) against thinner ones (episode). On a two-keyboard harpsichord this was a change of keyboard; on the piano it becomes a change of touch.

Lesson: Harpsichord and organ 47 works in the catalogRelated: Fugue, Prelude, Organ music, Piano music, Concerto

Sources: Harpsichord, Invention (musical composition), Domenico Scarlatti

Organ music

Also called organ works, chorale prelude

A pipe organ sounds by sending air through pipes. Each set of pipes with one tone colour is switched on or off by a stop, and the player has one or more keyboards for the hands (manuals) and a pedalboard for the feet. Unlike a piano or a harpsichord, the organ holds a note at full strength for as long as the key is down. Because of its place in church services, much organ music is sacred.

Bach stands at the centre of the Baroque repertoire. Most of his free works pair a prelude, toccata or fantasia with a fugue, and he wrote many chorale preludes, short pieces built on a Lutheran hymn tune that stays clearly audible. His trio sonatas give one line each to the right hand, the left hand and the feet. In the nineteenth century Mendelssohn revived German organ writing, and in France new organs that could swell smoothly from very soft to very loud led Franck and Widor to write organ symphonies in several movements.

In Bach the usual shape has two parts: a free opening, then a fugue. A passacaglia is a set of continuous variations over a bass line that repeats again and again. Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor opens with its eight-bar bass in the pedals alone, builds variations over it, and runs straight on into a fugue whose subject is the first half of that bass.

How to hear it

Listen for the pedals, the deepest line, played by the feet. When a fugue subject arrives in the pedals it stands out at once; the labels in this catalog mark some of these pedal entries.

A sudden change of colour or loudness usually means the player has changed stops or moved to another keyboard. Such changes often mark the start of a new section.

In the Passacaglia and Fugue, learn the bass theme from the opening pedal solo, then keep track of it under each variation. When the fugue starts, listen for the first half of the same theme as its subject.

In a trio sonata, try to follow three separate lines at once: right hand, left hand and feet each have their own. In a chorale prelude, listen for the hymn tune standing out against the other voices.

Lesson: Harpsichord and organ 13 works in the catalogRelated: Fugue, Theme and variations, Prelude, Baroque keyboard music, Choral music

Sources: Pipe organ, Organ repertoire, Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582

Music for a solo instrument

Also called unaccompanied violin, unaccompanied cello, unaccompanied flute

This page covers music for one instrument other than a keyboard, played with no accompaniment: violin, cello, flute or guitar on its own. A violin or cello mostly plays one line, so harmony has to be suggested: chords are spread out as quick arpeggios, two strings are bowed at once (double stops), and a melody jumps between a low part and a high one so that the ear hears two voices.

Bach's six sonatas and partitas for solo violin, finished by 1720, and his six cello suites set the pattern. Each violin sonata opens with a slow prelude and a fugue; the partitas and suites are chains of Baroque dances such as the allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue. Paganini's 24 Caprices, written between 1802 and 1817, are studies for the violin, each built around particular skills. In 1913 Debussy wrote Syrinx, which became a standard piece for flute alone.

The forms are those of other instrumental music on a small scale. Dance movements are mostly in binary form, two repeated halves. Paganini's last caprice is a theme and variations: a short theme, eleven variations and a finale. Syrinx is one free melody whose opening idea returns near the end, and Tárrega's Recuerdos de la Alhambra has a first section in A minor and a second in A major.

How to hear it

Listen for two voices on one instrument: a low note held or repeated under a moving upper line. In Recuerdos de la Alhambra the fingers repeat each melody note so quickly (tremolo) that it sounds like one long note, while the thumb plays the accompaniment; many listeners take it for two guitars.

In Paganini's Caprice No. 24, learn the short theme first. Each variation keeps its outline and sets the player a different task; the labels mark where each one begins.

In Syrinx, follow the phrases like breaths: each rises, pauses and falls back. The player has a lot of freedom in timing; the flautist Marcel Moyse said Debussy wrote it without bar lines or breath marks.

Lesson: One instrument alone 6 works in the catalogRelated: Theme and variations, Ternary form, Sonata form, Chamber music, Concerto

Sources: Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (Bach), 24 Caprices for Solo Violin (Paganini), Recuerdos de la Alhambra

Art song

Also called Lied, Lieder, mélodie, song cycle

An art song is a poem set to music for one singer and piano, written for the concert or the recital room rather than for the stage. In German it is a Lied (plural Lieder), in French a mélodie. A group of songs meant to be sung in order, telling one story or keeping to one theme, is a song cycle.

Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven wrote songs, but the genre came into its own with Schubert, who wrote more than six hundred. Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte is counted as the first song cycle; Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise followed, and Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Mahler and Richard Strauss carried the tradition on. The French mélodies of Berlioz, Fauré and Debussy form a parallel tradition.

The poem decides the form. In a strophic song every verse is sung to the same music, as in the opening song of Die schöne Müllerin. In a through-composed song the music keeps changing with the text: in Erlkönig one singer takes four parts (narrator, father, son and the Erlking), each in its own range and harmony. Between the two lie modified strophic songs, where the tune stays and the piano part changes, and songs in ternary form, with a contrasting middle section and a return.

How to hear it

Follow the words while you listen; recordings and concert programmes print the text for this reason. The music answers the poem line by line, so a change of key or texture often comes with a turn in the text.

Treat the piano as a second voice, not an accompaniment. It often paints the scene: in Erlkönig the fast repeated notes in the right hand stand for the galloping horse and run through almost the whole song.

In a strophic song, the music repeats but the words do not. Listen for how the singer changes colour and pace from verse to verse to fit the new words.

Listen to the piano on its own before the voice enters, between verses and after the voice stops. The labels in this catalog often mark these as an introduction, an interlude and a coda.

Lesson: Art song 12 works in the catalogRelated: Ternary form, Voice and orchestra, Choral music, Piano music

Sources: Art song, Lied, Erlkönig (Schubert)

Voice and orchestra

Also called orchestral song, orchestral song cycle, Orchesterlied, concert aria

These are works for solo voice with orchestra and no chorus: orchestral songs and song cycles, concert arias, and solo motets. The orchestra takes the place of the piano in an art song. That gives the composer far more colours, and it lets a song hold its own in a large concert hall.

Singing with instruments goes back to the Baroque aria and cantata. A concert aria is an operatic scene written for a concert instead of an opera, often for one particular singer; Mozart wrote many. The orchestral song grew from the 1840s. Berlioz wrote Les nuits d'été for voice and piano in 1841 and orchestrated it by 1856, and it is often called the first orchestral song cycle. Mahler brought the genre so close to the symphony that the line between them is hard to draw, and Richard Strauss wrote his Four Last Songs in 1948, near the end of his life.

As in art song, the text decides the form: many songs are strophic or in ternary form, framed by an orchestral introduction and interludes. Concert arias and solo motets follow the opera aria instead. Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate, a sacred motet for one solo singer, has a fast opening section, a short recitative and a slow section, and ends with a quick Alleluia.

How to hear it

Listen to what the orchestra plays before the voice enters and between verses. These passages set the mood of the poem; in this catalog they are labelled Introduction and Interlude.

Pick one instrument that answers the voice. In the Four Last Songs the horn has a large part, and near the end of the last song, after the singer asks whether this is death, Strauss quotes a theme from a symphonic poem he had written sixty years before.

In a concert aria or motet, listen for writing built around one singer's skill: fast runs (coloratura) and very high notes. Exsultate, jubilate even borrows elements of the concerto, with the voice in the soloist's role.

In a song cycle, notice which instruments come forward at the start of each song: the orchestra can give each song its own colour while the singer stays the same.

Lesson: Voice and orchestra 8 works in the catalogRelated: Art song, Choral music, Symphony, Ternary form

Sources: Orchestral song, Concert aria, Four Last Songs

Choral music

Also called choral works, oratorio, requiem

Choral music is written for a choir, with more than one singer to each part, often joined by soloists and an orchestra or organ. The usual mixed choir has four parts: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Most works here set sacred texts; Orff's Carmina Burana, on medieval poems mostly in Latin, is one of the exceptions.

A mass sets the five fixed texts of the Catholic service: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei. A requiem is the mass for the dead. It has no Gloria or Credo and, in its older form, includes the Dies irae, a long poem about the Day of Judgement. Composers treat these texts freely: Mozart's Requiem divides the Dies irae into several movements, some later settings leave it out, and Brahms's German Requiem replaces the Latin with passages he chose from the Lutheran Bible. From the eighteenth century many settings were concert works rather than music for a service.

An oratorio sets a dramatic or narrative text, often a sacred one, for soloists, choir and orchestra without staging, in a chain of recitatives, arias and choruses; a nineteenth-century cantata is close to a short oratorio. A motet is a shorter sacred piece, usually for choir; the name was also used for solo pieces with orchestra, such as Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate. Because the text sets the shape, the analyses in this catalog mostly label sections by letter (A, B, A′) rather than with sonata-form names, and a fugue is marked where the voices enter one after another.

How to hear it

Follow the text. In a mass or requiem each movement is named after its opening Latin words, so the title tells you what is being sung and why the mood changes: the requiem opens with a prayer for eternal rest, the Dies irae describes the Day of Judgement.

Listen for two kinds of texture: all four parts moving together in chords, which keeps the words clear, and parts entering one after another on the same tune, as in a fugue. A switch from one to the other often marks a new line of text.

In masses and oratorios, listen for solo voices and the full choir answering each other.

In Carmina Burana the chorus O Fortuna, addressed to the goddess of luck, is both the first and the last movement, so the whole work is framed by the same music.

Lesson: Choral music 14 works in the catalogRelated: Fugue, Ternary form, Voice and orchestra, Art song

Sources: Choir, Mass (music), Requiem

Terms

472 terms

1st group: The first main theme of a movement, heard in the home key; in sonata form it is the same as the first subject. When several ideas share the home key, analyses speak of a first group or primary zone.
1st Subject: The first theme group of the exposition, in the home key.
1st theme: The first main theme of a movement, heard in the home key; in sonata form it is the same as the first subject. When several ideas share the home key, analyses speak of a first group or primary zone.
2nd group: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
2nd Subject: The second theme group, in a contrasting key in the exposition and in the home key in the recapitulation.
2nd theme: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
A cappella: Singing without instruments. The Italian phrase means 'in the manner of the chapel'.
A, B, C: Letters mark sections by their material: A is the first idea, B the second, C the third. A1 means A returned with changes.
Agnus Dei: Lamb of God: the last movement of the Mass, a plea for mercy that ends with grant us peace; in a Requiem the words become grant them rest.
Air: A song-like piece, vocal or instrumental, built on a flowing melody; the English and French word for aria.
airs: A song-like piece, vocal or instrumental, built on a flowing melody; the English and French word for aria.
Alborada: Spanish for dawn song, the morning counterpart of the evening serenade, as in Ravel's Alborada del gracioso.
Alleluia: Praise the Lord: a joyful acclamation, set as a festive movement or chorus, often with long runs on the single word.
alleluja: Praise the Lord: a joyful acclamation, set as a festive movement or chorus, often with long runs on the single word.
Allemande: A German dance in moderate duple time that usually opens the Baroque suite. It flows in even running notes and begins with a short upbeat.
Answer: In a fugue, the second entry of the subject, in another voice and usually a fifth higher. A tonal answer changes a note or two so that the music stays anchored in the home key.
Anthem: A choral piece on an English sacred text, sung by the choir in the Anglican service; also a song of praise or loyalty, such as a national anthem.
Apotheosis: A grand, exalted return of a theme, usually near the end, louder and more fully scored, as if the theme were being glorified. The term is closely linked with Liszt's orchestral works.
arabeske: A piece built on flowing, ornamental lines, named after the curling decoration of Arabic-style art.
Arabesque: A piece built on flowing, ornamental lines, named after the curling decoration of Arabic-style art.
area: Analysts' words for a stretch of music defined by its job or its key, such as the secondary theme zone or the closing area. The terms come largely from Sonata Theory (Hepokoski and Darcy), which divides an exposition into primary, transition, secondary and closing zones.
Aria: A self-contained song for one voice with accompaniment, usually part of an opera, oratorio or cantata, where the action pauses for a character's feelings. An instrumental movement called aria is song-like in the same way.
Arioso: A vocal style between recitative and aria: more tuneful than speech-song, but freer and shorter than an aria.
Attacca: Go straight on: the next movement starts without a pause.
Augmentation: A theme played in longer note values, so that it sounds slower and broader while the tempo stays the same; often used for a grand final statement.
augmented: A theme played in longer note values, so that it sounds slower and broader while the tempo stays the same; often used for a grand final statement.
Bagatelle: French for trifle: a short, light piece, usually for piano. Beethoven published three sets, and Für Elise is a bagatelle too.
bagatelles: French for trifle: a short, light piece, usually for piano. Beethoven published three sets, and Für Elise is a bagatelle too.
balada: A one-movement instrumental piece with the narrative, story-telling character of a sung ballad. Chopin's piano ballades revisit and transform a main theme as the drama grows.
Ballade: A one-movement instrumental piece with the narrative, story-telling character of a sung ballad. Chopin's piano ballades revisit and transform a main theme as the drama grows.
ballades: A one-movement instrumental piece with the narrative, story-telling character of a sung ballad. Chopin's piano ballades revisit and transform a main theme as the drama grows.
Bar: One unit of the beat pattern, marked off by vertical lines in the score; Americans call it a measure. An eight-bar phrase lasts eight such units.
barcarolla: A boat song in the style of the Venetian gondoliers, almost always in a rocking 6/8 that suggests the stroke of the oar.
Barcarolle: A boat song in the style of the Venetian gondoliers, almost always in a rocking 6/8 that suggests the stroke of the oar.
bars: One unit of the beat pattern, marked off by vertical lines in the score; Americans call it a measure. An eight-bar phrase lasts eight such units.
basso continuo: The bass part of Baroque music, played by a bass instrument (cello, viola da gamba or bassoon) together with a keyboard or lute that fills in the chords, often guided by figures written over the bass notes.
Benedictus: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: the second half of the Sanctus, often set as a separate, gentler movement that ends with the Hosanna again.
Berceuse: A lullaby: a gentle piece, often in 6/8, rocking over a simple accompaniment that often alternates just two chords.
binary: A two-part form, A and B, each half usually repeated: the first half moves away from the home key and the second returns to it. In rounded binary the opening material comes back near the end of the second half.
Binary form: A two-part form, A and B, each half usually repeated: the first half moves away from the home key and the second returns to it. In rounded binary the opening material comes back near the end of the second half.
Bolero: A Spanish dance in moderate triple time, accompanied by guitar and castanets. Ravel's Boléro is named after it.
Bourrée: A lively French dance in duple time that starts with a short upbeat. In the Baroque suite it is one of the lighter dances placed between the sarabande and the gigue.
Bridge: A connecting passage that leads from one section or theme to the next, often changing key on the way; a link is usually a short one. In sonata form the bridge is the same as the transition.
burleske: A comic piece that mocks or parodies a serious manner, as in Richard Strauss's Burleske for piano and orchestra.
Burlesque: A comic piece that mocks or parodies a serious manner, as in Richard Strauss's Burleske for piano and orchestra.
Cadence: The chord progression that ends a phrase, like punctuation: a full cadence closes on the home chord like a full stop, a half cadence pauses on the dominant like a comma. Cadential means acting as, or leading to, a cadence.
cadential: The chord progression that ends a phrase, like punctuation: a full cadence closes on the home chord like a full stop, a half cadence pauses on the dominant like a comma. Cadential means acting as, or leading to, a cadence.
Cadenza: A passage for the soloist alone in a concerto, placed near the end of a movement, originally improvised.
Canon: A piece or passage in which one voice plays a melody and the others follow with the same melody, entering one after another as in a round. Al rovescio means the follower plays the melody upside down.
canone: A piece or passage in which one voice plays a melody and the others follow with the same melody, entering one after another as in a round. Al rovescio means the follower plays the melody upside down.
canonic: A piece or passage in which one voice plays a melody and the others follow with the same melody, entering one after another as in a round. Al rovescio means the follower plays the melody upside down.
Cantata: A work for voices and instruments in several movements (arias, recitatives, choruses) on a sacred or secular text. Bach wrote his church cantatas for the Sundays and feast days of the year.
Cantilena: A smooth, lyrical vocal melody, or an instrumental passage in that singing style.
Canzona: An Italian piece derived from the French chanson; in later titles, simply a song or a song-like movement.
canzone: An Italian piece derived from the French chanson; in later titles, simply a song or a song-like movement.
Canzonetta: Little song: a light, short song, or a song-like instrumental movement, such as the slow movement of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto.
Capriccio: A free, lively piece, often fast and virtuosic, whose title promises whim rather than strict form. Brahms used it for his stormier short piano pieces, Paganini for violin showpieces.
caprice: A free, lively piece, often fast and virtuosic, whose title promises whim rather than strict form. Brahms used it for his stormier short piano pieces, Paganini for violin showpieces.
Chaconne: Continuous variations over a short, repeated chord pattern or bass line, a close relative of the passacaglia.
Chant: In church music, a single unaccompanied melody in free rhythm, as in Gregorian chant; a chant-like passage imitates that bare, flowing line. In French, chant simply means song or melody.
Chorale: A Lutheran hymn tune, or a passage written like one: slow, in plain chords, with all the voices moving together. A chorale passage sounds solemn or prayerful.
Choro: A Brazilian instrumental popular style from Rio de Janeiro, often fast and syncopated despite its name, which means cry.
choros: A Brazilian instrumental popular style from Rio de Janeiro, often fast and syncopated despite its name, which means cry.
christe: The first movement of a Mass or Requiem, a prayer in Greek: Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. The three-part text often gives a three-part musical shape.
christe eleison: The first movement of a Mass or Requiem, a prayer in Greek: Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. The three-part text often gives a three-part musical shape.
Chromatic: Using notes from outside the key, often sliding by semitones. Chromatic music sounds more unstable, colourful or anguished than music that keeps to the scale.
clarinet quintet: A work for five players. A string quintet adds a second viola or a second cello to the string quartet; a piano quintet or a clarinet quintet adds that instrument to a string quartet.
clarinet trio: A work for piano, violin and cello, usually in three or four movements. Brahms's Clarinet Trio and Horn Trio replace one of the string instruments with a clarinet or a horn.
climactic: The high point of a movement or section, where tension, loudness or register peaks. Listen for the build-up toward it and the release after it.
Climax: The high point of a movement or section, where tension, loudness or register peaks. Listen for the build-up toward it and the release after it.
close: The passage that rounds off a section after its main themes, confirming the key with cadences and often bringing a short tune of its own (the closing theme). In a sonata-form exposition it follows the second theme and leads to the repeat or the development.
closing: The passage that rounds off a section after its main themes, confirming the key with cadences and often bringing a short tune of its own (the closing theme). In a sonata-form exposition it follows the second theme and leads to the repeat or the development.
closing area: The passage that rounds off a section after its main themes, confirming the key with cadences and often bringing a short tune of its own (the closing theme). In a sonata-form exposition it follows the second theme and leads to the repeat or the development.
closing cadence: The chord progression that ends a phrase, like punctuation: a full cadence closes on the home chord like a full stop, a half cadence pauses on the dominant like a comma. Cadential means acting as, or leading to, a cadence.
closing frame: Music that opens a piece and comes back at the end, enclosing the main part the way a frame encloses a picture or a frame story encloses a tale.
closing group: The passage that rounds off a section after its main themes, confirming the key with cadences and often bringing a short tune of its own (the closing theme). In a sonata-form exposition it follows the second theme and leads to the repeat or the development.
closing idea: The passage that rounds off a section after its main themes, confirming the key with cadences and often bringing a short tune of its own (the closing theme). In a sonata-form exposition it follows the second theme and leads to the repeat or the development.
closing material: The passage that rounds off a section after its main themes, confirming the key with cadences and often bringing a short tune of its own (the closing theme). In a sonata-form exposition it follows the second theme and leads to the repeat or the development.
Closing section: The passage that rounds off a section after its main themes, confirming the key with cadences and often bringing a short tune of its own (the closing theme). In a sonata-form exposition it follows the second theme and leads to the repeat or the development.
closing span: The passage that rounds off a section after its main themes, confirming the key with cadences and often bringing a short tune of its own (the closing theme). In a sonata-form exposition it follows the second theme and leads to the repeat or the development.
closing subject: The passage that rounds off a section after its main themes, confirming the key with cadences and often bringing a short tune of its own (the closing theme). In a sonata-form exposition it follows the second theme and leads to the repeat or the development.
closing theme: The passage that rounds off a section after its main themes, confirming the key with cadences and often bringing a short tune of its own (the closing theme). In a sonata-form exposition it follows the second theme and leads to the repeat or the development.
closing unit: The passage that rounds off a section after its main themes, confirming the key with cadences and often bringing a short tune of its own (the closing theme). In a sonata-form exposition it follows the second theme and leads to the repeat or the development.
closing zone: The passage that rounds off a section after its main themes, confirming the key with cadences and often bringing a short tune of its own (the closing theme). In a sonata-form exposition it follows the second theme and leads to the repeat or the development.
Coda: A closing section after the recapitulation. Short in Haydn, sometimes huge in Beethoven.
Codetta: A short closing passage at the end of the exposition. It confirms the new key before the development or the repeat.
communion: Let eternal light shine on them: the Communion chant of the Requiem, often a calm, luminous movement. Ligeti's Lux aeterna is a separate choral piece on the same words.
complex: Several themes or ideas that share a key and a job and are heard as one unit, such as all the home-key material at the start of an exposition. A rondo theme complex is the refrain together with its own internal parts.
con sordino: A device fitted to an instrument to soften or change its sound. 'Con sordino' in a score means 'with the mute'; 'senza sordino' means without it.
Concertino: Either a short concerto, or, in a Baroque concerto grosso, the small group of soloists set against the full orchestra.
concluding section: The passage that rounds off a section after its main themes, confirming the key with cadences and often bringing a short tune of its own (the closing theme). In a sonata-form exposition it follows the second theme and leads to the repeat or the development.
Confutatis: When the accursed are confounded: a Dies irae verse that sets the flames of the damned against a prayer to be called among the blessed. Mozart alternates loud tenors and basses with soft sopranos and altos.
connecting passage: A connecting passage that leads from one section or theme to the next, often changing key on the way; a link is usually a short one. In sonata form the bridge is the same as the transition.
Continuation: The part of a theme that carries on from its opening idea, usually breaking it into smaller pieces and driving toward a cadence. More loosely, simply the passage that follows on from the one before.
Continuo: The bass part of Baroque music, played by a bass instrument (cello, viola da gamba or bassoon) together with a keyboard or lute that fills in the chords, often guided by figures written over the bass notes.
Contrapunctus: Latin for counterpoint: Bach's name for each fugue in The Art of Fugue, all built on versions of one subject.
contrapuntal: Two or more independent melodies played at once and fitting together. In a contrapuntal passage, try to follow several lines rather than one tune with accompaniment.
corrente: A Baroque dance in triple time that usually follows the allemande in the suite. The French courante is stately, with accents shifting between groups of two and three beats; the Italian corrente is quicker and runs in even notes.
counter theme: A second melody played at the same time as the main one, as a partner with its own line rather than a plain accompaniment.
Counter-exposition: A second exposition in a fugue: after a short episode the subject enters again in the home key, usually with the voices in a different order. Some writers use the term for middle entries too.
Countermelody: A second melody played at the same time as the main one, as a partner with its own line rather than a plain accompaniment.
Counterpoint: Two or more independent melodies played at once and fitting together. In a contrapuntal passage, try to follow several lines rather than one tune with accompaniment.
Couplet: In a French rondo (rondeau), the name for each contrasting episode between returns of the refrain.
Courante: A Baroque dance in triple time that usually follows the allemande in the suite. The French courante is stately, with accents shifting between groups of two and three beats; the Italian corrente is quicker and runs in even notes.
Credo: The statement of belief in the Mass (I believe in one God). It is the longest text, so composers often divide it into contrasting sections.
cum sanctis: Let eternal light shine on them: the Communion chant of the Requiem, often a calm, luminous movement. Ligeti's Lux aeterna is a separate choral piece on the same words.
cum sanctis tuis: Let eternal light shine on them: the Communion chant of the Requiem, often a calm, luminous movement. Ligeti's Lux aeterna is a separate choral piece on the same words.
cut time: Labels such as 6/8 time give the metre, written like a fraction: the top number says how many notes of one value fill a bar, the bottom number says which value (4 a quarter note, 8 an eighth note). Cut time is 2/2: two broad beats to the bar.
cyclic: A theme from an earlier movement that comes back in a later one, tying the whole work together (cyclic form). Listen for a tune you already know turning up in new surroundings.
Cyclic return: A theme from an earlier movement that comes back in a later one, tying the whole work together (cyclic form). Listen for a tune you already know turning up in new surroundings.
Da capo: Italian for from the top: play the first section again. Used for the return of the minuet or scherzo after the trio.
Da capo aria: An aria in three parts, A B A. After a contrasting middle section the singer goes back to the beginning ('da capo' means 'from the head') and repeats the first section, traditionally adding ornaments the second time.
Danzón: The national dance of Cuba: a slow, formal couple dance in 2/4 with syncopated rhythms and pauses for instrumental display.
Development: The middle part of a sonata form, where earlier material is broken up, combined and led through unstable keys.
development like section: Working like a development: themes are broken up, combined and moved through keys, even in a section that is not the development of a sonata form, such as a coda or an episode.
Developmental: Working like a development: themes are broken up, combined and moved through keys, even in a section that is not the development of a sonata form, such as a coda or an episode.
developmental section: Working like a development: themes are broken up, combined and moved through keys, even in a section that is not the development of a sonata form, such as a coda or an episode.
dies illa: Deliver me, O Lord: a responsory sung after the Requiem Mass beside the coffin, asking for mercy at the Last Judgement. Fauré and Verdi include it, and it brings back the terror of the day of wrath.
Dies irae: Day of wrath: the medieval poem about the Last Judgement that forms the Sequence of the Requiem, usually its most violent music. Its old chant melody is quoted in Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and many later works.
Divertimento: A light work in several movements for a small group of players, written to entertain at social occasions; common in the second half of the 18th century, notably with Haydn and Mozart.
Divertissement: French for amusement: a light piece or set of short pieces for a small group, or a set of dances inserted into an opera or ballet.
Dominant: The note and chord five steps above the tonic, which pull most strongly back toward home; also the key built on that note, where the second theme of a major-key sonata usually goes.
Dominant preparation: A passage that prepares an arrival, usually by dwelling on the dominant chord so that the return of the home key feels inevitable. It typically comes just before a recapitulation or a final return.
domine jesu: The prayer sung while the bread and wine are brought to the altar. In a Requiem it begins Domine Jesu Christe and continues with the Hostias (Sacrifices and prayers).
dona eis: Lamb of God: the last movement of the Mass, a plea for mercy that ends with grant us peace; in a Requiem the words become grant them rest.
Double fugue: A fugue on two subjects, which are either introduced separately and then combined, or heard together from the start.
Double stop: On a string instrument, playing two notes at once by bowing two strings together; three or four notes make a triple or quadruple stop.
double stopping: On a string instrument, playing two notes at once by bowing two strings together; three or four notes make a triple or quadruple stop.
drum roll: A fast stream of strokes on a drum or the timpani that makes a sustained sound, often swelling in a crescendo.
dum veneris: Deliver me, O Lord: a responsory sung after the Requiem Mass beside the coffin, asking for mercy at the Last Judgement. Fauré and Verdi include it, and it brings back the terror of the day of wrath.
Dumka: A Slavic piece, originally a melancholy ballad, that switches suddenly between brooding and exuberance. Dvořák's Dumky Trio is built from a chain of them.
dumky: A Slavic piece, originally a melancholy ballad, that switches suddenly between brooding and exuberance. Dvořák's Dumky Trio is built from a chain of them.
durchkomponiert: A song that follows the poem with new music as it goes instead of repeating one tune for every stanza, as in Schubert's Erlkönig.
eec: In Sonata Theory, the first firm cadence in the new key after the second theme has begun. It is the goal of the exposition; whatever follows belongs to the closing zone.
elegia: A piece of mourning or sorrowful reflection, usually slow.
élégie: A piece of mourning or sorrowful reflection, usually slow.
Elegy: A piece of mourning or sorrowful reflection, usually slow.
embellishment: A small decoration added to a melody note, such as a trill, mordent, turn or appoggiatura, written with a sign or added by the performer.
entries: Each appearance of a fugue's subject in one of the voices. Middle entries come in other keys after the exposition; the final entry brings the subject back in the home key near the end.
Entry: Each appearance of a fugue's subject in one of the voices. Middle entries come in other keys after the exposition; the final entry brings the subject back in the home key near the end.
epílogo: A closing section or movement that comes after the main events, like the last chapter of a book.
Epilogue: A closing section or movement that comes after the main events, like the last chapter of a book.
Episode: A contrasting section between returns of a refrain (in a rondo) or between entries of the subject (in a fugue).
Essential expositional closure: In Sonata Theory, the first firm cadence in the new key after the second theme has begun. It is the goal of the exposition; whatever follows belongs to the closing zone.
et lux perpetua: The opening chant of the Mass. In a Requiem it begins Requiem aeternam (Eternal rest grant them, O Lord), the words that give the work its name.
expanded: A phrase made longer than expected, by repeating or stretching its end or by delaying the cadence. An expansion does the same inside the phrase.
expansion: A phrase made longer than expected, by repeating or stretching its end or by delaying the cadence. An expansion does the same inside the phrase.
Exposition: The first main part of a sonata-form movement, where the themes are presented and the music moves from the home key to a second key. Often repeated.
Exposition 1 / Exposition 2: In a Classical concerto first movement, the orchestra's exposition and then the soloist's.
extended: A phrase made longer than expected, by repeating or stretching its end or by delaying the cadence. An expansion does the same inside the phrase.
Extension: A phrase made longer than expected, by repeating or stretching its end or by delaying the cadence. An expansion does the same inside the phrase.
False recapitulation: A return of the opening theme during the development, often in the wrong key, that sounds as if the recapitulation has begun; then the development carries on. The surprise can be comic or dramatic.
Fandango: A lively Spanish couple dance, usually in triple time, with guitar and castanets.
Fanfare: A short ceremonial flourish for brass, often with percussion, announcing an arrival or an opening.
fantaisie: A piece that follows the composer's imagination rather than a set form, often sounding improvised, with sudden changes of mood. Fantasiestücke (fantasy pieces) are sets of short pieces in that spirit.
fantasie: A piece that follows the composer's imagination rather than a set form, often sounding improvised, with sudden changes of mood. Fantasiestücke (fantasy pieces) are sets of short pieces in that spirit.
fantasien: A piece that follows the composer's imagination rather than a set form, often sounding improvised, with sudden changes of mood. Fantasiestücke (fantasy pieces) are sets of short pieces in that spirit.
fantasies: A piece that follows the composer's imagination rather than a set form, often sounding improvised, with sudden changes of mood. Fantasiestücke (fantasy pieces) are sets of short pieces in that spirit.
fantasiestücke: A piece that follows the composer's imagination rather than a set form, often sounding improvised, with sudden changes of mood. Fantasiestücke (fantasy pieces) are sets of short pieces in that spirit.
Fantasy: A piece that follows the composer's imagination rather than a set form, often sounding improvised, with sudden changes of mood. Fantasiestücke (fantasy pieces) are sets of short pieces in that spirit.
final cadence: The chord progression that ends a phrase, like punctuation: a full cadence closes on the home chord like a full stop, a half cadence pauses on the dominant like a comma. Cadential means acting as, or leading to, a cadence.
final entry: Each appearance of a fugue's subject in one of the voices. Middle entries come in other keys after the exposition; the final entry brings the subject back in the home key near the end.
first theme: The first main theme of a movement, heard in the home key; in sonata form it is the same as the first subject. When several ideas share the home key, analyses speak of a first group or primary zone.
first theme area: The first main theme of a movement, heard in the home key; in sonata form it is the same as the first subject. When several ideas share the home key, analyses speak of a first group or primary zone.
Forlane: A fast Italian folk dance from Friuli in 6/8, taken up in French Baroque music; Ravel revived it in Le Tombeau de Couperin.
Fortspinnung: German for spinning out: the Baroque way of continuing a theme's opening idea with sequences and repetitions instead of a balanced answer. In a ritornello it is the busy middle part, between the opening idea and the closing cadence.
Fragment: A small piece broken off a theme, often just its first few notes. Repeating ever shorter fragments (fragmentation) is a common way to build tension or to wind a passage down.
fragmentary: A small piece broken off a theme, often just its first few notes. Repeating ever shorter fragments (fragmentation) is a common way to build tension or to wind a passage down.
fragmentation: A small piece broken off a theme, often just its first few notes. Repeating ever shorter fragments (fragmentation) is a common way to build tension or to wind a passage down.
fragmented: A small piece broken off a theme, often just its first few notes. Repeating ever shorter fragments (fragmentation) is a common way to build tension or to wind a passage down.
fragments: A small piece broken off a theme, often just its first few notes. Repeating ever shorter fragments (fragmentation) is a common way to build tension or to wind a passage down.
Frame: Music that opens a piece and comes back at the end, enclosing the main part the way a frame encloses a picture or a frame story encloses a tale.
Fugal exposition: The opening of a fugue or fugal passage, where each voice enters in turn with the subject. In analyses of Bach's inventions and sinfonias, Exposition I, II and III mark successive rounds of such entries.
Fugato: A passage in fugal style inside a movement that is not a fugue overall.
Funeral march: A slow march, usually in a minor key, that imitates the measured tread of a funeral procession; the third movement of Chopin's Second Piano Sonata is one.
Furiant: A fiery Bohemian dance in fast triple time whose accents keep regrouping the beats in twos instead of threes. Dvořák and Smetana used it in place of a scherzo.
Galanterie: In the Baroque suite, one of the lighter, more fashionable dances added between the sarabande and the gigue, such as the minuet, gavotte, bourrée or passepied, often in pairs (Minuet I and II).
galanteries: In the Baroque suite, one of the lighter, more fashionable dances added between the sarabande and the gigue, such as the minuet, gavotte, bourrée or passepied, often in pairs (Minuet I and II).
Gavotte: A French dance in moderate duple time whose phrases start halfway through the bar.
giga: A fast, lively dance in compound time (such as 6/8 or 12/8) that usually ends the Baroque suite. It often begins with the parts entering one after another in imitation.
Gigue: A fast, lively dance in compound time (such as 6/8 or 12/8) that usually ends the Baroque suite. It often begins with the parts entering one after another in imitation.
Gloria: The Mass's hymn of praise, Glory to God in the highest, usually a bright, festive movement.
group: Several themes or ideas that share a key and a job and are heard as one unit, such as all the home-key material at the start of an exposition. A rondo theme complex is the refrain together with its own internal parts.
Gymnopédie: Satie's name for his three slow, spare piano pieces of 1888.
gymnopédies: Satie's name for his three slow, spare piano pieces of 1888.
Habanera: The Cuban contradanza, named after Havana, recognisable by its lilting habanera rhythm in the bass. Spanish-flavoured French music, such as Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole, borrows it.
half cadence: The chord progression that ends a phrase, like punctuation: a full cadence closes on the home chord like a full stop, a half cadence pauses on the dominant like a comma. Cadential means acting as, or leading to, a cadence.
hallelujah: Praise the Lord: a joyful acclamation, set as a festive movement or chorus, often with long runs on the single word.
Harmonic series: The set of higher pitches (harmonics) that sound together above a fundamental note. Brass instruments without valves, such as the natural horn and trumpet, can play only these natural notes, which is why their parts in older music keep to a few pitches.
horn trio: A work for piano, violin and cello, usually in three or four movements. Brahms's Clarinet Trio and Horn Trio replace one of the string instruments with a clarinet or a horn.
Hornpipe: A lively British dance. In Baroque music it is usually in triple time with syncopated, accented rhythms; Handel's hornpipe from the Water Music is a famous example.
hosanna: Holy, holy, holy: the Mass movement of acclamation, which closes with an exultant Hosanna in the highest.
hostias: The prayer sung while the bread and wine are brought to the altar. In a Requiem it begins Domine Jesu Christe and continues with the Hostias (Sacrifices and prayers).
humoreske: A Romantic character piece of whimsical humour, a matter of mood rather than jokes.
Humoresque: A Romantic character piece of whimsical humour, a matter of mood rather than jokes.
Idée fixe: Berlioz's name for the melody in his Symphonie fantastique that stands for the beloved and returns, changed, in every movement; more generally, a recurring theme tied to one idea.
Imitation: One voice repeats a melody just played by another, a little later and often at a different pitch. Fugues and canons are built on it.
imitative: One voice repeats a melody just played by another, a little later and often at a different pitch. Fugues and canons are built on it.
Impromptu: A piano piece meant to sound improvised on the spur of the moment, though usually in a clear form such as A B A. Schubert and Chopin wrote sets of them.
impromptus: A piano piece meant to sound improvised on the spur of the moment, though usually in a clear form such as A B A. Schubert and Chopin wrote sets of them.
in canone: A piece or passage in which one voice plays a melody and the others follow with the same melody, entering one after another as in a round. Al rovescio means the follower plays the melody upside down.
In paradisum: May the angels lead you into paradise: the farewell sung as the body is carried out of the church. Fauré ends his Requiem with it.
Interlude: A passage between two main sections. In Bach's inventions and sinfonias it is the free passage between rounds of entries, like a fugal episode; in a song, a piano interlude is where the piano plays alone between verses.
intermezzi: Literally a piece that comes in between: an inner movement of a larger work, or, in Brahms's late piano music, a short independent character piece. Listen for an intimate, inward tone rather than display.
Intermezzo: Literally a piece that comes in between: an inner movement of a larger work, or, in Brahms's late piano music, a short independent character piece. Listen for an intimate, inward tone rather than display.
Introduction: A passage before the main material starts, often slow. In a symphony it can last two or three minutes; in a sonata it may be a few bars.
Introit: The opening chant of the Mass. In a Requiem it begins Requiem aeternam (Eternal rest grant them, O Lord), the words that give the work its name.
introitus: The opening chant of the Mass. In a Requiem it begins Requiem aeternam (Eternal rest grant them, O Lord), the words that give the work its name.
Invention: A short keyboard piece in two-part counterpoint, known above all from Bach's fifteen Inventions, written partly as exercises. Listen for one short idea passed back and forth between the two hands.
jig: A fast, lively dance in compound time (such as 6/8 or 12/8) that usually ends the Baroque suite. It often begins with the parts entering one after another in imitation.
Key: The home note and scale a passage is built on, named by its tonic and mode, such as C major or G minor. The key signature shows its sharps or flats; moving to another key is a modulation.
Klavierstück: German for piano piece: a plain title for a short piano work without a more specific name, as in the late sets of Brahms and Schubert.
klavierstücke: German for piano piece: a plain title for a short piano work without a more specific name, as in the late sets of Brahms and Schubert.
Kyrie: The first movement of a Mass or Requiem, a prayer in Greek: Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. The three-part text often gives a three-part musical shape.
kyrie eleison: The first movement of a Mass or Requiem, a prayer in Greek: Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. The three-part text often gives a three-part musical shape.
Lacrimosa: Tearful: the closing verses of the Dies irae, about the day of weeping. Mozart died leaving his Lacrimosa unfinished.
Lament: A piece expressing grief or loss. Liszt's Tasso follows its Lamento with a Trionfo, a triumph.
lamento: A piece expressing grief or loss. Liszt's Tasso follows its Lamento with a Trionfo, a triumph.
Ländler: An Austrian country dance in triple time, heavier and more rustic than the waltz it helped to shape. Listen for the stamping, homely rhythm.
ländlers: An Austrian country dance in triple time, heavier and more rustic than the waltz it helped to shape. Listen for the stamping, homely rhythm.
Libera me: Deliver me, O Lord: a responsory sung after the Requiem Mass beside the coffin, asking for mercy at the Last Judgement. Fauré and Verdi include it, and it brings back the terror of the day of wrath.
link: A connecting passage that leads from one section or theme to the next, often changing key on the way; a link is usually a short one. In sonata form the bridge is the same as the transition.
lullaby: A lullaby: a gentle piece, often in 6/8, rocking over a simple accompaniment that often alternates just two chords.
Lux aeterna: Let eternal light shine on them: the Communion chant of the Requiem, often a calm, luminous movement. Ligeti's Lux aeterna is a separate choral piece on the same words.
Maggiore: Italian for major (minore: minor). It marks a section that switches to the major or the minor mode, often the contrasting middle of a set of variations or of a minuet.
Magnificat: The Song of Mary from Luke's Gospel (My soul magnifies the Lord), a hymn of praise set by many composers.
main section: The first main theme of a movement, heard in the home key; in sonata form it is the same as the first subject. When several ideas share the home key, analyses speak of a first group or primary zone.
main theme: The first main theme of a movement, heard in the home key; in sonata form it is the same as the first subject. When several ideas share the home key, analyses speak of a first group or primary zone.
main theme complex: The first main theme of a movement, heard in the home key; in sonata form it is the same as the first subject. When several ideas share the home key, analyses speak of a first group or primary zone.
Malagueña: A flamenco song style from Málaga, derived from the fandango and sung freely without a strict beat.
Manual: A keyboard played with the hands. An organ or harpsichord can have two or more manuals, each linked to its own set of pipes or strings, so the player can change the sound by moving from one to another.
March: Music for marching: duple time, a strong regular beat and clear phrases, often with a gentler trio section. Composers also use it for ceremony, triumph or parody.
marche: Music for marching: duple time, a strong regular beat and clear phrases, often with a gentler trio section. Composers also use it for ceremony, triumph or parody.
marche funèbre: A slow march, usually in a minor key, that imitates the measured tread of a funeral procession; the third movement of Chopin's Second Piano Sonata is one.
marsch: Music for marching: duple time, a strong regular beat and clear phrases, often with a gentler trio section. Composers also use it for ceremony, triumph or parody.
Mass: A setting of the fixed sung texts of the Catholic service: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus with Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. Each text becomes a movement, and the words shape the music.
mazur: A Polish folk dance in triple time whose strong accents fall on the second or third beat instead of the first. Chopin wrote dozens; listen for that limping off-beat stress.
mazurek: A Polish folk dance in triple time whose strong accents fall on the second or third beat instead of the first. Chopin wrote dozens; listen for that limping off-beat stress.
Mazurka: A Polish folk dance in triple time whose strong accents fall on the second or third beat instead of the first. Chopin wrote dozens; listen for that limping off-beat stress.
mc: In Sonata Theory, the clear break, often a pause after hammered chords, that ends the transition and makes room for the second theme.
measure: One unit of the beat pattern, marked off by vertical lines in the score; Americans call it a measure. An eight-bar phrase lasts eight such units.
measures: One unit of the beat pattern, marked off by vertical lines in the score; Americans call it a measure. An eight-bar phrase lasts eight such units.
Medial caesura: In Sonata Theory, the clear break, often a pause after hammered chords, that ends the transition and makes room for the second theme.
messa: A setting of the fixed sung texts of the Catholic service: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus with Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. Each text becomes a movement, and the words shape the music.
middle entries: Each appearance of a fugue's subject in one of the voices. Middle entries come in other keys after the exposition; the final entry brings the subject back in the home key near the end.
middle entry: Each appearance of a fugue's subject in one of the voices. Middle entries come in other keys after the exposition; the final entry brings the subject back in the home key near the end.
middle section: In a three-part (A B A) piece, the outer sections are the first section and its return, and the middle section is the contrasting part between them.
Minuet: A French social dance in moderate triple time. As a label it marks the minuet itself, heard before and after the contrasting trio; see Minuet and trio.
Modified strophic: A strophic song in which one or more stanzas are changed, for example moved to another key or mode, while the others keep the same music.
modulating: A change of key. A modulating or modulatory passage moves through keys instead of settling in one.
modulating passage: A change of key. A modulating or modulatory passage moves through keys instead of settling in one.
Modulation: A change of key. A modulating or modulatory passage moves through keys instead of settling in one.
modulatory: A change of key. A modulating or modulatory passage moves through keys instead of settling in one.
modulatory section: A change of key. A modulating or modulatory passage moves through keys instead of settling in one.
Moment musical: French for musical moment: a short, intimate piano piece, the name of Schubert's set of six and later of Rachmaninoff's.
moments musicaux: French for musical moment: a short, intimate piano piece, the name of Schubert's set of six and later of Rachmaninoff's.
Motif: A short musical idea of a few notes, recognisable by its rhythm or shape, that keeps coming back and is used to build larger themes. Follow it as it moves between instruments and changes.
motifs: A short musical idea of a few notes, recognisable by its rhythm or shape, that keeps coming back and is used to build larger themes. Follow it as it moves between instruments and changes.
motive: A short musical idea of a few notes, recognisable by its rhythm or shape, that keeps coming back and is used to build larger themes. Follow it as it moves between instruments and changes.
motives: A short musical idea of a few notes, recognisable by its rhythm or shape, that keeps coming back and is used to build larger themes. Follow it as it moves between instruments and changes.
motivic: A short musical idea of a few notes, recognisable by its rhythm or shape, that keeps coming back and is used to build larger themes. Follow it as it moves between instruments and changes.
Motto: A short, striking theme that returns at important moments, sometimes in every movement, like a signature; Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony has a fate motto. It is close to the leitmotif and the idée fixe.
motto theme: A short, striking theme that returns at important moments, sometimes in every movement, like a signature; Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony has a fate motto. It is close to the leitmotif and the idée fixe.
Movement: A self-contained part of a larger work such as a symphony, concerto or sonata, with its own tempo and usually its own ending. Movements are often numbered with Roman numerals (I, II, III).
Musette: A pastoral piece named after the small French bagpipe, usually over a sustained drone in the bass.
musettes: A pastoral piece named after the small French bagpipe, usually over a sustained drone in the bass.
Mute: A device fitted to an instrument to soften or change its sound. 'Con sordino' in a score means 'with the mute'; 'senza sordino' means without it.
natural notes: The set of higher pitches (harmonics) that sound together above a fundamental note. Brass instruments without valves, such as the natural horn and trumpet, can play only these natural notes, which is why their parts in older music keep to a few pitches.
Nocturne: A night piece. In the piano nocturne of Field and Chopin, a singing melody floats over a broad, broken-chord accompaniment; Debussy's orchestral Nocturnes are impressions of night and light.
nocturnes: A night piece. In the piano nocturne of Field and Chopin, a singing melody floats over a broad, broken-chord accompaniment; Debussy's orchestral Nocturnes are impressions of night and light.
offertoire: The prayer sung while the bread and wine are brought to the altar. In a Requiem it begins Domine Jesu Christe and continues with the Hostias (Sacrifices and prayers).
offertorio: The prayer sung while the bread and wine are brought to the altar. In a Requiem it begins Domine Jesu Christe and continues with the Hostias (Sacrifices and prayers).
Offertory: The prayer sung while the bread and wine are brought to the altar. In a Requiem it begins Domine Jesu Christe and continues with the Hostias (Sacrifices and prayers).
opening frame: Music that opens a piece and comes back at the end, enclosing the main part the way a frame encloses a picture or a frame story encloses a tale.
Orchestral exposition: In a Classical concerto first movement, the opening section for the orchestra alone. It presents the main themes but usually stays in the home key; this catalog also calls it Exposition 1.
Organ stop: A set of organ pipes with one tone colour, switched on or off by a knob or tab at the console; choosing and combining stops is called registration.
Ornament: A small decoration added to a melody note, such as a trill, mordent, turn or appoggiatura, written with a sign or added by the performer.
ornaments: A small decoration added to a melody note, such as a trill, mordent, turn or appoggiatura, written with a sign or added by the performer.
Outer and middle sections: In a three-part (A B A) piece, the outer sections are the first section and its return, and the middle section is the contrasting part between them.
outer section: In a three-part (A B A) piece, the outer sections are the first section and its return, and the middle section is the contrasting part between them.
ouverture: An orchestral piece that opens an opera, ballet or play. From the early 19th century the concert overture is a free-standing one-movement piece, often telling or painting something.
overtone series: The set of higher pitches (harmonics) that sound together above a fundamental note. Brass instruments without valves, such as the natural horn and trumpet, can play only these natural notes, which is why their parts in older music keep to a few pitches.
overtura: An orchestral piece that opens an opera, ballet or play. From the early 19th century the concert overture is a free-standing one-movement piece, often telling or painting something.
Overture: An orchestral piece that opens an opera, ballet or play. From the early 19th century the concert overture is a free-standing one-movement piece, often telling or painting something.
Pantoum: A Malay verse form with interlocking repeated lines; Ravel gave the name to the scherzo-like second movement of his Piano Trio.
Partita: In the Baroque, another name for a suite of dances, as in Bach's partitas for keyboard and for solo violin; earlier, a set of variations.
Passacaglia: Continuous variations over a bass line that repeats throughout, usually in slow triple time and serious in mood. Listen for the bass pattern, which never stops while everything above it changes.
passacaille: Continuous variations over a bass line that repeats throughout, usually in slow triple time and serious in mood. Listen for the bass pattern, which never stops while everything above it changes.
Passepied: A quick, light French court dance in triple time, usually 3/8, the fastest of the Baroque triple-time dances.
pastoral: A piece evoking shepherds and the countryside, typically in a lilting 6/8 or 12/8, with melodies in thirds over a drone bass.
Pastorale: A piece evoking shepherds and the countryside, typically in a lilting 6/8 or 12/8, with melodies in thirds over a drone bass.
Pavane: A slow, stately processional dance of the 16th century in duple time. Later composers such as Fauré and Ravel used the name for calm pieces with an old-world air.
pedal: A note held or repeated, usually in the bass, while the harmonies above it change and clash with it; a pedal on the dominant builds expectation. On the organ, pedal can also mean the keyboard played with the feet.
pedal entry: Each appearance of a fugue's subject in one of the voices. Middle entries come in other keys after the exposition; the final entry brings the subject back in the home key near the end.
Pedal point: A note held or repeated, usually in the bass, while the harmonies above it change and clash with it; a pedal on the dominant builds expectation. On the organ, pedal can also mean the keyboard played with the feet.
pedal subject entry: Each appearance of a fugue's subject in one of the voices. Middle entries come in other keys after the exposition; the final entry brings the subject back in the home key near the end.
Pedalboard: The keyboard played with the feet on an organ, usually for the bass line.
Period: In Classical music, a pair of phrases in which the second answers the first: the first ends on an open cadence, the second on a firm one. In analyses of Bach's preludes and fugues, Period I, II and III mark larger sections, each closed by a cadence.
Phrase: A musical sentence: a group of bars that makes sense on its own and ends with a cadence, like a line of a poem. Themes are usually built from two or more phrases.
piano interlude: A passage between two main sections. In Bach's inventions and sinfonias it is the free passage between rounds of entries, like a fugal episode; in a song, a piano interlude is where the piano plays alone between verses.
piano postlude: A closing passage after the main material, the opposite of a prelude. In a song it is the piano's part after the voice has finished, often summing up the mood.
piano quartet: A work for four players. A piano quartet is for piano, violin, viola and cello; the commonest kind, the string quartet, has its own page.
piano quintet: A work for five players. A string quintet adds a second viola or a second cello to the string quartet; a piano quintet or a clarinet quintet adds that instrument to a string quartet.
Piano trio: A work for piano, violin and cello, usually in three or four movements. Brahms's Clarinet Trio and Horn Trio replace one of the string instruments with a clarinet or a horn.
Pie Jesu: Gentle Lord Jesus, grant them rest: the final couplet of the Dies irae, which Fauré sets as a separate, quiet movement in place of the whole poem.
pleni sunt: Holy, holy, holy: the Mass movement of acclamation, which closes with an exultant Hosanna in the highest.
pleni sunt coeli: Holy, holy, holy: the Mass movement of acclamation, which closes with an exultant Hosanna in the highest.
polacca: A Polish walking dance in triple time that became a proud, ceremonial piece in Chopin's hands. Listen for its insistent rhythm and grand gestures.
Polka: A quick, bouncing couple dance in 2/4 time from 19th-century Bohemia.
Polonaise: A Polish walking dance in triple time that became a proud, ceremonial piece in Chopin's hands. Listen for its insistent rhythm and grand gestures.
Postlude: A closing passage after the main material, the opposite of a prelude. In a song it is the piano's part after the voice has finished, often summing up the mood.
Préambule: French for preamble: an opening piece in the manner of a prelude, such as the first piece of Schumann's Carnaval.
preparation: A passage that prepares an arrival, usually by dwelling on the dominant chord so that the return of the home key feels inevitable. It typically comes just before a recapitulation or a final return.
primary: The first main theme of a movement, heard in the home key; in sonata form it is the same as the first subject. When several ideas share the home key, analyses speak of a first group or primary zone.
primary group: The first main theme of a movement, heard in the home key; in sonata form it is the same as the first subject. When several ideas share the home key, analyses speak of a first group or primary zone.
primary section: The first main theme of a movement, heard in the home key; in sonata form it is the same as the first subject. When several ideas share the home key, analyses speak of a first group or primary zone.
primary theme: The first main theme of a movement, heard in the home key; in sonata form it is the same as the first subject. When several ideas share the home key, analyses speak of a first group or primary zone.
principal subject: The first main theme of a movement, heard in the home key; in sonata form it is the same as the first subject. When several ideas share the home key, analyses speak of a first group or primary zone.
Principal theme: The first main theme of a movement, heard in the home key; in sonata form it is the same as the first subject. When several ideas share the home key, analyses speak of a first group or primary zone.
program music: Instrumental music that tells a story or depicts a scene, idea or text named by the composer, such as a symphonic poem; the opposite of absolute music.
Programme music: Instrumental music that tells a story or depicts a scene, idea or text named by the composer, such as a symphonic poem; the opposite of absolute music.
Prologue: An opening movement that sets the scene, like the preface to a story.
Psalm: A setting of one of the 150 Psalms, the song texts of the Bible; Bernstein's Chichester Psalms sets several.
psalms: A setting of one of the 150 Psalms, the song texts of the Bible; Bernstein's Chichester Psalms sets several.
quam olim abrahae: The prayer sung while the bread and wine are brought to the altar. In a Requiem it begins Domine Jesu Christe and continues with the Hostias (Sacrifices and prayers).
Quartet: A work for four players. A piano quartet is for piano, violin, viola and cello; the commonest kind, the string quartet, has its own page.
Quintet: A work for five players. A string quintet adds a second viola or a second cello to the string quartet; a piano quintet or a clarinet quintet adds that instrument to a string quartet.
rapsodie: A one-movement piece in free form that moves through sharply contrasting moods as if improvised, sometimes on folk or national tunes, as in Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies.
Recall: A brief quotation of music heard earlier, often from a previous movement, inside the current one. The finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony begins by recalling each of the first three movements in turn.
recalling: A brief quotation of music heard earlier, often from a previous movement, inside the current one. The finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony begins by recalling each of the first three movements in turn.
recap: The return of the exposition's material with the second subject now in the home key.
Recapitulation: The return of the exposition's material with the second subject now in the home key.
Recapitulatory: Working like a recapitulation: earlier material comes back in the home key, in a piece that is not strictly in sonata form, such as a fugue.
recapitulatory section: Working like a recapitulation: earlier material comes back in the home key, in a piece that is not strictly in sonata form, such as a fugue.
Recitative: Singing that follows the rhythms of speech over a simple accompaniment, used in opera and oratorio to move the story along between arias. In instrumental music, such as the low strings at the start of the finale of Beethoven's Ninth, it means a passage that speaks without words.
recitativo: Singing that follows the rhythms of speech over a simple accompaniment, used in opera and oratorio to move the story along between arias. In instrumental music, such as the low strings at the start of the finale of Beethoven's Ninth, it means a passage that speaks without words.
Recordare: Remember, merciful Jesus: a quieter, pleading verse of the Dies irae; in Mozart's Requiem it is the longest movement and the first in triple time.
Refrain: The returning main tune of a rondo, labelled A.
region: Analysts' words for a stretch of music defined by its job or its key, such as the secondary theme zone or the closing area. The terms come largely from Sonata Theory (Hepokoski and Darcy), which divides an exposition into primary, transition, secondary and closing zones.
Register: The part of an instrument's or voice's range in which a note lies (low, middle or high), each with its own colour. On the organ and harpsichord the word can also mean a stop.
reh: Short for rehearsal letter: the capital letters (A, B, C) printed in an orchestral score so that players can start from an agreed place. Analyses borrow them as section names.
Rehearsal letter: Short for rehearsal letter: the capital letters (A, B, C) printed in an orchestral score so that players can start from an agreed place. Analyses borrow them as section names.
relative key: A major and a minor key that share the same key signature are relatives, such as C major and A minor or E-flat major and C minor. The relative major lies three semitones above its minor.
Relative major: A major and a minor key that share the same key signature are relatives, such as C major and A minor or E-flat major and C minor. The relative major lies three semitones above its minor.
relative minor: A major and a minor key that share the same key signature are relatives, such as C major and A minor or E-flat major and C minor. The relative major lies three semitones above its minor.
reminiscence: A brief quotation of music heard earlier, often from a previous movement, inside the current one. The finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony begins by recalling each of the first three movements in turn.
reprise: The point where earlier material, usually the opening theme, comes back, often in the home key and sometimes varied or shortened. In 18th-century usage a reprise can also simply mean a repeated section.
requiem aeternam: The opening chant of the Mass. In a Requiem it begins Requiem aeternam (Eternal rest grant them, O Lord), the words that give the work its name.
responsory: Deliver me, O Lord: a responsory sung after the Requiem Mass beside the coffin, asking for mercy at the Last Judgement. Fauré and Verdi include it, and it brings back the terror of the day of wrath.
restatement: The point where earlier material, usually the opening theme, comes back, often in the home key and sometimes varied or shortened. In 18th-century usage a reprise can also simply mean a repeated section.
Retransition: The end of the development, usually a long dominant preparation, that leads into the recapitulation.
Return: The point where earlier material, usually the opening theme, comes back, often in the home key and sometimes varied or shortened. In 18th-century usage a reprise can also simply mean a repeated section.
returns: The point where earlier material, usually the opening theme, comes back, often in the home key and sometimes varied or shortened. In 18th-century usage a reprise can also simply mean a repeated section.
Rex tremendae: King of tremendous majesty: the Dies irae verse addressed to God, which Mozart sets with mighty choral cries of Rex.
rhapsodie: A one-movement piece in free form that moves through sharply contrasting moods as if improvised, sometimes on folk or national tunes, as in Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies.
rhapsodies: A one-movement piece in free form that moves through sharply contrasting moods as if improvised, sometimes on folk or national tunes, as in Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies.
Rhapsody: A one-movement piece in free form that moves through sharply contrasting moods as if improvised, sometimes on folk or national tunes, as in Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies.
Ricercar: An early kind of fugue, serious in character, often with a subject in long notes; the name means to search out.
Rigaudon: A lively French Baroque dance in duple time with regular, even phrases.
Ritornello: Italian for little return: the passage for the full ensemble that opens a Baroque concerto movement and keeps coming back, often shortened and in other keys, between the solo sections. The final ritornello returns in the home key.
Roll: A fast stream of strokes on a drum or the timpani that makes a sustained sound, often swelling in a crescendo.
Romance: A simple lyrical piece of a tender, personal character, for voice or for instruments. As a movement title it usually marks a gentle, song-like slow movement.
romanza: A simple lyrical piece of a tender, personal character, for voice or for instruments. As a movement title it usually marks a gentle, song-like slow movement.
romanze: A simple lyrical piece of a tender, personal character, for voice or for instruments. As a movement title it usually marks a gentle, song-like slow movement.
Rotation: One pass through a series of themes in their original order. When a later section (a development, a recapitulation) runs through the same themes again in that order, it is a new rotation; the idea comes from Sonata Theory.
rounded binary: A two-part form, A and B, each half usually repeated: the first half moves away from the home key and the second returns to it. In rounded binary the opening material comes back near the end of the second half.
rounded binary form: A two-part form, A and B, each half usually repeated: the first half moves away from the home key and the second returns to it. In rounded binary the opening material comes back near the end of the second half.
Saltarello: A fast Italian leaping dance (saltare means to jump) in triple time; Mendelssohn ends his Italian Symphony with one.
Sanctus: Holy, holy, holy: the Mass movement of acclamation, which closes with an exultant Hosanna in the highest.
Sarabande: A slow, dignified court dance in triple time and one of the standard dances of the Baroque suite.
SATB: Short for soprano, alto, tenor and bass: a choir, or vocal writing, in four voices.
Scherzo: Italian for joke: a fast movement, usually in triple time, that took the minuet's place in symphonies, sonatas and quartets from Beethoven and Schubert on, normally with a contrasting trio in the middle. Chopin's four scherzos are large independent piano pieces, dark rather than playful.
second group: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
second subject: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
Second theme: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
second theme area: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
secondary: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
secondary area: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
secondary group: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
secondary idea: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
secondary section: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
secondary theme: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
secondary theme zone: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
senza sordino: A device fitted to an instrument to soften or change its sound. 'Con sordino' in a score means 'with the mute'; 'senza sordino' means without it.
Sequence: A short idea repeated at a higher or lower pitch, step by step, a common way to build momentum or to move between keys. In a Requiem the Sequence is something else: the medieval poem Dies irae.
sequential: A short idea repeated at a higher or lower pitch, step by step, a common way to build momentum or to move between keys. In a Requiem the Sequence is something else: the medieval poem Dies irae.
Serenade: Originally evening music performed in someone's honour. In the Classical and Romantic periods it is a light work in several movements for a small orchestra or wind band; as a single piece, a calm, song-like one.
serenata: Originally evening music performed in someone's honour. In the Classical and Romantic periods it is a light work in several movements for a small orchestra or wind band; as a single piece, a calm, song-like one.
Sextet: A work for six players; a string sextet has two violins, two violas and two cellos.
short connecting passage: A connecting passage that leads from one section or theme to the next, often changing key on the way; a link is usually a short one. In sonata form the bridge is the same as the transition.
Siciliano: A slow, lilting piece of Sicilian origin in 6/8 or 12/8, usually in a minor key, with a gently rocking rhythm.
sicilienne: A slow, lilting piece of Sicilian origin in 6/8 or 12/8, usually in a minor key, with a gently rocking rhythm.
Sinfonia: Italian for symphony, with two meanings. In Bach's keyboard music it is a three-part counterpart of the two-part invention; in 17th- and 18th-century orchestral music it is an instrumental piece that introduces an opera, cantata or suite, and after about 1800 it simply meant overture.
Sinfonia concertante: A Classical-era orchestral work in which two or more soloists contrast with the full orchestra, halfway between a symphony and a concerto.
Sinfonietta: A small symphony: shorter, lighter or for fewer players than a standard one.
Solo: A passage led by the soloist or soloists, with the rest of the ensemble lighter or silent. In a Baroque concerto the solo sections alternate with the ritornellos and carry the music to new keys.
Solo exposition: In a Classical concerto first movement, the second pass through the exposition, led by the soloist after the orchestra's version. Unlike the orchestral exposition it moves to the second key, and the soloist often adds new themes; this catalog also calls it Exposition 2.
soloist: A passage led by the soloist or soloists, with the rest of the ensemble lighter or silent. In a Baroque concerto the solo sections alternate with the ritornellos and carry the music to new keys.
soloists: A passage led by the soloist or soloists, with the rest of the ensemble lighter or silent. In a Baroque concerto the solo sections alternate with the ritornellos and carry the music to new keys.
Sonata: A work in three or four movements for one instrument, or for one instrument with piano, such as a violin or cello sonata. Its first movement is usually in sonata form.
Sonatina: A small sonata: shorter, lighter or technically easier than a full one, though often in the same forms.
sonatine: A small sonata: shorter, lighter or technically easier than a full one, though often in the same forms.
Song without words: A short, lyrical piano piece in which a melody sings over an accompaniment like a song without a singer; the name comes from Mendelssohn's collections.
songs without words: A short, lyrical piano piece in which a melody sings over an accompaniment like a song without a singer; the name comes from Mendelssohn's collections.
sordino: A device fitted to an instrument to soften or change its sound. 'Con sordino' in a score means 'with the mute'; 'senza sordino' means without it.
span: Analysts' words for a stretch of music defined by its job or its key, such as the secondary theme zone or the closing area. The terms come largely from Sonata Theory (Hepokoski and Darcy), which divides an exposition into primary, transition, secondary and closing zones.
standing on dominant: A passage that prepares an arrival, usually by dwelling on the dominant chord so that the return of the home key feels inevitable. It typically comes just before a recapitulation or a final return.
stanza: One verse of the poem in a song. In a strophic song every verse is sung to the same music, so each new strophe brings the tune back; in other songs the music changes from verse to verse.
Statement: One appearance of a theme or subject. First statement, second statement and so on count its appearances; a solo statement is one given to the soloist.
statements: One appearance of a theme or subject. First statement, second statement and so on count its appearances; a solo statement is one given to the soloist.
stretti: In a fugue, entries of the subject that overlap, each voice starting before the previous one has finished, so the texture grows denser; often saved for the end. Outside fugues, stretto (or stretta) can mean a faster closing passage.
Stretto: In a fugue, entries of the subject that overlap, each voice starting before the previous one has finished, so the texture grows denser; often saved for the end. Outside fugues, stretto (or stretta) can mean a faster closing passage.
string quintet: A work for five players. A string quintet adds a second viola or a second cello to the string quartet; a piano quintet or a clarinet quintet adds that instrument to a string quartet.
string sextet: A work for six players; a string sextet has two violins, two violas and two cellos.
Strophe: One verse of the poem in a song. In a strophic song every verse is sung to the same music, so each new strophe brings the tune back; in other songs the music changes from verse to verse.
Strophic: A song form in which every stanza (strophe) of the poem is sung to the same music.
strophic form: A song form in which every stanza (strophe) of the poem is sung to the same music.
strophic song: A song form in which every stanza (strophe) of the poem is sung to the same music.
Subdominant: The fourth degree of the scale and the chord built on it (F in C major). It leads away from the home key and often prepares the dominant.
Subject: The main theme of a fugue: a short melody stated by one voice alone at the start and then taken up by each of the other voices. In sonata-form analyses the word simply means theme, as in first subject and second subject.
subject entry: Each appearance of a fugue's subject in one of the voices. Middle entries come in other keys after the exposition; the final entry brings the subject back in the home key near the end.
subject group: Several themes or ideas that share a key and a job and are heard as one unit, such as all the home-key material at the start of an exposition. A rondo theme complex is the refrain together with its own internal parts.
subjects: The main theme of a fugue: a short melody stated by one voice alone at the start and then taken up by each of the other voices. In sonata-form analyses the word simply means theme, as in first subject and second subject.
subordinate area: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
subordinate theme: The contrasting theme, or group of themes, that follows the transition: in a new key in the exposition and back in the home key in the recapitulation. It is the same as the second subject and is often gentler or more song-like than the first.
Suite: A set of instrumental pieces played in sequence. The Baroque suite is a chain of dances (allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue and others); later suites gather numbers from a ballet or opera, or any related set.
Tarantella: A whirling southern Italian folk dance in fast 6/8 time. Listen for the relentless running rhythm.
tarentelle: A whirling southern Italian folk dance in fast 6/8 time. Listen for the relentless running rhythm.
te decet hymnus: The opening chant of the Mass. In a Requiem it begins Requiem aeternam (Eternal rest grant them, O Lord), the words that give the work its name.
Texture: How the musical lines are combined: one melody with accompaniment, several independent lines, or chords moving together; also how thick or thin the sound is. A texture change is often the easiest way to hear a new section begin.
thematic complex: Several themes or ideas that share a key and a job and are heard as one unit, such as all the home-key material at the start of an exposition. A rondo theme complex is the refrain together with its own internal parts.
thematic group: Several themes or ideas that share a key and a job and are heard as one unit, such as all the home-key material at the start of an exposition. A rondo theme complex is the refrain together with its own internal parts.
Theme: The tune stated at the start of a set of variations.
theme complex: Several themes or ideas that share a key and a job and are heard as one unit, such as all the home-key material at the start of an exposition. A rondo theme complex is the refrain together with its own internal parts.
Theme group: Several themes or ideas that share a key and a job and are heard as one unit, such as all the home-key material at the start of an exposition. A rondo theme complex is the refrain together with its own internal parts.
Through-composed: A song that follows the poem with new music as it goes instead of repeating one tune for every stanza, as in Schubert's Erlkönig.
Timbre: The character of a sound that lets us tell instruments and voices apart when they play the same note at the same loudness.
time: Labels such as 6/8 time give the metre, written like a fraction: the top number says how many notes of one value fill a bar, the bottom number says which value (4 a quarter note, 8 an eighth note). Cut time is 2/2: two broad beats to the bar.
Time signature: Labels such as 6/8 time give the metre, written like a fraction: the top number says how many notes of one value fill a bar, the bottom number says which value (4 a quarter note, 8 an eighth note). Cut time is 2/2: two broad beats to the bar.
timpani roll: A fast stream of strokes on a drum or the timpani that makes a sustained sound, often swelling in a crescendo.
tocata: From Italian toccare, to touch: a showpiece of fast, finger-driven passagework, mostly for keyboard, sometimes with fugal sections. Listen for the driving motion and the display of agility.
Toccata: From Italian toccare, to touch: a showpiece of fast, finger-driven passagework, mostly for keyboard, sometimes with fugal sections. Listen for the driving motion and the display of agility.
Tombeau: French for tomb: a memorial piece honouring someone who has died. Ravel revived the old genre in Le Tombeau de Couperin.
tonal area: Analysts' words for a stretch of music defined by its job or its key, such as the secondary theme zone or the closing area. The terms come largely from Sonata Theory (Hepokoski and Darcy), which divides an exposition into primary, transition, secondary and closing zones.
tone color: The character of a sound that lets us tell instruments and voices apart when they play the same note at the same loudness.
tone colour: The character of a sound that lets us tell instruments and voices apart when they play the same note at the same loudness.
Tonic: The home note and home chord of a key; a passage in the tonic is in the home key. Arriving on the tonic sounds like coming home.
Transition: The passage that carries the music from the first subject to the second, usually changing key on the way. Also called bridge.
transitional: A connecting passage that leads from one section or theme to the next, often changing key on the way; a link is usually a short one. In sonata form the bridge is the same as the transition.
trauermarsch: A slow march, usually in a minor key, that imitates the measured tread of a funeral procession; the third movement of Chopin's Second Piano Sonata is one.
tremens factus: Deliver me, O Lord: a responsory sung after the Requiem Mass beside the coffin, asking for mercy at the Last Judgement. Fauré and Verdi include it, and it brings back the terror of the day of wrath.
Trill: A rapid alternation between a note and the note next to it. A long trill often signals the end of a concerto cadenza.
Trio: The contrasting middle section of a minuet or scherzo movement.
Trio sonata: A Baroque piece for two melody instruments over a bass line with chords (continuo), usually played by four musicians despite the name. Bach's organ trio sonatas give the three lines to the right hand, the left hand and the feet.
Tuba mirum: The trumpet, scattering its wondrous sound: the verse of the Dies irae about the last trumpet; Mozart gives it to a solo trombone.
Tutti: Italian for all: the whole orchestra or choir together, as opposed to the soloist. In a concerto the tutti passages are where the orchestra takes over.
Unison: Everyone playing the same melody, at the same pitch or in octaves, instead of in harmony. A unison passage sounds bare and forceful.
valse: A turning couple dance in triple time from the German-speaking lands. Concert waltzes by Chopin, Brahms or Ravel keep its lilt and swing but are meant for listening.
valse allemande: A turning couple dance in triple time from the German-speaking lands. Concert waltzes by Chopin, Brahms or Ravel keep its lilt and swing but are meant for listening.
valse noble: A turning couple dance in triple time from the German-speaking lands. Concert waltzes by Chopin, Brahms or Ravel keep its lilt and swing but are meant for listening.
valses: A turning couple dance in triple time from the German-speaking lands. Concert waltzes by Chopin, Brahms or Ravel keep its lilt and swing but are meant for listening.
valzer: A turning couple dance in triple time from the German-speaking lands. Concert waltzes by Chopin, Brahms or Ravel keep its lilt and swing but are meant for listening.
var: A restatement of the theme with its melody, rhythm, texture or mode changed while its length and harmony are kept.
Variation: A restatement of the theme with its melody, rhythm, texture or mode changed while its length and harmony are kept.
verse: One verse of the poem in a song. In a strophic song every verse is sung to the same music, so each new strophe brings the tune back; in other songs the music changes from verse to verse.
Villanelle: Originally a light, rustic Italian song (villanella); later a simple song in pastoral style.
Vocalise: A song without words, sung on a single vowel; Rachmaninoff's Vocalise is often played by instruments.
Waltz: A turning couple dance in triple time from the German-speaking lands. Concert waltzes by Chopin, Brahms or Ravel keep its lilt and swing but are meant for listening.
waltzes: A turning couple dance in triple time from the German-speaking lands. Concert waltzes by Chopin, Brahms or Ravel keep its lilt and swing but are meant for listening.
walzer: A turning couple dance in triple time from the German-speaking lands. Concert waltzes by Chopin, Brahms or Ravel keep its lilt and swing but are meant for listening.
wiegenlied: A lullaby: a gentle piece, often in 6/8, rocking over a simple accompaniment that often alternates just two chords.
Zone: Analysts' words for a stretch of music defined by its job or its key, such as the secondary theme zone or the closing area. The terms come largely from Sonata Theory (Hepokoski and Darcy), which divides an exposition into primary, transition, secondary and closing zones.

Tempo and expression markings

310 markings

a capriccio: At whim: take the tempo freely, as the player's fancy leads.
a due: intended as a duet; for two voices or instruments; together; two instruments are to play in unison after a solo passage for one of the instruments.
à la: French: in the style of, like Italian alla; à la polka means in polka style.
a tempo: In time: return to the steady main tempo after the music has slowed down or sped up.
a tempo di: In the time of: tempo di menuetto means at the speed and feel of a minuet, tempo di valse at waltz speed.
accelerando: Getting gradually faster.
ad libitum: Latin, at liberty: the speed and manner are left to the performer, who may play freely.
adagietto: Fairly slowly (but faster than adagio).
adagio: Slowly and slower than andante.
affetto: Affection, emotion; con affetto means with warmth and feeling.
affettuoso: Tenderly, with warmth.
agitato: Agitated.
agité: French: agitated, restless.
alcuna licenza: Used in con alcuna licenza, meaning (play) with some freedom in the time, see rubato.
alla: To the, in the manner of (al before masculine nouns, alla before feminine).
alla breve: In cut time: count two half-note beats in a bar instead of four quarter-note beats.
alla marcia: In the style of a march.
alla polacca: In Polish style: like a polonaise, the stately Polish dance in three beats.
alla tedesca: In the German style (tedesca means German).
alla turca: In Turkish style: imitating Turkish military (Janissary) band music.
allegramente: Brightly and cheerfully, at about the speed of an allegro.
allegretto: A little lively, moderately fast.
allegretto vivace: A moderately quick tempo.
allegro: Cheerful or brisk; but commonly interpreted as lively, fast.
allegro moderato: close to, but not quite allegro (116-120 bpm).
allegro vivace: at least slightly faster and livelier than allegro, but always at its range (and no faster than vivace) (124-156 bpm).
amabile: Amiable, pleasant: gentle and sweet in manner.
amoroso: Loving.
andante: At a walking pace (i.e. at a moderate tempo).
andante moderato: between andante and moderato (at a moderate walking speed) (80-108 bpm).
andantino: Slightly faster than andante (but earlier it is sometimes used to mean slightly slower than andante).
anima: Soul; con anima: with feeling.
animato: Animated, lively.
animé: French: animated, lively.
aperto: Open: allegro aperto is a fast tempo with broad, clear phrasing.
appassionato: Passionate.
arietta: A short aria.
assai: Much, very much.
assez: French: fairly, rather; assez vif means fairly lively.
aufgeregt: German: agitated, excited.
ausdruck: German: expression; mit Ausdruck means with expression.
äußerst: German: extremely.
avec: French: with.
balladenmässig: German: in the manner of a ballad, a song that tells a story.
barbaro: Barbarous, wild; Bartók used it in the title of his Allegro barbaro.
bedächtig: German: unhurried and deliberate, with care.
behaglich: German: comfortable and easy, like Italian comodo.
ben: Well, fully: ben marcato means well marked, ben moderato properly moderate.
bewegt: Moved, with speed.
bewegung: German: motion; in ruhig fließender Bewegung means in a calm, flowing motion.
bien: French: well, very; bien rythmé means with a well-marked rhythm.
bizzarro: Bizarre, fantastical, whimsical.
brillante: Brilliantly, with sparkle. Play in a showy and spirited style.
brio: Vigour; usually in con brio: with spirit or vigour.
brioso: Vigorous, full of spirit, the same as con brio.
calme: French: calm, tranquil.
calmo: Calm.
caloroso: Warm, passionate.
cantabile: In a singing style. In instrumental music, a style of playing that imitates the way the human voice might express the music, with a measured tempo and flexible legato.
cantante: Singing: in a singing style, like cantabile.
capriccioso: Capricious, unpredictable, volatile.
capricieux: French: capricious, unpredictable.
come prima: As before, usually meaning back to an earlier tempo.
commodo: Old spelling of comodo: at a comfortable, unhurried speed.
comodo: Comfortable (i.e. at moderate speed); also, allegro comodo, tempo comodo, etc.
compiacevole: Agreeable, pleasing.
con: With; used in very many musical directions, for example con allegrezza (with liveliness), con calma (calmly lit. 'with calm'); (see also col and colla).
con brio: with vigor.
con grazia: with grace, or gracefully.
con moto: Italian for "with movement"; can be combined with a tempo indication, e.g., Andante con moto.
concentré: French: concentrated, inward and absorbed.
d'affetto: Affection, emotion; con affetto means with warmth and feeling.
décidé: French: decided, determined.
deciso: Decided, firm.
delicatezza: Delicacy; con delicatezza means delicately and lightly.
di molto: Very much: allegro di molto means very fast, the same as allegro molto.
doch: German: yet, but.
dolce: Sweet: play sweetly and gently.
doloroso: Sorrowful, plaintive.
doppio movimento: Double movement: the music goes twice as fast as the section before.
doucement: French: sweet, soft and gentle (doucement: sweetly, softly).
douloureux: French: sorrowful, painful.
doux: French: sweet, soft and gentle (doucement: sweetly, softly).
durchaus: German: entirely, all the way through.
durchweg: German: throughout, without exception; durchweg leise means soft the whole way.
düster: German: dark, gloomy.
einfach: German: simple, plain.
elegiaco: Elegiac: mournful, like a lament.
empfunden: German: felt, played with feeling.
en animant: French: becoming livelier, gradually speeding up.
energico: Energetic, strong.
energisch: German: energetic, firm.
entschieden: German: decided, resolute.
espressione: Expression; e.g. con (gran, molta) espressione: with (great, much) expression.
espressivo: (Italian) Expressive.
etwas: German: somewhat, a little; etwas langsamer means a little slower.
expressif: French: expressive.
fantasia: A piece not adhering to any strict musical form; can also be used in con fantasia: with imagination.
fantasque: French: whimsical, fanciful.
feierlich: Solemn, solemnly.
feroce: Ferocious, fierce.
feurig: German: fiery.
finale: The last movement of a multi-movement work.
fließend: German: flowing, smooth.
fließender: German: flowing, smooth.
forte: Loud.
franc: French: frank, direct, open.
frei im zeitmaß: German: free in tempo, so the player may bend the speed.
frenetico: Frenzied, frantic.
frisch: German: fresh, brisk.
fuga: Italian spelling of fugue.
funebre: Funeral; often seen as marcia funebre (funeral march), indicating a stately and plodding tempo.
fuoco: Fire; con fuoco: with fire, in a fiery manner.
furioso: Furious.
gemächlich: German: unhurried, at a leisurely pace.
gemächlichen: German: unhurried, at a leisurely pace.
gemächlicher: German: unhurried, at a leisurely pace.
gemäßigt: German: moderate, held to a moderate speed.
gemessen: German: measured, at a steady, even pace.
gentile: Gentle.
getragen: German: sustained and solemn, at a stately pace.
giocoso: Playful.
gioioso: Joyful, with joy.
giusto: Exact, right; allegro giusto is a fast tempo held steady at its proper speed.
gran: Great, large (short for grande); con gran espressione means with great expression.
grande: Great, large (short for grande); con gran espressione means with great expression.
grandioso: Grand, solemn.
grave: Slow and serious.
grazioso: Graceful.
guerriero: Warlike, martial.
hastig: German: hasty, hurried.
im tempo: German: in tempo; alone it means back to the main speed, and im Tempo eines Ländlers means at the speed of a Ländler.
impetuoso: Impetuous, rushing forward.
in modo d'una: In the manner of: in modo d'una marcia means like a march.
in modo di: In the manner of: in modo d'una marcia means like a march.
innig: German: heartfelt, intimate (mit innigem Ausdruck: with heartfelt expression).
innigem: German: heartfelt, intimate (mit innigem Ausdruck: with heartfelt expression).
inquieto: Restless, uneasy.
intime: French: intimate, inward and quiet.
intimissimo: Very intimate: with deep, private feeling, very tenderly.
introduzione: Introduction.
ironico: Ironic, mocking.
kräftig: German: strong, vigorous.
l'istesso tempo: The same tempo: keep the beat at the same speed even though the time signature changes.
lamentoso: Lamenting, mournfully.
langsam: Slowly.
langsamer: German: slower.
largamente: Broadly, and so rather slowly, in the spirit of largo.
larghetto: Somewhat slow; not as slow as largo.
largo: Broad (i.e. slow).
lebhaft: Briskly, lively.
lebhafte halbe: German: lively half notes, a lively speed with the beat felt in half notes (minims).
legato: Joined: play the notes smoothly, with no gaps between them.
léger: French: light, nimble.
leggiero: Light, lightly.
leicht: German: light, lightly.
leidenschaftlich: German: passionate, passionately.
leidenschaftlichem: German: passionate, passionately.
leise: German: soft, quiet.
lent: French: slow.
lente: French: slow.
lentissimo: Very slow.
lento: Slow.
lugubre: Lugubrious, mournful.
lustig: German: merry, cheerful.
ma non tanto: But not so much: adagio ma non tanto is slow, but not very slow.
ma non troppo: But not too much: allegro ma non troppo is fast, but not too fast.
maestoso: Majestic, stately.
mais: French: but.
majestueusement: French: majestically, like Italian maestoso.
malinconico: Melancholy, sad and brooding.
marcato: Marked: give each note an accent so it stands out.
marcia: A march; alla marcia means in the manner of a march.
markiert: German: marked, accented, like Italian marcato.
marziale: Martial: in a military style, solemn and fierce.
mäßig: German: moderate, moderately.
mehr: German: more.
melancholisch: German: melancholy (mit melancholischem Ausdruck: with melancholy expression).
melancholischem: German: melancholy (mit melancholischem Ausdruck: with melancholy expression).
meno: Less, as in meno mosso (less movement, so slower) or poco meno presto (a little less fast).
meno mosso: Less movement: go slower than the music just before.
menuet: French spelling of minuet.
menuetto: Italian spelling of minuet, the dance movement.
mesto: Mournful, sad.
minuetto: Italian spelling of minuet, the dance movement.
misterioso: Mysterious.
mit: German: with.
mit einigem pomp: German: with some pomp, a little grand and ceremonial.
mit feuer: German: with fire, like Italian con fuoco.
mit größter energie: German: with the greatest energy.
mit gutem humor: German: with humour, in a witty, whimsical way.
mit humor: German: with humour, in a witty, whimsical way.
moderato: Moderate; often combined with other terms, usually relating to tempo; for example, allegro moderato.
modéré: French: moderate, at a moderate speed (modérément: moderately).
modérément: French: moderate, at a moderate speed (modérément: moderately).
moins: French: less; moins vif means less lively.
molt'espressione: Much expression (molta espressione, shortened): play very expressively.
molto: Very.
molto allegro: at least slightly faster and livelier than allegro, but always at its range (and no faster than vivace) (124-156 bpm).
mosso: Moved, with motion; un poco mosso asks for a little more movement than the tempo word alone.
moto: Motion; usually seen as con moto, meaning with motion or quickly.
moto perpetuo: Perpetual motion: a fast, even stream of notes that hardly ever stops.
mouvement: French: motion, tempo; mouvement de menuet means at the speed of a minuet.
mouvementé: French: full of movement, bustling and lively.
mystérieux: French: mysterious.
nicht: Not.
nicht zu: German: not too; nicht zu schnell means not too fast.
noch: German: still, even; noch zurückhaltend means still holding back.
non: Not. Almost always inside ma non troppo, 'but not too much'.
orgoglioso: Proud, haughty.
ostinato: Obstinate, persistent: often a short pattern repeated again and again.
passionato: Passionate.
però: But, however; ma però con moto means but still with motion.
perpetuum mobile: Perpetual motion: a fast, even stream of notes that hardly ever stops.
pesante: Heavy, ponderous.
peu à peu: French: little by little, gradually.
phantastisch: German: fantastic, full of fantasy.
piacevole: Pleasant, agreeable.
pianissimo: Very soft, softer than piano.
più: More.
più mosso: More movement: go faster than the music just before.
più tosto: Rather, leaning towards: andante più tosto allegretto is an andante that leans towards allegretto, so a little quicker.
pizzicato: Plucked: string players pluck the strings with a finger instead of using the bow.
placido: Placid, quiet and calm.
poco: A little, as in poco più allegro (a little faster).
precipitato: Headlong, rushing.
presque: French: almost, nearly.
prestissimo: Extremely quickly, as fast as possible.
presto: Very quickly.
profondément: French: deeply; profondément calme means deeply calm.
quasi: Almost (e.g. quasi recitativo almost a recitative in an opera, or quasi una fantasia almost a fantasia).
rasch: German: quick.
religioso: Religious, devout.
rêveusement: French: dreamily.
risoluto: Resolute.
ritmato: Rhythmic: with a clear, marked rhythm.
rondeau: French spelling of rondo.
rondo: A musical form in which a certain section returns repeatedly, interspersed with other sections: ABACA is a typical structure or ABACABA.
rubato: Robbed time: the player may stretch and push the tempo for expression.
ruhevoll: German: peaceful.
ruhig: German: calm, peaceful.
rythmé: French: rhythmic, with the rhythm clearly marked.
sans lenteur: French: without slowness, so keep it moving and do not drag.
scherzando: Playfully.
scherzoso: Playful, joking.
schleppend: In a dragging manner, to drag; usually nicht schleppen ("don't drag"), paired with nicht eilen ("don't hurry") in Gustav Mahler's scores.
schnell: Fast.
sehnsuchtsvoll: German: full of longing, yearning.
sehr: Very.
semplice: Simple.
sempre: Always: keep doing what the marking says all the way through, as in piano sempre (soft throughout).
sentimento: Feeling, emotion; con sentimento means with feeling.
serioso: Serious, in a serious manner.
singend: German: singing, like Italian cantabile.
so rasch wie möglich: German: as fast as possible.
soave: Smooth, gentle.
soggetti: Subjects. A fuga a quattro soggetti is a fugue on four subjects.
sognando: Dreaming, dreamily.
sonorité large: French: a broad, full tone.
sostenuto: Sustained, lengthened.
souple: French: supple, flexible.
spianato: Smooth, even.
spielend: German: playing, playful.
spirito: Spirit, con spirito: with spirit, with feeling.
spiritoso: Spirited.
stravaganza: Extravagance; con stravaganza means in a wild, eccentric way.
strepitoso: Noisy, forceful.
stringendo: Tightening: getting gradually faster, pressing forward.
stürmisch: German: stormy.
subito: Suddenly, at once.
tanto: So much. Usually in ma non tanto, 'but not so much'.
tardante: Slowing, holding back; non tardante means without dragging.
tema: Theme. Tema con variazioni means theme with variations.
tempestoso: Stormy, tempestuous.
tempo: Time (i.e. the overall speed of a piece of music).
tempo d'andante: In the time of: tempo di menuetto means at the speed and feel of a minuet, tempo di valse at waltz speed.
tempo di: In the time of: tempo di menuetto means at the speed and feel of a minuet, tempo di valse at waltz speed.
tempo giusto: Right time: play at the speed the style of the music calls for, steady and strict.
tempo i: First tempo: go back to the speed the movement started with.
tempo primo: First tempo: go back to the speed the movement started with.
teneramente: Tenderly.
tosto: Immediately.
tranquillissimo: Very calm, very peaceful.
tranquillo: Calm, peaceful.
tratto: Dragged, drawn out; non troppo tratto means not too drawn out.
tremolo: Trembling: one note repeated very fast, or two notes alternated very fast.
très: French: very.
très large: French: very broad, slow and dignified (like Italian largo).
tristamente: Sad, wistful (tristamente: sadly).
triste: Sad, wistful (tristamente: sadly).
troppo: Too much; usually seen as non troppo, meaning moderately or, when combined with other terms, not too much, such as allegro [ma] non troppo (fast but not too fast).
tumultueux: French: tumultuous, turbulent.
un poco: A little.
und: German: and.
ungeduldig: German: impatient.
variazioni: Variations, con variazioni: with variations/changes.
vif: French: lively and quick.
vivace: Lively, up-tempo.
vivacissimamente: Very lively, very quickly.
vivacissimo: Very lively.
vivo: Lively, quick and intense.
volando: Flying: quick and light, as if in flight.
vorzutragen: German: to be performed, closing a marking that says how, as in leidenschaftlich vorzutragen (to be played passionately).
wie: German: as, like.
wie aus der ferne: German: as if heard from far away.
wuchtig: German: weighty, heavy, with strong emphasis.
zart: German: tender, delicate.
ziemlich: Fairly, quite, rather.
zingarese: In Gypsy style: in the manner of Romani (Gypsy) music; alla zingarese means the same.
zurückhaltend: German: holding back, slowing down.