Glossary: The Language of Music

From the California Framework for Visual and Performing Arts

atonality  The absence of tonality or of a tonal center.

baroque music  A style of European music developed between about 1600 and 1750. This exuberant and emotional style of music was explored in opera by Claudio Monteverdi and in the concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi.

chord  The simultaneous combination of at least three different pitches.

classical music  A style of art music of any culture, as distinguished from folk or popular music or jazz; European music of the classical period, composed from about 1750 to 1825. Works by Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven exemplify this style.

contemporary  Music or art that is current. In addition, artist, musicians, or composers who lived during the same historical periods as each other are known as contemporaries.

dynamics  The volume of sound; the loudness or softness of a musical passage.

elements of music  The sensory components used to create and talk about works of music. These components are dynamics, form, harmony, pitch, rhythm, tempo, texture, and timbre (see individual entries listed in alphabetical order).

expression  A quality that accounts for the specific emotional effect of music.

folk music  Traditional music that has evolved through the process of aural transmission. Well-known American practitioners of this style of music are Woody Guthrie and Jean Ritchie. Alan Lomax began recording the folk music of the Appalachian region during the 1930’s.

form  The design of music, incorporating repetition, contrast, unity, and variety.

harmonic progressions  A succession of individual chords or harmonies which form larger units of phrases, sections, or compositions.

harmony  The vertical blocks of different tones that sound simultaneously; a progression of chords.

improvisation  Spontaneous musical invention.

interval  The distance in pitch between two tones.

jazz  A style of American music that originated in the South, started by African Americans; it is characterized by a strong , prominent meter; improvisation; and dotted or syncopated patterns. Early practitioners were Scott Joplin and W.C. Handy. Ma Rainey, Buddy Bolden, and Louis Armstrong, then Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday, brought the style to more popular status.

melody  A logical succession of musical pitches arranged in a rhythmic pattern.

meter  The pattern in which a steady succession of rhythmic pulses is organized.

microtonal  Intervals smaller than a semitone; a feature of Asian music.

MIDI  Musical instrument digital interface; a standardized "language" of digital bits that the computer can store.

ostinato  A rhythmic or melodic passage that is repeated continuously.

phrase  A musical idea, comparable to a sentence or a clause in language, which may be complete or incomplete.

pitch  The highness or lowness of sound, determined by the frequency of vibration.

rhythm  The combination of long and short, even and uneven sounds that convey a sense of movement.

round  A composition in which the same melody is started at different times and sounded together; also called a canon.

score  Notation showing all the parts of a musical ensemble, aligned vertically on staves one above the other.

staff; stave  A series of five horizontal lines on which musical notes are written to indicate their pitch.

synthesizer  An electronic instrument used for the production of sound.

tempo  The pace at which music moves, based on the speed of the underlying beat.

texture  The character of the different layers of horizontal and vertical sounds.

timbre  The distinctive quality of tone of a sound.

tonality  A feeling in melody and harmony that one pitch, the tonic, is the pulling force or center of a piece of music.

tone  This term has multiple meanings: a sound of distinct pitch, quality, or duration; a musical note; the quality or character of a sound; an interval of a major second; a whole step; the characteristic quality or timbre of a particular instrument or voice.

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