ORELA Music (NT504) key terms

The set of five parallel horizontal lines on which pitches are written; a note's vertical position on the lines or in the spaces shows its pitch relative to other notes.

A symbol placed at the start of a staff that fixes which pitches the lines and spaces represent. The treble clef assigns G above middle C to the second line from the bottom.

A treble staff and bass staff joined by a brace so they are read as one system, used for piano and harp music; middle C sits on a ledger line between the two staves.

A short extra line drawn above or below a staff to extend its range, letting pitches such as middle C or high notes be notated when they fall outside the five lines.

The pattern of sharps or flats placed after the clef that indicates the prevailing key; it tells performers which notes are sharped or flatted throughout the piece unless altered.

A sharp, flat, natural, double sharp, or double flat written beside a single note to raise or lower it, overriding the key signature for that note and the rest of its measure.

Describing two note names that sound the same pitch on a fixed-pitch instrument but are spelled differently, such as F sharp and G flat, or C sharp and D flat.

The distance in pitch between two notes, measured by counting letter names inclusively (a third spans three letters) and described by quality, such as major, minor, or perfect.

The interval spanning eight letter names whose upper pitch has twice the frequency of the lower; notes an octave apart sound so similar that they share a letter name.

The numbered position of a note within a scale, counted from the tonic as 1; scale degrees carry names such as tonic, dominant, and leading tone that describe their function.

The first degree of a scale and the pitch that names the key; it is the home tone toward which melodies and harmonies tend to resolve.

The fifth degree of a scale and the chord built on it; it creates strong tension that usually resolves to the tonic, making it central to tonal harmony.

A harmonic or melodic formula that closes a phrase or section. An authentic cadence moves from dominant to tonic; a half cadence pauses on the dominant.

A diagram arranging the twelve keys so each moves up a perfect fifth from the previous one; it shows how key signatures accumulate sharps or flats and maps related keys.

A change from one key to another within a piece, usually prepared by chords shared between the two keys so the new tonic becomes established.

A chord of three notes built in thirds, such as root, third, and fifth; its quality (major, minor, diminished, augmented) depends on the exact intervals between those notes.

A chord of four notes built by stacking thirds above a root, adding a seventh above the triad; common types include dominant seventh, major seventh, and diminished seventh.

The arrangement of a chord so a note other than the root is in the bass; first inversion puts the third lowest, second inversion the fifth, and third inversion the seventh.

A Baroque notation in which numbers under a bass line indicate the intervals to be played above it, guiding keyboard players in realizing chords from a continuo part.

A system labeling chords by the scale degree of their root, using uppercase for major and lowercase for minor; it shows harmonic function regardless of the key.

A chord that acts as the dominant of a scale degree other than the tonic, briefly tonicizing that degree; it is often labeled with a slash, such as V/V.

The art of combining two or more independent melodic lines that sound well together, governed by rules about consonance, dissonance, and the motion between voices.

A texture in which one voice presents a melodic idea and another voice repeats or echoes it shortly after, often at a different pitch level.

A contrapuntal form built on a subject stated in successive voices; entries alternate with episodes, and the subject may appear in stretto, inversion, or augmentation.

A large-scale form common in first movements, with an exposition presenting contrasting themes, a development that fragments and combines them, and a recapitulation returning them in the tonic.

A form in which a stated melody is followed by successive versions that alter it through changes of rhythm, harmony, texture, or ornamentation while keeping its identity recognizable.

A form built on a recurring main theme that alternates with contrasting episodes, commonly diagrammed ABACA, giving a piece a refrain-like sense of return.

The organized grouping of beats into measures, shown by a time signature; duple, triple, and quadruple meters describe how many beats each measure contains.

Two numbers at the start of a piece: the upper shows beats per measure and the lower shows which note value receives one beat, as in 3/4 or 6/8.

The deliberate shifting of rhythmic stress onto a weak beat or between beats, creating tension against the underlying pulse, common in jazz, pop, and Latin music.

The speed at which music is performed, indicated by Italian terms such as allegro or adagio, or by a metronome marking giving beats per minute.

A flexible treatment of tempo in which the performer speeds up or slows down expressively, often borrowing time in one phrase and giving it back in the next.

How individual notes are attacked and released, described by markings such as staccato (short and detached), legato (smoothly connected), accent, and marcato.

The degrees of loudness and softness in music, notated with symbols such as p, mf, and f, or with hairpin marks showing gradual increases or decreases.

The quality of a sound that distinguishes one instrument or voice from another at the same pitch and loudness, arising from its unique mixture of overtones.

The sequence of overtones above a fundamental pitch, each an integer multiple of its frequency; it shapes timbre and underlies brass instruments' ability to play natural harmonics.

Writing or playing music at a pitch level different from the original, or the process by which instruments such as the B-flat trumpet sound a pitch other than the written one.

The span of pitches a voice or instrument can produce, from its lowest to its highest note, often described by comfortable and extreme registers.

How musical lines are woven together: monophonic (one line), homophonic (melody with accompaniment), polyphonic (independent lines), or heterophonic (simultaneous variants of one line).