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In music D is the nominal of the second tone in the model major scale (that in C), or of the fourth tone in the relative minor scale of C (that in A minor), or of the key tone in the relative minor of F.
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In music, dacapo means from the beginning. It is a direction to return to, and end with, the first strain and is indicated by the letters D. C.
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The daire is a round, single-headed drum found in south-eastern Europe, Asia etc.
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In music, dal segno is a direction to go back to an indicated sign and repeat from there to the close.
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In a piano, dampers is the name given to certain movable parts in the internal frame, which, whenever the finger leaves the key, descend upon the wires and instantly check the vibration.
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Dance is a rhythmic movement of the body usually performed to music.
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The darabuka is a one-sided hourglass-shaped drum found in North Africa and the Middle East.
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In music, the dash is the sign of staccato, a small mark denoting that the note over which it is placed is to be performed in a short, distinct manner. The term dash is also applied to the line drawn through a figure in the thorough bass, as a direction to raise the interval a semitone.
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The dawal is a stone bell found in Ethiopian monasteries, comprising two or three rectangular stone slabs up to five meters long, suspended from a log frame. These slabs are struck with a stone to produce strong tones.
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A dead march is a piece of solemn music intended to be played as an accompaniment to a funeral procession.
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In music, a deceptive cadence is a cadence on the subdominant, or in some foreign key, postponing the final close.
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In music, decrescendo means with decreasing volume of sound. It is a direction to performers, either written upon the staff (abbreviated Dec., or Decresc.), or indicated by a sign.
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In music, a degree is a line or space of the staff. The short lines and their spaces are added degrees.
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In music, a demicadence is an imperfect or half cadence, falling on the dominant instead of on the key note.
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A demiquaver is a musical note of half the length of the quaver, a semiquaver.
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A demisemiquaver is a short musical note, equal in time to the half of a semiquaver, or the thirty- second part of a whole note.
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In music a derivative is a chord, not fundamental, but obtained from another by inversion; or, vice versa, a ground tone or root implied in its harmonics in an actual chord.
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Originally, a descant was a double song; a melody or counterpoint sung above the plain song of the tenor; a variation of an air; a variation by ornament of the main subject or plain song. The term is also applied to the upper voice in a part of music and also to the canto, cantus, or soprano voice. The term has also been used synonymously with counterpoint, or polyphony, which developed out of the French dechant, of the 12th century.
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In music, descend means to fall in pitch; to pass from a higher to a lower tone.
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In music a descent is a passing from a higher to a lower tone.
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In music, a diapason is the concord of the first and last notes of an octave. The word is also used for the most important foundation-stops of an organ. They are of several kinds, as open diapason, stopped diapason, double diapason. The French use the term as equivalent to pitch in music.
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In music, the term diatonic was originally applied by the Greeks to one of their three genera of music. In modern music it is applied to the natural scale, and to the intervals, chorda, melodies, or harmony characteristic of it. A diatonic chord is a chord having no note chromatically altered. A diatonic interval is an interval formed by two notes of the diatonic scale unaltered by accidentals. A diatonic melody is a melody composed of notes belonging to one scale only.
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In music a diatonic scale is a scale consisting of eight sounds with seven intervals, of which two are semitones and five are whole tones; a modern major or minor scale, as distinguished from the chromatic scale.
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A didjeridu is a musical wind instrument developed by the Australian aborigines.
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In music a diesis is a small interval, less than any in actual practice, but used in the mathematical calculation of intervals.
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A digitorium is a small portable dumb instrument having a short keyboard with five keys like those of a piano, formerly used by piano-players for practice, to give strength and flexibility to the fingers.
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In music diminish means to make smaller by a half step or to make an interval less than minor; for example a diminished seventh.
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In music diminuendo means in a gradually diminishing manner. That is with abatement of tone or decrescendo. It is expressed on the staff by Dim., or Dimin., or a sign.
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In music, a diminution is the imitation of, or reply to, a subject, in notes of half the length or value of those the subject itself within the counterpoint.
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In music a discord is a union of musical sounds which strike the ear harshly or disagreeably, owing to the incommensurability of the vibrations which they produce. The term is hence applied to a want of musical concord or harmony; a chord demanding resolution into a concord.
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In music, disjunct tetrachords are tetrachords so disposed to each other that the gravest note of the upper is one note higher than the acutest note of the other.
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A dispersed harmony is a harmony in which the tones composing the chord are widely separated, as by an octave or more.
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In music, dissonance is that effect which results from the union of two sounds not in accord with each other. The ancients considered thirds and sixths as dissonances; and, in fact, every chord except the perfect concord is a dissonant chord. The old theories include an infinity of dissonances, but the present received system reduces them to a comparatively small number. The most common are those of the tonic against the second, the fifth against the sixth, or (the most frequent of all) the fourth against the fifth.
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In music, a ditone was the Greek major third, which comprehend two major tones (the modern major third contains one major and one minor whole tone).
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In music, a divertimento describes a light and pleasing composition.
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In music a division is a course of notes so running into each other as to form one series or chain, to be sung in one breath to one syllable.
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The djembe is a one-sided mushroom-shaped drum from the west coast of Africa.
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In music, do is a syllable attached to the first tone of the major diatonic scale for the purpose of solmization, or solfeggio. It is the first of the seven syllables used by the Italians as manes of musical tones, and replaced, for the sake of euphony, the syllable Ut, applied to the note C. In England and America the same syllables are used by many as a scale pattern, while the tones in respect to absolute pitch are named from the first seven letters of the alphabet.
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In music, dolce means softly, sweetly and with a soft, smooth, and delicate execution.
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The dolcino was a small bassoon.
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In music, doloroso is a directive to play a piece in a plaintive or pathetic manner.
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Dominant is the name given to the fifth note of a diatonic scale.
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The Dorian mode was the first of the authentic church modes or tones, from D to D, resembling our D minor scale, but with the B natural.
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In music, a dotted note is a note followed by a dot to indicate an increase of length equal to one half of its simple value; thus, a dotted semibreve is equal to three minims, and a dotted quarter to three eighth notes.
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In music a dotted rest is a rest lengthened by a dot in the same manner as a dotted note.
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Double is an old musical term for a variation, as in Johann Sebastian Bach's Suites.
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In music a double counterpoint is that species of counterpoint or composition, in which two of the parts may be inverted, by setting one of them an octave higher or lower.
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In music, a double octave is an interval composed of two octaves, or fifteen notes, in diatonic progression.
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The double-bass or violone is the largest instrument of the bass-viol kind, having three or four strings tuned an octave below those of the violoncello, and traditionally played with a bow. The double-bass was probably invented by Gaspar di Salo in 1580, and was a particular feature of certain 1950s Rock and Roll bands, who plucked it rather than played it with a bow.
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Double-tonguing is a peculiar action of the tongue employed by flute players in articulating staccato notes. The term also describes the rapid repetition of notes in cornet playing.
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In music a driving note is a syncopated note. That is a tone begun on a weak part of a measure and held through the next accented part, thus anticipating the accent and driving it through.
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In music a drone is a monotonous bass, as in a pastoral composition.
The largest tube of a bagpipe is known as a drone.
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A drum is a musical instrument of percussion, consisting either of a hollow cylinder, over each end of which is stretched a piece of skin or vellum, to be beaten with a stick; or of a metallic hemisphere (as in a kettle-drum) with a single piece of skin to be so beaten. The drum is the common instrument for marking time in martial music; one of the pair of tympani in an orchestra, or cavalry band.
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The Drury Lane Theatre is an historic English theatre in London's West End. The first theatre on the site, the Theatre Royal, opened in 1663. As theatres often did in those days, it burned down nine years later, but was rebuilt again in 1874. From 1746 to 1776, Garrick was the resident star and co- manager. Richard Brinsley Sheridan succeeded Garrick as manager, and several of his plays were produced there. The theatre burned down again in 1809, was rebuilt in 1812. During the 1800s it was occasionally home to famous stars like Edmund Kean and George MacReady. In the latter 1800s it was associated with spectacular melodramas and stage machinery. Since the 1920s it has featured big, Broadway-style musicals.
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A duet is a musical composition for two performers (a duo), whether vocal or instrumental.
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A duettino is a duet of short extent and concise form.
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The dulcian or dulcino is a species of small bassoon.
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A dulciana is a sweet-toned stop of an organ.
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The dulcimer was a musical instrument consisting of a resonance-board over which wires were stretched, these being struck by hammers held by the performer. The instrument was known to the Persians and Arabs and used in Hungary where it was called a czimbalom.
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In music, dur means major as in the major mode for example C dur, meaning C major.
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Dux is the scholastic name for the theme or subject of a fugue, the answer being called the comes, or companion.
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Dynamics is the department of musical science which relates to the power of tones.
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Abbreviations
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