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In music, A is the name of the sixth tone in the model major scale (that in C), or the first tone of the minor scale, which is named after it the scale in A minor. The second string of the violin is tuned to the A in the treble staff.
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In music, A cappella is said of compositions sung in the old church style, without instrumental accompaniment; as, a mass a cappella, i.e., a mass purely vocal. The term is also applied to a time indication, equivalent to alla breve.
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In music A flat is the name of a tone intermediate between A and G.
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In music, A sharp is the name of a musical tone intermediate between A and B.
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The abacus harmonicus was an ancient diagram showing the structure and disposition of the keys of a musical instrument.
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In music, abbassare means to lower, for example to tune down a string on an instrument in order to obtain a note not usually within the instrument's range.
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In music, an abbreviation is one or more dashes through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semi-quavers, or demi-semiquavers.
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The Abegg Variations is Robert Schumann's Opera 1, for a solo performer, composed in 1830 and written on a theme made out of the notes A-B-E-G-G. The composition was dedicated to his friend Meta Abegg.
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In music, accelerando is an instruction to gradually accelerate the movement.
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In music an accent is a regularly recurring stress upon the tone to mark the beginning, and, more feebly, the third part of the measure. The term is also applied to a special emphasis of a tone, even in the weaker part of the measure and the rhythmical accent, which marks phrases and sections of a period.
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In music, an acciaccatura is a short grace note, one semitone below the note to which it is prefixed, used especially in organ music. It is now used as an equivalent to the short appoggiatura.
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In music an accidental is a sharp, flat, or natural, occurring not at the commencement of a piece of music as the signature, but before a particular note.
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In music, accidental chords are those which contain one or more tones foreign to their proper harmony.
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In music an accolade is a brace used to join two or more staves.
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In music, an accompaniment is a part performed by instruments, accompanying another part or parts performed by voices; the subordinate part, or parts, accompanying the voice or a principal instrument; also, the harmony of a figured bass.
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An accordion is a small portable musical instrument with a keyboard and bellows. It was invented by Damian in 1829.
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Adagio is a musical term indicating that the movement should be played slowly and expressively.
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In music, an addition is a dot at the right side of a note as an indication that its sound is to be lengthened one half.
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In music, adjunct describes a key or scale closely related to another as principal.
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In music, adjunct notes are short notes between those essential to the harmony.
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The Aeolian Harp is a sounding-board on which are strung several gut strings of different thickness; these are tuned to the same note and give its various harmonics when made to vibrate by the wind. Its invention is ascribed to St Dunstan, but in its present form it is not thought to have existed before the 17th century.
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Aerophones are a group of musical instruments in which the sound is generated by a vibrating air mass. The group includes the woodwind and brass instruments.
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Affettuoso is an Italian musical term indicating a tender and affecting style; it lies between adagio and andante, and is frequently joined with these terms.
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In music, affrettando means hurrying onwards.
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In music, an after-note is one of the small notes occurring on the unaccented parts of the measure, taking its time from the preceding note.
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In music, agitato means sung or played in a restless, hurried, and spasmodic manner.
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Air is a musical idea, or motive, rhythmically developed in consecutive single tones, so as to form a symmetrical and balanced whole, which may be sung by a single voice to the stanzas of a hymn or song, or even to plain prose, or played upon an instrument. In harmonised chorals, psalmody, part songs, etc., an air is the part which bears the tune or melody - in modern harmony usually the upper part.
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In music, al segno is a direction for the performer to return and recommence from an indicated point.
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In music, allargando means getting slower.
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Allegretto is an indication of tempo in music. It is a diminutive of allegro and signifies a slower movement than allegro but not as slow as andante.
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Allegro is a musical term signifying a quick, lively rate of movement, nearly intermediate between andante and presto.
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The allemande is a dance in moderate two-fold time. It was invented by the French during the reign of Louis XIV and is now mostly found in suites of pieces, like those of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel.
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An alpenhorn is a long bugle-horn made of wood formerly used by Swiss peasants to communicate with each other over long distances.
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The althorn is a musical instrument of the saxhorn family, used exclusively in military music, often replacing the French horn.
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In music, altissimo describes the part or notes situated above F in alt.
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In music, alto was formerly the part sung by the highest male, or counter-tenor, voices; now it is the part sung by the lowest female, or contralto, voices, between in tenor and soprano. In instrumental music it now signifies the tenor.
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In music, an alto clef is the counter-tenor clef, or the C clef, placed so that the two strokes include the middle line of the staff.
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Amati was a violin maker who lived in Cremona around 1600, and who is famous for the quality of the instruments he made, hence the term Amati is applied to a first-class violin.
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In music, amoroso infers that a piece should be played in a soft, tender, amatory style.
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Andante is a musical term denoting a movement somewhat slow (walking pace), graceful, distinct and soothing.
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Andantino is a musical style rather quicker than andante, between that and allegretto. Some, taking andante in its original sense of going, and andantino as its diminutive, or less going, define the latter as slower than andante.
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Antara is a term used by the Quechua people of Peru for the Andean panpipes made of clay.
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An anthem was originally a hymn sung in alternate parts. In later usage the term applied to a sacred tune or piece of music set to words taken from the Psalms or other parts of the Scriptures, in modern times the term generally applies to a national song. Anthems were first introduced into church service in Elizabeth I's reign as a developed motet. The original anthems could be for one, two, or any number of voices, but seldom exceeded five parts, and may or may not have had an organ accompaniment written for them.
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In music, anticipation describes the commencing of one or more tones of a chord with or during the chord preceding, forming a momentary discord.
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In music, the antiphone is the response which one side of the choir makes to the other in a chant, being alternate chanting or signing.
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The apache dance is a fast and violent dance in French vaudeville, supposedly between a Parisian gangster and his girl.
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In music, an appoggiatura is a passing tone preceding an essential tone, and borrowing the time it occupies from that or a short auxiliary or grace note one degree above or below the principal note unless it be of the same harmony - generally indicated by a note of smaller size. It forms no essential part of the harmony.
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The archlute was a double-necked stringed musical instrument of the lute family. It had the bass strings doubled with an octave, and the higher strings with a unison.
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An aria is a musical composition for solo voice with instrumental accompaniment, usually forming part of an opera, oratorio, or cantata. It provides a lyrical pause in the dramatic action, during which a character can comment on some aspect of the drama. Often it is also a difficult piece, designed to display the singer's skill. The aria originated in Italy in the late 16th century as a short solo song, particularly a strophic song. Composers of the early 17th century developed the 'strophic-bass' aria, in which the bass remained constant for each stanza, while the melody was varied. These strophic-bass arias were subsequently adopted by early opera composers such as the Italian Claudio Monteverdi.
Shortly before 1650 a new aria form appeared, which dominated operatic music until about 1750. This was the da capo aria, written in three sections: ABA. To indicate the repeated A section, composers simply wrote the direction da capo after the B section. The da capo aria developed into a long musical structure with the B section usually in a contrasting but related key. An instrumental introduction usually preceded the A section, and an instrumental interlude separated the A and B sections. Many singers took advantage of the repeated A section, using it as a vehicle for virtuosic improvised variations.
Alessandro Scarlatti, helped establish the nearly universal use of the da capo aria. Later the 18th-century German-born composer George Frideric Handel used it extensively in his operas and oratorios, and his contemporary Johann Sebastian Bach used it in his oratorios and cantatas. In the late 18th century, operatic reformers such as the German Christoph Von Gluck, reacting against the da capo aria, employed a variety of aria forms. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and others often used arias with two contrasting sections, and the one-section cavatina also became popular.
The romanticism of the 19th century fostered wide variety in aria forms. In the late 19th century Wilhelm Wagner dispensed with the aria almost completely in his mature works, favouring a continuous span of music rather than a separation of action and lyrical comment. Although many 20th-century opera composers follow Wilhelm Wagner' s example, others use arias of many different formats.
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In music, an arietta is a short aria, or air.
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In music, arioso is a smooth and melodious style of playing an air.
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In music, arpeggio is the production of the tones of a chord in rapid succession, as in playing the harp, and not simultaneously.
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In music, an arrangement is the adaptation of a composition to voices or instruments for which it was not originally written.
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In music, an arranger is a person who adapts or assists in orchestrating the music of another composer at the composer's request. The use of an arranger became established in Hollywood; Rachmaninov, George Gershwin, and Leonard Bernstein, among others, composed concert works employing such assistance. Arrangers were also common in jazz: the more notable examples include Gil Evans, who arranged music for Miles Davis and others; and Billy Strayhorn who arranged for Duke Ellington. Composers of unauthorised arrangements include Johann Sebastian Bach (who arranged Vivaldi), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (who arranged Handel's Messiah), and Stravinsky (who arranged Tchaikovsky and Pergolesi).
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In music, arsis is the elevation of the hand, or that part of the bar at which it is raised, in beating time.
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In music, assai is a direction equivalent to very. Thus the term is applied to other musical terms, such as, adagio assai, meaning very slow.
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The atabal is a cylindrical double-headed bass drum of the Basque region; it is wider than tall.
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Atabaque is a general term for a conical single-headed drum of Brazil; usually played in threes, each of different size.
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In music, attacca is a direction at the end of a movement to show that the next is to follow immediately, without any pause.
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In music, the attendant keys the keys or scales most nearly related to, or having most in common with, the principal key; those, namely, of its fifth above, or dominant, its fifth below (fourth above), or subdominant, and its relative minor or major.
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The aud is an Egyptian lute.
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In music, in a counterpoint and fugue, an augmentation is a repetition of the subject in tones of twice the original length.
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In music an augmented interval is an interval increased by half a step or half a tone.
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In music, the term authentic describes something as having as immediate relation to the tonic, in distinction from plagal, which has a correspondent relation to the dominant in the octave below the tonic.
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The autoharp is a zither with a keyboard chord making mechanism which mutes unwanted strings. It is either strummed or picked.
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In music, auxiliary scales are the scales of relative or attendant keys.
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The awalem was an ancient Egyptian form of belly dance used for sexual instruction to newlyweds. The awalem consisted of a pair of dancers who stood in one spot and their movements illustrated what was required for sexual intercourse.
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