Music History Midterm--Vocab

(1) system of notation and performance practice, used in the baroque period, in which an instrumental bass line is written out and one ore more players of kyboard, lute, or similar instruments fill in the harmony and appropriate chords or improvised melodic lines. (2) the bass line itself

instruments used to realize a basso continuo, such as harpsichord, organ, lute or theorbo

(1) an accompanied solo song. (2) The musical texture of solo singing accompanied by one or more instruments.

Large lute with extra bass strings, used especially in the seventeenth century for performing basso continuo as accompaniment to singers or instruments

a form of basso continuo in which the bass line is upplied with numbers or flat or sharp signs to indicate the appropriate intervals to be played above the bass

Performing (or creating a performable edition of) music whose notation is incomplete, as in playing a basso continuo or completing a piece left unfinished by its composer

(from Italian concertare, "to reach agreement") In seventeenth-century music, the combination of voices with one or more instruments, where the instruments do not simply double the voices but play independent parts

Early-seventeenth century type of madrigl for one or more voices accompanied by basso continuo and in some cases by other instruments

In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, a through-composed setting of a nonstrophic poem for solo voice with accompaniment, distinguished from an aria and from a madrigal for several voices

musical interlude on a pastoral, allegorical, or mythological subject performed before, between, or after the acts of a spoken comedy or strategy

the addition of embellishments to a given melody, either during performance or as part of the act of compostion/ (1) uniform reduction of note calues in a melody or phrase. (2) type of improvised ornamentation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in which relatively long notes are replaced with scales or other figures composed of short notes/ melodic pattern made of commonplace materials such as scales or arpeggios, usually not distinctive enough to be considered a motive or theme

drama with continuous or nearly continuous music, staged with scenery, costumes and action

literary text for an opera or other musical stage work

In the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a series of madrigals that rpresents a succession of scenes or a simple plot

a passage or section in an opera, oratorio,, cantata, or other vocal work in recitative style--a type of vocal singing that approaches speech and follows the natural rhythms of the text over a rhythmically stagnant bass

(1) in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, any section of an Italian strophic poem for a solo singer. (2) lyrical monologue in an opera or other vocal work such as cantata and oratorio

(1) Recitativo arioso. (2) Short, aria-like passage. (3) style of vocal writing that approaches the lyricism of an aria but is freer in form

(1) In a fourteenth-century madrical, the closing seciton, in a different meter from the preceding verses. (2) In sixteenth and seventeenth-century vocal music, the instrumental introduction or interlude between sung stanzas. (3) in an aria or similar piece, an instrumental passage that recurs several times, like a refrain. Typically, it is played at the beginning, as interludes (often in modified form), and again at the end, and it states the main theme. (4) In a fast movement of a concert, the recurring thematic material played at the beginning by the full orchestra and repeated, usually in varied form, throughout the movement and at the end

(1) Generic term used throughout the seventeenth century for an abstract ensemble piece, especially one that serves as an introduction to a vocal work. (2) Italian opera overture in the early eighteenth century. (3) early symphony

(Italian "persistent bass") A pattern in the bass that rpeats while the melody above it changes

(1) In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a vocal chamber work with continuo, usually for solo voice, consisting of several sections or movements that include recitatives and arias and setting a lyrical or quasi-dramatic text. (2) Genre of Lutheran church music in the eighteenth century, combining poetic texts with texts drawn form chorales or the Bible, and including recitatives, arias, chorale settings, and usually one or more choruses. (3) In later ears, a work for soloists, chorus, and orchestra in several movements by smaller than an oratorio

A vivacious dance-song imported from Latin America into Spain and then into Italy, popular during the seventeenth century, usually in triple meter and employing some type of variation technique

Baroque genre of variations over a repeated bass line or harmonic progression in triple meter

Genre of dramatic music that originated in the seventeenth century, combining narrative, dialogue, and commentary through arias, recitatives, ensembles, choruses, and instrumental music, line an unstaged opera. Usually on a religious or biblical subject.

Piece for keyboard instrument or lute resembling an improvisation that may include imitative sections or may serve as a prelude to an independent fugue.

Introductory piece for solo instrument, often in the style of an improvisation, or introductory movement in a multimovement work such as an opera or suite

(1) Instrumental compositon that resemble an improvisation or lacks a strict form. (2) Imitative instrumental piece on a single subject

(1) A piece to be played on one or more instruments. (2) Baroque instrumental piece with contrasting sections or movements, often with imitative counterpoint. (3) Genre in several movements for one or two solo instruments

A set of pieces that are linked together into a single work. Druing the Baroque, a suite usually referred to a set of stylized dance pieces.

Seventeenth century french genre, an extensive musical-dramatic work with costumes, scenery, poetry, and dance that featured members of the court as well as professional dancers

French seventeenth and eighteenth century form of opera, pioneered by Jean-Bastiste Lully, that combined the french classic drama and ballet traditions with music, dances and spectacles

Type of overture used in tragedie en musique and other genres, that opens with a slow, homophonic, and majestic section, followed by a faster second section that begins with imitation