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Three or more notes played or sung at the same moment
Chord
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An instrumental genre for a soloist (or sometimes more than one soloist) and a larger ensemble
Concerto
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The sound of notes together that our ear finds naturally right. Like dissonance, consonance is a relative concept that can change over long periods of time
Consonance
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A style of writing in which every voice is a melody and all voices work together; from the Latin word contrapunctum, or "note-against-note." Counterpoint is basic to polyphonic texture
Counterpoint
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Italian for "from the head"; a direction to go back and play from the very beginning of the piece
Da capo
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The sound of notes that clash, either harmonically or melodically, and do not seem to belong together. Dissonance is a relative concept: what was dissonant in one era is later perceived as consonant
Dissonance
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A single long note held underneath the melodic line
Drone Bass
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A texture in which a melodic instrument plays over a constant repeated pattern of only a few tones
Drone Harmony
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An underlying pattern of rhythm in which each unit (measure) consists of one accented (strong) beat followed by one unaccented (weak) beat (1-21 (1-21 (1-21 etc.) or some multiple of two (such as four or eight). A unit of four beats per measure, for example, in which the first is the strongest and the third is the next-strongest (1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, etc.), is a type of duple meter
Duple Meter
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Music using sounds generated (and not merely amplified) either in whole or in part by electronic means
Electronic Music
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A broad artistic movement that flourished in music, painting, and literature in the early decades of the twentieth century, in which psychological truth took precedence over beauty, and inner emotion took precedence over any sense of external reality
Expressionism
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