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USEFUL VOCABULARY FOR TALKING AND WRITING ABOUT MUSIC
Melody
-individual pitches and how they relate to each other
-motive: a musical idea you can identify, (can involve more than melody or another
element altogether), usually a brief segment that is repeated in some way; examples
include the Nokia cell phone tune; the “ta-ta-ta-TAA” of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony,
the Beatles line “she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah”
-theme: a main idea, usually melodic, e.g. the Pink Panther Theme
-phrase: part of a melodic line that has some sense of closure in itself, line a phrase o in
speech
-contour: the shape of the melody or of any line in music (ascending, descending, arching
etc.)
-disjunct or angular vs. conjunct or smoothly connected (large intervals/leaps vs. more
stepwise motion)
-rhythmically simple (many of the same rhythmic values/durations) vs. rhythmically
complex, varied, or irregular (a mix of rhythmic values/durations)
-ornamentation: decorative short notes that accentuate a note of longer duration, like a
musical filigree
Instrumentation
-strings, wind instruments (woodwinds, brass), continuo, voice(s), percussion; sections,
solo instruments
-individual instruments and their timbres (tone colors), or groups of instruments and their
timbres
-playing technique or form of attach: plucked, tongues, legato, staccato, arpeggiated
(playing “broken chords”—one pitch at a time, usually in quick succession), sharp attack,
gentle playing, etc.
-timbre (tone quality or color), including vocal timbre: full, thin, breathy, round, strident,
mellow, light, heavy, deep, buzzing, nasal, throaty, shimmering, dark, piercing, distant,
strongly projected, dark, covered, smooth, rough, etc.
Rhythm
-rhythm: a pattern of durations
-rhythmic motive: a rhythmic pattern that is used recurrently
-duration
-the beat (the general pulse)
-a beat (in musical meter, one unit, e.g. one count or tap of the foot)
-meter: how the beat is organized within larger patterns, with strong beats and weak
beats. A “triple meter” has a repeating pattern of one strong beat and two weak beats; a
“duple meter” has a pattern of alternating strong beats and weak beats.
-upbeat: musical moment that gives you the sense that a very strong beat and articulative
point in the music will come; this term can refer to a single weak beat or, on a larger
scale, to an entire phrase that gives you the sense it is moving to the beginning of new
section that begins with strong sense of weight
-tempo: steady, shifting, agitated, accelerating, expansive, leisurely, hurried, etc.
Texture
-technical terms to describe different types of texture:
melody and accompaniment
choral—multiple voices singing together
imitative texture—multiple voices play or sing the same melody but each beginning at a
different point in time, interweaving with one another
counterpoint—two or more melodies playing or singing against one another, mostly
“note-for-note,” without the strong sense of hierarchy between melody and
accompaniment
homophonic—all voices sing or play the same melody with the same rhythm
heterophonic—voices sing or play exactly the same rhythm but with varying melodies
polyphonic—voices sing or play different rhythms and melodies
--modifiers to describe texture:
lush, full, sparse, muddy, clear, delicate, heavy, light, effervescent etc.
-continuous vs. disjunct
-how many sections, phrases, or groupings? How much continuity exists between them?
Dynamics
loud
versus
soft
fortissimo—forte—mezzo-forte—mezzo-piano—piano—pianissimo
crescendo—becoming louder
descrescendo/diminuendo—becoming softer
accent—when a note or chord is played suddenly loudly, but surrounded by quieter notes
How do dynamics help to shape phrases and lines? How do they help to bring emphasis
to particular notes or passages of music?
Harmony
consonance—the effect produced by two or more notes played together or in immediate
succession, when the combination sounds stable
dissonance—the effect produced by two or more notes sounded together or in immediate
succession, when the combination sounds unstable and in need of resolution to a
consonance