Pancyprian Music Studies flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Harmonic minor scale

A minor scale with the seventh degree raised by a semitone, creating an augmented second between degrees 6 and 7 and a leading tone to the tonic.

Deceptive cadence

A cadence where the dominant chord resolves to the submediant (V–vi) instead of the tonic, producing an unexpected, unresolved effect.

Figured bass 6/4

A second-inversion triad: the intervals above the bass are a sixth and a fourth, so the chord has its fifth in the bass.

Secondary dominant

A major triad or dominant seventh that functions as V of a diatonic chord other than the tonic, labelled V/V, V/ii, V/vi and so on.

Neapolitan chord

A major triad built on the lowered second degree (♭II), most often in first inversion, typically resolving to the dominant.

Species counterpoint

A graded pedagogical method in which a student writes one to five notes against a fixed cantus firmus, each species adding rhythmic complexity.

Suspension

A dissonance created by holding a note from the previous chord into the next, then resolving it downward by step while the harmony changes.

Invertible counterpoint

Counterpoint in which the voices can exchange register, so intervals invert at a specified interval such as the octave or twelfth.

Stretto

Overlapping entries of the fugue subject, where a new voice begins the subject before the previous voice has finished it.

Tonal answer

A fugue answer that adjusts the subject's intervals to remain within the key, usually altering the dominant's leading tone.

Perfect pitch reference

The standard concert tuning is A4 = 440 Hz, adopted internationally as the reference frequency for orchestral tuning.

Interval: tritone

An augmented fourth or diminished fifth spanning three whole tones; it divides the octave and sounds unstable in tonal music.

Movable-do solfège

A system where do is assigned to the tonic of any key, so scale degrees keep the same syllables regardless of pitch.

Transposing instrument

An instrument whose written pitch differs from its sounding pitch, such as a B♭ clarinet, which sounds a major second lower.

Alto clef

A C clef placed on the third line of the staff, fixing middle C there; it is the standard clef for the viola.

Period structure

Two phrases, an antecedent and a consequent, where the first ends with a weaker cadence and the second with a stronger one.

Sonata form

A large-scale form with exposition, development, and recapitulation, where the second theme returns in the tonic key.

Rondo form

A form built on a recurring refrain alternating with contrasting episodes, commonly ABACA or ABACABA.

Passacaglia

A set of continuous variations over a repeating bass line, usually in triple metre and minor mode.

Basso continuo

A Baroque accompaniment of a keyboard and bass instrument reading a figured bass line to supply harmony.

Twelve-tone method

A compositional technique using an ordered row of all twelve pitch classes, manipulated through prime, retrograde, inversion, and retrograde inversion forms.

Ars Nova

A fourteenth-century French musical style, associated with Philippe de Vitry, that introduced new rhythmic notation and greater rhythmic independence.

Ritornello form

A Baroque form in which a recurring orchestral passage alternates with contrasting solo episodes, common in the concerto grosso.

Byzantine echos

One of the eight modes of Byzantine chant, each with characteristic melodic formulae and a distinctive final note.

Kontakion

A Byzantine hymn form of many stanzas sung to a model melody, historically associated with Romanos the Melodist.

Tsiattista

A Cypriot tradition of improvised sung couplets in which two singers compete, exchanging verses to a fixed rhythmic and melodic pattern.

Kartchilamas dance

A Cypriot and Aegean dance in a nine-beat cycle, often grouped as 2+2+2+3, performed with a characteristic limping rhythm.

Maqam

An Arabic modal system combining a scale, characteristic melodic phrases, and a customary direction of movement called seyir.

Raga and tala

In Indian classical music, raga is the melodic framework with ascending and descending forms, and tala is the repeating rhythmic cycle.

Gamelan tuning

Indonesian ensembles use slendro, a five-tone roughly equidistant scale, and pelog, a seven-tone scale with unequal intervals.

MIDI channels

A MIDI port carries sixteen independent channels, each able to address a separate instrument through program change messages.

Nyquist theorem

To digitise a signal without aliasing, the sample rate must exceed twice the highest frequency present in the input.