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In music, a palette is a valve between the wind chest and the mouth of a pipe or row of pipes in an organ.
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The pandean pipes are an early form of musical instrument consisting of a single row of seven or more short reeds or pipes closed at their lower ends and joined together, also graduated in length so as to produce the notes of the diatonic scale when the pipes are individually sounded by blowing across their upper ends.
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The Parata is a traditional Maltese dance performed by children on the morning of Carnival Saturday. The dance is a mock-enactment of the Maltese victory over the Turks.
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In music, parlando is a directive for a piece to be sung or played in the style of a recitative.
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In music, a partita is a suite or a set of variations.
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In ballet, a pas de deux is a dance for two.
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The pas de quatre or 'Barn Dance' as the Americans call it, is a dance that originated in the late 19th century for two people. The music for the pas de quatre was composed by Meyer Lutz for a dance in a burlesque at the Gaiety Theatre.
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The passacaglia is an old Italian or Spanish dance tune, in slow three-four measure, with divisions on a ground bass, resembling a chaconne.
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In music, a passing tone is a tone introduced between two other tones, on an unaccented portion of a measure, for the sake of smoother melody, but forming no essential part of the harmony.
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Originally, passion music was music set to the gospel narrative of the passion of Christ. After the Reformation, it became a kind of oratorio, with narrative, chorals, airs, and choruses, having for its theme the passion and crucifixion of Christ.
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In music, pastoral refers to a cantata or lyrical composition relating to rural life. They are compositions for instruments characterised by simplicity and sweetness.
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In music, pastorale describes a composition in a soft, rural style, generally in 6-8 or 12-8 time.
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The Pavan (Pavane) is a moderately paced dance dating from the 16th century or possibly earlier.
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A pedal note is a musical note which is held or sustained through an organ point.
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A pedal organ is an organ which has pedals or a range of keys moved by the feet.
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In music, a perfect cadence is a complete and satisfactory close in harmony, such as upon the tonic preceded by the dominant.
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In music a perfect chord is a concord or union of sounds which is perfectly coalescent and agreeable to the ear, such as the unison, octave, fifth, and fourth forming a perfect consonance.
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In music a phrase is a short clause or portion of a period. A composition consists first of sentences, or periods; these are subdivided into sections, and these are in turn subdivided into phrases.
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Phrygian mode is one of the ancient Greek modes of music, very bold and vehement in style. It is so called because it is fabled to have been invented by the Phrygian Marsyas.
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A pianette is a small piano.
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In music, pianissimo is a direction to execute a passage as softly as possible.
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The piano is a musical instrument with a keyboard. It was invented in the 18th century as a development of the harpsichord. Strings are stuck by hammers when the keys are depressed.
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A pianograph is a form of melodiograph applied to a piano.
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In music, piatti is another name for cymbals.
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A pibcorn is a Welsh musical wind instrument or pipe, with a horn at each end.
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A pibroch is a Highland air, suited to the particular passion which the musician would either excite or assuage. the term is generally applied to those airs that were played on the bagpipe before the Highlanders when they went out to battle.
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The piccolo is a small woodwind instrument of the flute family. It is played from the treble clef, but its music is usually written an octave lower than the pitch of the sounds produced.
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A piffero is a kind of fife and also, a rude kind of oboe or a bagpipe with an inflated skin for a reservoir.
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In ballet, a pirouette is a complete turn, or a series of turns, on one leg.
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In music, pitch is the relative acuteness or gravity of a tone, determined by the number of vibrations which produce it. the term applies to the place of any tone upon a scale of high and low. Musical tones with reference to absolute pitch, are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet; with reference to relative pitch, in a series of tones called the scale, they are called one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Eight is also one of a new scale an octave higher, as one is eight of a scale an octave lower.
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In music, pizzicato indicates that the instruments of the violin family have their sounds produced by plucking the strings instead of using the bow. This device for imitating the tones of the harp was first used by Claudio Monteverde.
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In music, plagal describes a piece as having a scale running from the dominant to its octave. It is said of certain old church modes or tunes, as opposed to those called authentic, which ran from the tonic to its octave.
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In music a plagal cadence is a cadence in which the final chord on the tonic is preceded by the chord on the subdominant.
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A planxty is an Irish or Welsh melody for the harp, sometimes of a mournful character.
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In ballet, plie is a bending of the knees.
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In music, poco means a little and is used chiefly in phrases indicating the time or movement.
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In music, poco a poco means little by little. It is used in phrases indicating the time or movement for example poco a poco crescendo meaning gradually increasing in loudness.
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The pogo was a punk dance of the late 1970's and early 1980's which involved jumping into the air whilst keeping the arms straight at the sides of the body, the body stiff and tense and the legs straight and the head cocked to one side. The body was propelled upwards by flexing the feet.
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In music a point is a dot or mark used to designate certain tones or time. In ancient music a point was a dot or mark distinguishing or characterising certain tones or styles, for example as points of perfection, or of augmentation, etc. In modern music a point is a dot placed at the right hand side of a note, to raise its value, or prolong its time, by one half, as to make a whole note equal to three half notes, a half note equal to three quarter notes.
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The polka is a lively Bohemian folk dance in 2-4 measure, with the third quaver accented.
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The polonaise is a Polish national dance of slow movement in three-quarter time beginning always on the beat with a quaver followed by a crotchet, and closing on the beat after a strong accent on the second beat, made up of a march or promenade. The name is also applied to the music used for the dance, which was especially elaborated by Chopin.
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A polychord is a musical instrument of ten strings. A polychord is an apparatus for coupling two octave notes, capable of being attached to a keyed instrument.
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In music, polyphonic means consisting of several tone series, or melodic parts, progressing simultaneously according to the laws of counterpoint.
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In music a polyphony is a composition in mutually related, equally important parts which share the melody among them as opposed to a homophony, in which the melody is given to one part only, the others filling out the harmony.
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In music, pomposo means in a grand and dignified style.
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In singing, or in the use of the bow in music, portamento is a gradual carrying or lifting of the voice or sound very smoothly from one note to another as though gliding from tone to tone.
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In music a prelude is a strain introducing the theme or chief subject. A
prelude is a movement introductory to a fugue, but independent.
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In music, preparation is the holding over of a note from one chord into the next chord, where it forms a temporary discord, until resolved in the chord that follows, that is the anticipation of a discordant note in the preceding concord, so that the ear is prepared for the shock.
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President's March is a popular American national air composed in 1789 by Pfyles,, leader of the orchestra at the John Street Theatre, New York. It was played for the first time on Trenton Bridge as George Washington rode over on his way to be inaugurated. Later Judge Hopkinson set the words of Hail Columbia to the air, and it became immensely popular under that name.
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In music, prestissimo means very quickly or with great rapidity.
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In music, presto is a direction for a quick, lively movement or performance, quicker than allegro, or any rate of time except prestissimo.
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In music a primitive chord is a chord, the lowest note of which is of the same literal denomination as the fundamental base of the harmony.
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Programme music is descriptive instrumental music which requires an argument or programme to explain the meaning of its several movements.
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In music a progression is a regular succession of tones or chords, that is the movement of the parts in harmony or the order of the modulations in a piece from key to key.
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Prolation was a mediaeval method of determining of the proportionate duration of semi-breves and minims.
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The psaltery was an ancient musical instrument of a type used by the Jews, the Greeks and in mediaeval Europe, consisting of a flat sounding box with numerous strings which were plucked with the fingers or a plectrum. Its form and character vary in different countries and periods. The psaltery might be square, triangular, circular or irregular. The psaltery is referred to in the Bible, and this probably refers to the Egyptian nebel or portable harp.
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In music, pui tosto means faster or more rapid.
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Punk rock was a reactionary music and fashion statement of the mid-1970's, first appearing around 1976. The basic essence of punk rock was a reaction to what many young people saw as the exploitation of the young by big-business fashion designers and record companies. Punk rock typified itself in raw, energetic, amateurish music and home made clothes and hair cuts. The use of safety pins and bondage wear further illustrated the enslavement of the youth by business. However, within a few months the revolution had itself become fashionable, and fashion houses in London's Kings Road and elsewhere were selling the 'home made' fashions for inflated prices. Typical groups of the punk rock movement were Britain's Sex Pistols, Sham 69 and The Damned with many other bands soon following. Many of the bands had deliberately vulgar, shocking names such as 'Sex Pistols', 'Vibrators', 'Slits', 'Sham 69', 'Buzzcocks' and 'Guildford Stranglers' (later to shorten their name and achieve international fame as the 'Stranglers') in an effort to distance themselves from the cosy world of exploitative popular music and fashion that had preceded them. Many of the bands quickly became popular and just as quickly forgot their revolutionary roots and embraced the very exploitative culture they had originally opposed - the music then becoming known as 'new wave', most notably the Clash who had started as a true punk rock band, but quickly became a trendy, establishment band playing to the mindless youth that was just too happy to be spoon fed fashion and to accept what they were told. This disintegration and popularisation of the punk rock movement in itself gave birth around 1980 to a second wave of reactionary, political bands led by the anarchist band 'Crass' and the numerous fellow bands that recorded and played with them including 'Poison Girls', 'Zounds' and 'Conflict'. The punk rock movement was doomed to political failure from the start. The original protagonists over-estimated the
telligence of the youth at the time, and far from revolting against their exploitation, most of the followers of the punk rock movement did so for the very fashion it was opposing. This sad failure was recognised by 'Johnny Rotten', lead singer of the Sex Pistols, who, finally exasperated at the youth of the time, disbanded the Sex Pistols and started a new band called 'Public Image Ltd', the first words of its first song were 'you never listened to a word that I said, you only saw me for the clothes that I wear', a sad surrender to the hopelessness of trying to help the youth of the time.
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The Pussycat Dolls are an American pop group which began as a burlesque dance revue based in Los Angeles in 1995. The dance revue, which specialised in wearing lingerie and erotic dancing attracted celebrity performers and appeared in the 2003 film 'Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle'. Afterwards they started recording records with Nicole Scherzinger, formerly with the group 'Eden's Crush' as their lead singer. In 2005 their record 'Don't Cha' featuring guest performer 'Busta Rhymes' reached number 2 in the American pop charts and number one in the dance music charts.
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A pyrophone is a musical instrument, in which the various notes are produced by the burning of hydrogen gas within glass tubes of varying lengths and sizes.
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The Pyrrhic Dance was an ancient Greek dance which consisted of moves representing an attempt to avoid the strokes of an enemy in battle. It was viewed as a kind of training for war.
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Abbreviations
Music
