In my posts, all blue underlined words or phrases should appear in this glossary. I will only underline a word or phrase once in a post. By clicking on the word or phrase, it will come straight to the definition – eventually – still working on that. All new posts will have this feature available.
Common Composer Markings
adagietto slightly faster than adagio
adagio slowly and gracefully
allegretto fairly quick – faster than andante and usually slower than allegro
allegro fast
andante walking speed – moderately slow
appassionato with passion!
arco played with the bow (as opposed to plucking the strings)
atonal music with no key centre, all 12 notes are considered equal
battuto (hit) the bow is made to strike the string, not bow it (arco)
crescendo gradually getting louder
espressivo expressively; may also encourage physical expression by the performer; allows the taking of slight liberties with articulation and dynamics
fortissimo very loud
grave very slow – solemn
langsam slow, slowly, gently
largo slow and dignified manner
larghetto rather slow
legato indicates that musical notes are played smoothly and connected
lento to be performed slowly
mezzo-forte moderately loud
moderato moderate speed
molto qualifier – very; much – e.g. allegro molto = very fast – molto largo = very slowly
piano soft
pianissimo very soft
pizzicato a technique for stringed instruments where strings are plucked with the right hand
poco qualifier – a little; to a small degree – e.g. poco adagio – a little faster than adagio
presto very fast
romanze played with a song-like character
rubato played freely, not at a fixed tempo
sarabande a slow, stately Spanish dance in triple time
sostenuto to be played in a sustained or prolonged manner
vivace lively
A more comprehensive glossary of composer markings can be found on many internet sites.
Other Relevant Musical Terms
abstract – music that is not explicitly ‘about’ anything; in contrast to program music, it is non-representational. It is often atonal. Could apply to Beethoven’s Late Quartets; a complex Bach Fugue or extremely Modernist works. You can’t quite put your finger on it; a bit mysterious.
arpeggio – a chord whose notes are played in succession rather than simultaneously. This succession may either be slow, or rapid.
atonal – music that has no tonal centre, and is not in any particular key. Leads to an abstract, often dissonant, sounding music. It can also sound very beautiful!
avante-garde – movements or individuals at the forefront of innovation and experimentation in their fields.
Bartok pizzicato – pizzicato plucked very hard, with the string bouncing off the neck.
canon – a piece of music where one voice repeats the part of another, throughout the whole piece.
chamber music – music for small ensembles, originally played in homes by amateur musicians. Due to this, most of the early chamber music was not technically difficult. Over time, the string quartet has become the most popular chamber ensemble. It is now rarely played in homes!
counterpoint – music consisting of two or more lines that sound simultaneously, each played with a different phrasing.
chromatic – interspersing the seven primary tones of a scale with the five normally unused tones.
Deutsche Grammophone (DG) – from Germany, the world’s most prolific classical recording company.
entropy – I love this word, for me it’s always meant ‘degree of randomness’ but it has some scientific definition as well.
exposition – the initial presentation of the theme of a composition, movement, or section. The use of the term generally implies that the material will be developed or varied at a later stage.
FOSQC – French One String Quartet Club – the more than a handful of French composers who wrote just one string quartet. Members include Debussy, Ravel, Faure, Dutilleux and many others, who are scattered about this blog.
fugue – a short melody or phrase, known as the subject – introduced by one instrument, successively taken up by others and developed by interweaving the parts. For a more detailed definition, please read my ‘BACH – The Art of Fugue’ post here.
glissando – a glide from one pitch to another; used on stringed instruments. In modern music the technique of bowing a note, and then sliding the fingers down the fingerboard, leading to notes that descend in a smeared manner, is a very modern technique, producing micro-tones, and a whining sound.
harmonics – the creation of a sound effect on stringed instruments. The player gently touches a string above where a note would normally be fingered, then plucks the string. A bell-like sound ensues.
harmonise – adding harmony notes to a melodic line.
harmony, harmonies or harmonic background – the sounding of two or more musical notes at the same time to form chords – used to accompany a melody.
Impressionism – a movement among various composers in Western classical music, mainly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose music focuses on suggestion and atmosphere, writing about the feeling obtained from some object or event, not about the thing itself. (Thanks Wiki)
je ne sais quoi – a pleasant quality that is hard to describe (French).
lyrical – song-like, expressing the composer’s emotions in an imaginative and beautiful way.
miniaturism – fitting a lot of musical expression into a small space. (I made it up)
Minimalism – a hotly debated term. Prominent features of the technique include consonant harmony, steady pulse (if not immobile drones), stasis or gradual transformation, and often reiteration of musical phrases or smaller units such as figures, motifs, and cells. (Thanks Wiki)
Modal – a system of using different scales other than the common major and minor scales – leads to ethnic or folk-like melodies. Obscure modes are the standard in some middle eastern countries, leading to the phrase eastern sounding. However, modal scales are found all around the world.
microtones – intervals smaller than a semitone; the notes between the notes.
Neo-classicism – a twentieth century movement, particularly popular in the period between the two World Wars, in which composers drew inspiration from certain elements of music from the eighteenth century. A reaction against Modernism.
ostinato – a continually repeated, musical phrase or rhythm – (plural ostinati), but I sometimes use ostinatos.
pastoral – having the emotional feeling of a countryside – e.g. trees, hills, wide open plains.
pentatonic – pentatonic scales contain five notes as compared to the seven notes found in a normal scale – commonly used in folk music around the world – leading to an ‘open’ feel in the melodies.
program music – music intended to convey an impression of a definite series of images, scenes or events.
recapitulation– repeating a melody that has been played earlier, usually after a development phase.
serial – also Twelve-tone – the 12 pitches are arranged into a ‘tone-row’ and the composer then has to follow a series of rules in using the tones. For example, no one tone can be repeated until all of the other eleven have been used. Various inversions and manipulations can be made to the basic row, giving 48 possibilities. Can lead to very difficult music for some listeners.
scherzo a vigorous, light, or playful composition, typically comprising a movement in a symphony or sonata.
staccato – a technique where consecutive notes are played sharply and cut off, leaving gaps between the notes.
string quartet – a musical ensemble consisting of two violins, a viola and a cello; a piece written for such an ensemble.
syncopated – stressing a normally weak beat.
timbre – the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone – what makes a particular musical sound have a different sound from another.
tonal – also tonality – a musical system that arranges pitches or chords to induce a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, and attractions. The pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is called the tonic, and the root of the tonic chord is considered to be the key of a piece or song. This is as opposed to atonality, which has no key centre. Tonalities may be major or minor, which is a slightly darker version of major.
tone poem – an instrumental composition intended to portray a particular story or poem, scene or mood.