Glossary of Musical Terms / Musica Sacra, A choral ensemble based in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA

Glossary of Musical Terms

This (incomplete) glossary of musical terms may prove useful to our audience members, particularly when reading the performance notes.

Aleatoric music: According to Werner Meyer-Eppler, the man who coined the term, music characterized as having a course in general but determined by chance in the particulars. Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen are probably the best known proponents of this style.
Antiphon: A short chant intoned before a psalm.
Arpeggio / Arpeggiated: A melody made up of the notes in a chord played in succession rather than simultaneously. The adjectival form is arpeggiated.
Basso Continuo: A Baroque-era notation of accompaniment by writing a bass line with figures that indicate the proper harmonies.
Canon: Two or more voices repeating an identical melodic line in close succession, so that the lines overlap. A round like Frère Jacques is an example of a canon.
Chant: A unison melody that was the earliest form of music in the Christian church and modeled after chants in the Judaic worship tradition. While each European region developed its own melodies for the various parts of Christian worship, these chants were eventually codified into a book known as the Liber Usualis at the end of the 19th century. Every text in everyday worship, including the Mass for the Dead, has music specific to it, although some services, like that of Holy Communion, have more than one.
Chromatic: In Western European music a diatonic scale will be composed of the specific arrangement of five whole steps and two half steps. In a chromatic scale, all twelve half tones between octaves are used.
Continuo: The accompaniment of voices with instruments that define the harmonies underpinning the melodies. This harmonic base is one of the exponential developments in the advancement of Western music, and Monteverdi was among the first to use it.
Counterpoint: From the Latin punctus contra punctum, or point against point: the interplay of polyphonic lines. Originally it also applied to the rules that governed the movement of lines.
Diatonic: An adjective used to describe a major or minor scale.
Disposition: The arrangement of voices among themselves. A wide disposition will have singers at the outer edges of their range, providing the widest harmony possible.
Doxology: An expression of praise to God.
Dynamic: The quality of loudness or softness to music.
Forte: A loud dynamic, from the Italian ‘strong’.
Fortissimo: The loudest dynamic, the superlative of forte, the Italian ‘strong.’
Gloria Patri: A Christian coda to the end of every psalm recited in Christian liturgy, in which the three parts of the Trinity are praised as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Glissando: Sliding through an interval rather than proceeding by step. Trombones provide a wonderful example of glissando.
Harmonic sequence: The restatement of a short series of harmonic progressions in successively higher or lower tonality.
Homophony: A musical texture in which all voices move as one to provide the harmonic movement. Hymns and chorales are illustrations of homophonic texture.
Intonation: The first few notes of a psalm tone setting the first few syllables of each verse of the psalm. This is followed by the reciting tone, a single note upon which most of the verse is sung, which is in turn followed by the notes that set the last few syllables of the verse, known as the termination.
Introit: The beginning of the Christian service of Holy Communion, in which an antiphon, Psalm verse and Gloria Patri are chanted.
Inversion: A musical mirror of a melody. For example, if the melody goes up a step, the inversion descends a step. intonation: the first few notes of a psalm tone sung to the first few syllables of each verse of the psalm. This is followed by the reciting tone, a single note upon which most of the verse is sung, which is in turn followed by the notes that set the last few syllables of the verse, known as the termination.
Liber Usualis: The 19th century compendium of chants assembled into one book by the Catholic Church. Every text in everyday worship and in worship for special days like Christmas‐from liturgy to psalms to hymns—has music specific to it, although some services, like that of Holy Communion, have more than one. (See also plainchant.)
Melisma: A part of the melody sung on a single syllable.
Meter: The meter determines the emphasis of certain beats within the music. A waltz has a triple meter, while America the Beautiful has a duple meter.
Ostinato: This Latin word for “stubborn” describes a motif, sometimes just one note, that repeatedly continues in one voice, usually the lowest.
Parallel: Voices moving in parallel motion move in the same tonality with the same intervals and rhythms, but at a different pitch.
Piano: A soft dynamic.
Pizzicato: An indication that a string should be plucked rather than intoned with the bow. You usually hear the bass in a jazz ensemble use pizzicato almost exclusively.
Plainchant: A unison melody that was the earliest form of music in the Christian church and modeled after chants in the Judaic worship tradition. While each European region developed its own melodies for the various parts of Christian worship, these chants were eventually codified into a book known as the Liber Usualis at the end of the 19th century. Every text in everyday worship—from liturgy to psalms to hymns—has music specific to it, although some services, like that of Holy Communion, have more than one. Some of the chants started out as part of an oral tradition that preceded musical notation, such that their exact age is impossible to determine, while others originated later in history.
Polyphony: A musical texture of independent voices that may have similar melodic material whose interaction results in the vertical harmony.
Saltando: Literally “jumping” in Italian, the string player allows the bow to bounce on the string rather than having the bow pressure consistent on the string.
Serialism: The end point of Schönberg’s 12-tone music, which dictated that the notes of the chromatic scale always be played in a particular order. In serialism, every element of the music is similarly controlled in a strict order.
Suspension: The continuation of a note in one chord after the music has changed to a different chord, thereby creating a dissonance.
Tessitura: The placement of vocal sound in a particular range. The soprano tessitura is higher than that of the alto; the alto than the tenor; and the tenor than the bass. Each vocal part in a piece lies in a certain range, which may place the singer’s voice high or low in its own range; we then say that that part has a high or low tessitura.
Tonality: The major or minor diatonic scale upon which harmonies are built. A minor key will often sound ‘sad’ to the listener, while a major key will sound ‘happy.’ Our national anthem is based on a major scale, while the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby has a minor tonality. A diatonic scale is the basis of the harmonies we are used to hearing in Western music, consisting of the arrangement of five whole steps and two half steps. The placement of the two half steps in the sequence determines whether a scale is major or minor.
Triad: In second inversion: A triad is a chord of two consecutive intervals of thirds vertically stacked to form a fifth between the lowest and highest note. If the bottom pitch, the root of the triad, is moved up an octave such that the first third is now the lowest note, that is the first inversion. If that third is then placed up an octave such that the final note of the triad, the fifth, is now the lowest note, that is the second inversion.
Trinity: In Christian doctrine, God is expressed as a triune entity consisting of God the Father, the Creator; God the Son, Jesus, the human incarnation of God; and God the Holy Spirit, the earthly presence of God represented by Christians’ faith. As such each is equally important.
Vocalise: A melody sung on a single vowel sound with no words.