ILTS Music (212) key terms

The ability to identify or produce a named pitch, such as C4, without any external reference tone. It is distinct from relative pitch, which relies on comparison to a known note.

The skill of identifying or reproducing intervals and melodies by comparing them to a reference pitch. Most trained musicians rely on it for sight-singing, tuning, and dictation.

The quality of a sound that distinguishes instruments or voices producing the same pitch and loudness. It arises from the overtone spectrum and the attack, decay, and vibrato of the tone.

The sequence of frequencies above a fundamental that vibrate in whole-number multiples of it. The series explains instrumental tone color, brass harmonics, and the acoustic basis of chord roots.

The distance in pitch between two notes, measured in diatonic steps and quality, such as a major third or perfect fifth. Intervals may be harmonic (simultaneous) or melodic (successive).

Shifting music to a different pitch level while keeping the same intervallic relationships. It allows singers and transposing instruments to perform in comfortable or written keys.

A symbol at the start of a staff that fixes which lines and spaces represent which pitches. Treble, bass, alto, and tenor clefs are the ones most commonly used in performance and study.

The sharps or flats placed after the clef that indicate the tonal center of a passage. It shows the diatonic collection in use and reduces the need for repeated accidentals.

A change of tonal center within a composition, usually prepared by a pivot chord or a dominant of the new key. It creates formal contrast and long-range harmonic motion.

A harmonic or melodic formula that closes a phrase or section. Common types include authentic, half, plagal, and deceptive, each producing a different degree of finality.

The grouping of music into phrases, periods, and sentences, often marked by cadences. It describes how melodic ideas combine into larger formal units.

A large-scale structure common in first movements, built from an exposition, development, and recapitulation. It presents contrasting themes, works them through key areas, and resolves them at the close.

The art of combining independent melodic lines that sound well together. Species counterpoint and imitative forms such as the fugue train composers in voice leading and rhythmic independence.

The rules and conventions governing how individual parts move from chord to chord. Smooth motion, resolution of tendency tones, and avoidance of parallel fifths and octaves are central concerns.

A shorthand notation of numbers under a bass line that specifies intervals above the bass, indicating chords. It is the basis of Baroque accompaniment and of part-writing exercises.

A minor scale with the seventh degree raised a semitone, creating a leading tone and an augmented second between the sixth and seventh degrees. It supplies the dominant harmony common in tonal music.

A contrapuntal composition in which a subject is stated in successive voices and developed through imitation, episodes, and stretto. It represents the height of imitative counterpoint.

The craft of assigning musical material to instruments or voices to achieve balance, color, and clarity. It includes doubling, register choices, and idiomatic writing for each family.

The standard hand motion a conductor uses to show meter, such as the two-, three-, or four-beat patterns. The pattern communicates beat, tempo, dynamics, and entrances to the ensemble.

The speed of a piece, indicated by Italian terms such as allegro or andante or by a metronome marking in beats per minute. It strongly shapes the character of the music.

How a note is sounded and released, such as staccato, legato, accent, or marcato. Markings guide phrasing and style and are interpreted differently across historical periods.

A structure in which a principal theme alternates with contrasting episodes, often as ABACA. It provides recurring return and variety, common in final movements.

A form presenting a theme followed by successive variations that alter melody, harmony, rhythm, or texture. Each variation retains recognizable links to the original material.

A harmonic and formal pattern of twelve measures using I, IV, and V chords in a set order. Its lyric structure and swing feel shaped jazz, rock, and popular styles.

The deliberate stressing of weak beats or offbeats, disrupting the expected metric accent. It is a defining feature of jazz, ragtime, Latin, and many popular styles.

A rhythmic feel in which paired notes of equal written value are performed with a long-short ratio. It also refers broadly to the propulsive, syncopated style of jazz from the 1930s.

The spontaneous creation of music in performance, often over a given harmonic pattern. It ranges from ornamented variation to free collective playing in jazz and other traditions.

A five-note scale, commonly the major pentatonic built on scale degrees 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. It appears in folk music worldwide and in the blues and rock idioms.

Belonging to or derived from the seven notes of a major or natural minor scale without chromatic alteration. Diatonic harmony uses chords built from those scale tones.

The use of pitches outside the prevailing diatonic scale, adding color and tension. It drives modulation, altered chords, and late Romantic and twentieth-century harmony.

Compositional practice that avoids a tonal center and the traditional hierarchy of tonic and dominant. It emerged in the early twentieth century and includes free and twelve-tone approaches.

A method organizing pitches, rhythms, or other elements into fixed ordered rows. Twelve-tone serialism, developed by Schoenberg, treats all twelve pitch classes as equal.

Instrumental music that depicts a story, scene, or extra-musical idea, often guided by a written program. Tone poems and programmatic symphonies are typical examples.

A short musical idea associated with a character, object, or concept, developed and transformed throughout a work. Wagner's operas popularized the technique, which also appears in film scores.

A comic Italian opera with everyday characters and rapid, speech-like recitative. It flourished in the eighteenth century and influenced Mozart's mature operas.

A speech-like vocal style that advances plot with minimal melodic repetition, accompanied by continuo or orchestra. It connects arias and ensembles in opera and oratorio.

A self-contained solo vocal piece in opera, oratorio, or cantata that expresses emotion through melody. Its form, such as da capo, shapes the dramatic pacing of a work.