BEC JCE Music (Syllabus 34) flashcards
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- Diaphragmatic breathing
- Inhalation in which the diaphragm contracts and flattens, expanding the lower rib cage; exhalation for singing or wind playing is controlled by abdominal and intercostal muscles.
- Ensemble intonation anchor
- The practice of tuning to the lowest sustained pitch or to open fifths, because upper partials are easier to match against a stable fundamental than the reverse.
- Vibrato
- A periodic fluctuation of pitch, typically five to seven cycles per second, produced by forearm or wrist motion in strings or laryngeal pulsation in voices.
- Conductor ictus
- The precise point in a conducting gesture where the beat occurs, usually at the bottom of the pattern, which establishes tempo more clearly than the shape of the gesture.
- Sforzando
- A sudden, strong accent on a single note or chord, marked sfz, followed by an immediate return to the prevailing dynamic level.
- B-flat transposition
- A written part for a B-flat instrument sounds a major second lower than notated, so a written C sounds as B-flat; clarinet and trumpet use this convention.
- Parallel fifths
- Two voices moving in the same direction while maintaining a perfect fifth; prohibited in strict four-part writing because it weakens voice independence.
- Rootless voicing
- A jazz chord voicing that omits the root, placing the third and seventh in the left hand with extensions such as ninths and thirteenths added above.
- Pivot chord modulation
- A diatonic chord shared by the old and new keys that functions in both, allowing a smooth transition without a sudden chromatic shift.
- Rondo form
- A sectional form built on a recurring refrain alternating with contrasting episodes, typically ABACA, common in Classical final movements.
- Tritone
- An interval spanning six semitones, either an augmented fourth or a diminished fifth; it divides the octave exactly in half and sounds unstable.
- Deceptive cadence
- A cadential progression moving from the dominant to the submediant (V to vi) instead of the expected tonic, delaying resolution.
- Dorian mode
- A minor-type mode with a raised sixth degree above the tonic, producing a brighter sound than natural minor; common in folk and jazz.
- Heterophonic texture
- A texture in which two or more performers play simultaneous variants of the same melody, differing in ornamentation or rhythm rather than in independent lines.
- Compound duple meter
- A meter with two main beats, each divided into three equal parts, notated as 6/8 and counted as two dotted-quarter beats per measure.
- Order of sharps
- Key signatures add sharps in the sequence F, C, G, D, A, E, B; the major key is a half step above the final sharp in the signature.
- Interval inversion rule
- Inverting an interval subtracts its number from nine and reverses its quality: major becomes minor, perfect stays perfect, augmented becomes diminished.
- Figured bass 6/4
- A second-inversion triad symbol indicating that a fourth and sixth sound above the bass, with the chord's fifth in the lowest voice.
- Suspension
- A non-chord tone prepared as a chord tone, held over into the next chord where it becomes dissonant, then resolved downward by step.
- Alto clef
- A C clef placed on the third line of the staff, fixing middle C there; used by viola and sometimes by trombone and bassoon.
- Basso continuo
- A Baroque accompaniment consisting of a bass line played by a low instrument with a keyboard or lute realizing chords from figured bass symbols.
- Sonata form
- A large-scale structure with exposition, development, and recapitulation, presenting contrasting themes and resolving tonal conflict in the tonic key.
- Kundiman
- A Filipino art song, usually in triple meter with a flowing melody, expressing romantic or patriotic themes and often associated with the late nineteenth century.
- Twelve-tone technique
- A compositional method ordering all twelve pitch classes in a row that may be transposed, inverted, retrograded, or combined, avoiding tonal hierarchy.
- Bebop
- A jazz style of the 1940s characterized by fast tempos, small combos, virtuosic improvisation, and complex harmonies built on extended chords.
- Slendro tuning
- A five-tone Indonesian tuning system with roughly equidistant intervals, used in gamelan alongside the seven-tone pelog system.
- Raga
- An Indian melodic framework combining a scale with characteristic phrases, ornaments, and rules for ascent and descent, realized over a rhythmic cycle.
- Polyrhythm
- The simultaneous use of two or more contrasting rhythmic patterns or meters, a central organizing principle in much sub-Saharan African music.
- Clave rhythm
- A two-bar rhythmic pattern of three or two strokes that organizes phrasing in Afro-Cuban music, existing in three-two or two-three orientation.
- Maqam
- A Middle Eastern modal system defining scales, some with microtonal intervals, together with characteristic phrases, ornaments, and melodic development conventions.
- Organology categories
- The classification of instruments as idiophones (self-sounding), membranophones (skin-headed), chordophones (stringed), or aerophones (air-column), based on the sound source.