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Musical representation of specific poetic images.
Word Painting
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Choral music without instrumental accompaniment.
a cappella
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Polyphonic choral work set to a sacred Latin text other than that of the mass
Motet
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Sacred choral composition made up of five sections: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei.
mass
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Dancelike song for several voices, mostly homophonice in texture, with the melody in the highest voice and the syllables fa-la occuring as a refrain after each stanza.
Ballett
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Composition for several voices set to a short secular poem, usually about love, combining homophonic and polyphonic textures and often using word painting.
Madrigal
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Plucked string instrument shaped like half a pear.
Lute
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Composers of the 16th and early 17th century Venice who- inspired by the two widely separated choir lofts of St. Mark's Cathedral- often wrote music for several chourses and groups of instruments.
Venetian School
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Motet for two or more choirs, often including groups of instruments.
Polychoral Motet
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Abrupt alernation between loud and soft dynamics levels.
Terraced Dynamics
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Baroque accompaniment made up of a bass part usually played by two instruments: a keyboard plus a low melodic instrument.
Basso Contuinuo
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Baroque keyboard instrument in which sound is produced by means of brass blades striking string, capable of making gradual dynamic changes, but within a narrow volume range.
Clavichord
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Piece that sounds fairly complete and independent but is part if a larger composition.
Movement
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Bass part of a Baroque accompaniment with figures about it indicating the chords to be played.
Figured Bass
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Compostion for several instrumental soloists and small orchestra.
Concerto Grosso
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In Italian, all; the full orchestra, or a large group of musicians contrasted with a smaller group.
Tutti
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Compositional form usually used in the Baroque concerto grosso, in which the tutti plays a ritornello, or refrain, alternating with one or more soloists playing new material.
Ritornello Form
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In Italian, refrain; a repeated section of music usually played by the full orchestra.
Ritornello
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Polyphonic composition based on one main theme.
Fugue
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Second presentation of the subject in a fugue, usually in the dominate scale.
Answer
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In a fugue, a melodic idea that accompanies the subject fairly consistantly.
Countersubject
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transitional section in a fugue between presentations of the subject, which offers either new material or fragments of the subject or countersubject.
Episode
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Compositional procedure used in fugues, in which a subject is imitated before it is completed; one voice tries to catch the other.
Stretto
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Single tone, usually in the bass, which is held while the other voices produce a series of changing harmonies against it.
Pedal Point (Organ Point)
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Variation of a fugue subject in which each interval of the subject is reversed in direction.
Inversion
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Variation of a fugue subject in which the subject is presented by beginning with its last note and proceeding backward to the first.
Retrograde
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Variation of a fugue subject in which the original time values of the subject are lengthened.
Augmentation
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Variation of a fugue subject in which the original time values of the subject are shortened.
Diminution
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Short piece usually serving to introduce a fugue or another composition.
Prelude
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Text of an opera
Libretto
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Vocal line in an opera, oratorio, or contana that imitates the rhythms and pitch fluctuations of speech, often leading into a aria.
Recitative
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In opera, a piece performed by three or more solo singers.
Ensemble
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Song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment; usually expressing an emotional state through its outpouring of melody.
Aria
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Person who gives cues and reminds singers of their words or pitches during an opera perfomance.
Prompter
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A group of singers performing together, generally more than one to a part.
Chorus
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Short musical composition, purely orchestrial, which opens an opera and sets the overall dramatic mood.
Overture
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Male singer castrated before puberty to retain a high voice range.
Castrato
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Speechlike melody that is sung by a solo voice accompanied only by a basso continuo.
Secco Recitative
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Speechlike melody that is sung by a solo voice accompanied by the orchestra.
Accompanied Recitative
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In italian, fellowship or society; a group of nobles, poets, and composers who began to meet regularly in Florence around 1575 and whose musical discussions prepared the way for the beggining of opera.
Camerata
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From the beginning; an idication usually meaning that the opening section of a piece is to be repeated after the middle section.
Da capo
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Variation form in which a musical idea in the bass is repeated over and over while the melodies above it continually change.
Ground Bass
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Baroque composition that has three melodic lines: two high ones, each played by one instrument ; and a basso continuo, played by two instuments.
Trio Sonata
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Form of a single movement, consisting of three main sections: the exposition, where the themes are presented; the development, where themes are treated in new ways; and the recapitulation, where the themes returns, A conclusion section, the coda, often follows the recapitulation.
Sonata Form
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Musical ornament consisting of the rapid alterate tones of the scale.
Trill
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Common opening piece in Baroque suites, oratorios, and operas; usually in two parts: the first slow, with characteristic dotted ryhthms, full of dignity and grandeur; the second quick and lighter in mood, often staring like a fugue.
French Overture
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In Baroque music, a set of dance-inspired movements all writen in the same key but differing in tempo.
Suite
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Hymn tune sung to a German religious text.
Chorale
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Short composition for organ, based on a hymn tune and often used to rtemind the congregation of the melody before the hymn is sung.
Chorale prelude
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Large-scale composition for chorus, vocal soloists, and orchestra, usually set to a narrative text, but without acting, scenery, or costimes; often based on biblical stories.
Ortorio
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In Baroque music, an instrumental composition in several movements for one to eight players.
Sonata
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Vocal solo more lyrical than a recitative and less elaborate than an aria.
Arioso
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