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Choral Music Glossary
A cappella – without accompaniment
A tempo – to go back to the original tempo
Absolute pitch – to be able to sing a note without hearing the pitch on an instrument syn. perfect pitch
Accelerando – to gradually get faster
Accent – a type of articulation, that gives added emphasis to a note
Accidental – a sharp, flat, or natural that alters a pitch; makes a pitch higher or lower
Accompaniment – instrumental support added to a vocal piece
Alla breve – cut time, or 2/2
Alto – the lowest of the female voice parts
Arpeggio – do-mi-sol-do-sol-mi-do
Arranger – takes an existing piece of music and makes it accessible for a variety of ensembles
Articulation – the way in which you sing/play the notes
Balance – the ratio of volume between vocal or instrumental parts; equality of volume
Ballad – a song that tells a story; is usually slow in the musical theater genre
Bar line – is used to separate and organize measures
Bass – the lowest of the male vocal parts
Baton – a long piece of wood or plastic used by a conductor to keep time
Beat – the pulse in music
Blend – uniformity of sound
Baritone – the middle of the three male vocal parts
Belting – sole use of the chest voice register when singing
Cacophony – noise, usually loud and uproarious, sometimes harsh or discordant
Caesura – a break in the music
Canon – a melody that repeats, with each section having a staggered start
Castrato – a male whose testicles were removed in order to retain his soprano and alto range during 16th-19th
centuries, during those times in which women were banded from performing and singing on stage
Chest voice – the louder often belty quality vocal register
Chromatic – consisting of half-steps
Clefs – symbols used to tell you how to read the notes of the staff; two examples are treble clef used for higher
voices and instruments and bass clef used for lower voices and instruments
Coda – added measures at end of a piece; also a symbol
Compound meter – meters that have beats subdivided into threes
Con – Italian for with
Consonance – harmonies that are pleasing to the ear
Crescendo – to gradually get louder
Composer – the person who writes the music
Da capo – Italian for from the beginning
Dal segno – Italian for from the sign
Decrescendo – to gradually get softer
Diaphragm – the bowl shaped muscle that is used to control breathing
Diction – the way we say the words
Diminish – to lessen in volume
Diminuendo – to gradually get softer, usually to a greater degree than a decrescendo
Diphthong – two vowel sounds in the same syllable
Dissonance – harmonies that clash
Divisi – when your section dividess into two or more parts
Dolce – Italian for sweetly
DS al coda – Italian for from the sign to the coda
Duet – when two instruments or voices sing or play together
Dynamics – the loudness and softness of music
Elision – joining two vowel sounds together in the same syllable; putting the ending consonant of a word at the
beginning of the word that follows it
Falsetto – refers to the male register that is high; the male fake voice
Fermata – a symbol that tells you to hold until indicated by the conductor to go on
Flat – to be below the pitch; an accidental that alters a pitch a half step lower
Forte – Italian for loud
Fortissimo – Italian for very loud
Fugue – a complex canon that involves a melody sung in sequence where each part begins at a different time in
a different key
Grand staff – a staff that is joined by a bracket that consists of a treble staff and a bass staff; usually used to
notate piano music
Half step – the smallest interval we sing (in Western music)
Harmony – the secondary pitches that embellish the melody
Head voice – the lighter upper vocal register in males and females
Homophony – when the words and rhythm of all sections are the same
Interval – the distance between two pitches
Intonation – state of being in tune; not flat or sharp
Key signature – the group of sharps of flats at the beginning of a musical piece that tell you which pitches are
raised or lowered; tells you where Do is; tells you the tonal center of a piece of music
Legato – smooth and flowing
Libretto – the text or story that is apart of a musical work; in musical theater this in the spoken lines; in opera
this is the play that has been set to music
Literal translation – a word for word translation of a foreign text that does not fit the notes and rhythms in a
piece of music
Madrigal – an a cappella piece, usually sung by a small group written between 1600-1750.
Maestro – the conductor
Major scale – the sequence of whole and half steps that make up do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do; or the sequence of
WWHWWWH beginning on any pitch
Marcato – the strongest type of accent
Measure – separated by barlines, used to organize the music on the staff
Melisma – a sequence where the pitches change, but the vowel sound stays the same; also known as a “run”
Melody – the main musical theme in a musical piece or song
Meter – tells you how to count the music; defines rhythmic structure
Metronome marking – the number of beats per minute
Mezzo-forte – Italian for medium loud
Mezzo-piano – Italian for medium soft
Mezzo-soprano – the middle of the three female voices; can also be referred to as a second soprano
Molto – Italian for very
Musicality – the combination of technique and expression in music
Natural – an accidental used to restore a pitch its previous state
Octave – an interval that is eight steps apart; Do (low) to Do (high)
Octavo – the printed choral music
Phrase – a musical sentence or idea
Pianissimo – Italian for very soft
Piano – Italian for soft; the colloquial term for the instrument also known as the pianoforte
Pianoforte – the instrument that contains strings and hammers which hit those strings to produce sound; it used
most often in accompanying vocal and choral music; a dynamic which means soft, then immediately loud
Pitch – the highness or lowness of musical sounds
Piu – Italian for more
Poco a poco – Italian for little by little
Polyphony – when the words and rhythm of each vocal section occur at different times
Publisher – is responsible for the printing, copyright, distribution, and marketing of music
Pure vowel – found in languages like Italian and Latin and often used to teach blend and diction in vocal and
choral music; ee-eh-ah-aw-oo
Quasi – Italian for sort of; almost
Rallentando – to gradually slow down; usually to a greater degree than a ritardando
Range – the highest note to the lowest note; can be referred to in music or with the voice
Register – a range of pitches in the human voice
Relative pitch – the ability to relate pitches to the tonal memory; can range from near absolute pitch to nearly no
relative memory at all
Repertoire – a body of music that has been performed; a body of music that is able to be performed by a
particular group
Rhythm – the series and length note values in music
Ritardando – to gradually slow down; usually abbreviated rit.
Rubato – Italian for freely
Scale – a sequence of whole and half steps that make the same pattern beginning on any pitch
Senza – Italian for without
Sforzando – a dynamic term indicating loud-soft-loud
Sharp – to be above the pitch; an accidental that alters a pitch a half step higher
Simple meter -- meters that have beats subdivided into twos
Singing translation – the translation that is used to fit the existing notes and rhythms in a piece of music; it
often does not capture the correct meaning of the text
Slur – a symbol in music used to indicate legato
Solfege – a system of syllables used for sight-singing; do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do
Soli – when a section in the ensemble has a solo part
Solo – when an individual in the ensemble has a part to be performed alone
Song – a musical piece that has words
Soprano – the highest of the female voice categories
Sostenuto – an articulation that is very sustained; uber-legato
Staccato – Italian term used to indicate the articulation separate and detached
Staff – the five lines and four spaces that music is written on
Subito – Italian for suddenly
Syncopation – a rhythmic technique where the emphasis is on the up-beat or weak beat
Subdivision – dividing a rhythm down into a smaller part
Tacet – a period of time where a section or group of instruments do not play or sing
Tempo – the fastness and slowness of music; the speed of music
Tie – a rhythmic symbol used to join two note values resulting in a longer lenth
Tenor – the highest of the three male vocal parts
Tenuto – an articulation indicating that the note should be given full length or a lean
Tessitura – when the majority of the pitches fall in a piece of music; either high or low
Timbre – the tone or color of an instrument or voice that makes it recognizable to the human ear
Time signature – the tool at the beginning of a piece of music that tells you how to count; it usually looks like a
fraction and consists of two numbers
Tone quality – the quality of the sound
Tonal memory – the ability to remember a series of pitches
Treble – a clef used to notate pitches on the staff for higher voice and instruments; a general term used to
describe higher voice and instruments
Tuning point – a unison pitch arrived at after a period of harmony
Tutti – Italian for all
Unison – when the ensemble of a section are all singing the same pitches at the same time
Vibrato – the natural vibration of the sound in singing or playing an instrument
Vocalize – a vocal warm-up or exercise
Voicing – the voices to be used in a piece of music; SATB, SSA, TTB, etc.
Whole step – the interval that is make up of two half steps; i.e. do-re is a whole step