Download Musical Terms: Musicians use certain words and phrases (that may

Musical Terms:
Musicians use certain words and phrases (that may have a different meaning in
common usage) to describe musical elements.
Music is made of pitches (notes or tones) that can be altered to be higher or lower.
Pitches can also be altered by duration; the length of time a pitch lasts. Pitch can also be
altered in terms of dynamics and tone quality (timbre).
Scales and Intervals are the building blocks of musical language. An interval is the
distance between any two pitches. Intervals are said to be consonant or
dissonant…though our concepts of consonance and dissonance can and have changed
over time and through different cultures. The Octave is a special kind of interval that has
a 2:1 frequency ratio. The two pitches that make up this interval can sound remarkably
similar and have been referred to as having the quality of “auditory duplication”. Scales
are the way pitches are organized between octaves. Western cultures often use a sevennote scale (called either Major or Minor) or a twelve note scale (called Chromatic). Other
cultures may use different divisions of the octave. Ancient Greece used a series of
different scales called Modes: scales that were used in western music throughout the
Middle ages and the Renaissance. We still use them: the Major scale is the Ionian mode
and the Minor scale is (more or less) the Aolian mode. Other scales used include a Whole
Tone scale, Octatonic scale (eight notes) and Pentatonic scale (five notes).
The Four Basic Elements of Music (according to Aaron Copland, among others):
Rhythm Melody Harmony Tone (timbre)
Rhythm
Rhythm is the way pitches are organized in time. Rhythm can be relatively simple
as in a march; a march has a regular, even and symmetrical rhythm that consists of strong
beats in groups of two or four. Rhythm can also be quite complex as a Stravinski
composition or a jazz improvisation. Altering rhythm can change simple musical
elements into melody. A descending major scale, rhythmically manipulated so that some
notes are longer or shorter than others, can become the Christmas carol “Joy to the
World”.
One important element of rhythm is tempo: the speed that music travels through
time. Musicians use a number of terms to designate tempo, and many are in Italian. Some
commonly used terms is below:
Adagio
Lento
Largo
Larghetto
Andante
Moderato
Allegro
Presto
Prestissimo
Quite slow
Also quite slow
Slow
A little Largo…a little less slow
a moving tempo…moderate speed
Moderate
Fast
Quite fast
Very fast
Terms that modify tempo: e.g. Allegro ma non troppo; Fast but not too much.
Molto
Much
Poco
a little
Piu
more
Meno
less
Ma non troppo
not too much
Accelerando
Ritardando
Fermata
Rubato
to speed up
to slow down
a stop, often a note or chard that is held for a long time
Fluctuating tempo
Meter is the organization of beats or musical pulses where some beats are stronger than
others. The strong beats are said to be accents. Syncopation is where a normally
unaccented beat is given an accent. Meter is usually (though not always) thought of as
duple or triple: Duple (two) as in “She’ll be Comin’ ‘round the Mountain when She
Comes” or “Auld Lang Syne” or a march; triple as in a waltz or “The Star Spangled
Banner”.
Tempo (speed), pitch (high or low), duration (long or short) and accent are all parts of
language.
Melody
Melody is the organization of pitches and note durations into a musically coherent
(expressive) order. Melodies are often organized into segments called phrases. Phrases
are similar to sentence structures in language. Themes and motives are melodies or
melodic fragments that are usually used as a building block for a piece of music: The
opening of the fifth symphony by Beethoven is a good example. Not really much of a
melody per se, the four-note motive is used as the essential musical idea for virtually all
of the first movement. Cadence is a term for a musical ending point…either of a phrase,
melody, movement or verse.
Harmony
Harmony is the combination of two or more simultaneous sounds. Three or more
notes sounding together is often called a chord (a triad is specifically a three note chord).
Musicians refer to several different kinds of harmonic textures; monophony is an
unaccompanied melodic line as in Gregorian chant. Homophony is a melody with simple
accompaniment. Polyphony is the presence of multiple melodic lines. The art of
polyphonic writing became known as counterpoint. Harmony, because it is made up of
various intervals can be different degrees of consonance or dissonance. Often time they
help define for us a sense of key. Key refers to a central tone or pitch, which seems for us
to provide a natural ending point for a musical thought. The pitch that is the recipient of
this kind of musical power gives us the name of our key or tonal center. Another word for
key is tonality.