Specialising in
ADULT MUSIC EDUCATION
Small group classes
Ainslie Arts Centre & Online
GLOSSARY OF MUSICAL TERMS:
A - D
Accelerando
Accelerating, growing faster.
Accent
A stress, or added emphasis given to a note.
Accidental
Any chromatic sign nof found in the key signature, occurring in the course of a piece.
Adagio
Ad libitum
A direction signifying that performers may employ the tempo of expression that suits them.
Aeolian mode
Affettuoso
With passion, emotion, feeling; very expressively; tenderly.
Agitato
Agitated.
Aisis
A double sharp.
Al fine
To finish.
Alla breve
A meter of 2/2; two minims per bar.
Allargando
Growing slower.
Allegretto
Quite lively; moderately fast (faster than andante, slower than allegro).
Allegro
Lively, swift.
Al segno
To the sign.
Anacrusis
Commencement of a piece or phrase on a weak beat, weak part of the bar or incomplete bar.
Andantino
A little slower than andante.
Animato
Animated, with spirit, vivaciously.
Andante
Going, moving, with movement; a tempo mark indicating a moderately slow, easily flowing movement between adagio and allegretto.
Antecedent
Any theme or motive propsed for imitation, or imitated further on. Also, the theme or subject of a canon or fugue, as proposed by the first part.
Arabesque
A type of fanciful piano piece.
Arpeggio
A broken chord; each note of a chord played in succession.
Articulation
The manner in which notes are joined one to another; or, on the piano, the way in which a note is depressed and released.
Assai
Very.
A tempo
In time; at the preceding rate of speed.
Attacca
Attack, or begin what follows without pausing.
Bagatelle
A trifle; usually, a short, fairly easy piece.
Ballade
A ballad-like art song, or an instrumental solo piece.
Bar
The metrical unit in a composition, comprising one set of a time signature.
Barline
A vertical line dividing bars on the staff.
Berceuse
A cradle song; lullaby.
Bravura
Boldess, spirit, dash, brilliance.
Breve
Short.
Brillante
Brilliant, showy, sparkling.
Cadence
The close or ending of a phrase, section, movement or piece.
Calando
Decreasing; growing softer and slower.
Cantabile
Singable, song-like; in a singing or vocal style.
Capo
Head, beginning.
Capriccio
An instrumental piece free in form.
Capriccioso
In a cparicious, fanciful, fantastic style.
Cédez
Go slower.
Celere
Rapid, swift.
Chromatic
Outside the scale, relating to tones foreign to a given key; opposed to diatonic.
Coda
Tail, ending.
Codetta
A short coda.
Con
With.
Consequent
The part imitating the antecedent or leader; in a canon, the follower.
Contrary motion
In opposite direction; parts progress in contrary motion when one moves up while the other moves down or, in piano music, when hands move either inwards or outwards together.
Crescendo
Swelling, increasing on loudness; gradually getting louder.
Crotchet
A quarter note.
Cut time
Alla breve.
Dal segno
From the sign.
Decrescendo
Decreasing in loudness; gradually getting softer.
Degree
One of the eight consecutive tones in a major or minor diatonic scale, counted upward from the keynote.
Delicato
Delicately; in a delicate, refined style.
Development
The working out, evolution or elaboration of a theme by presenting it in varied melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic treatment.
Diatonic
Of the scale; by, through, with, within, or embracing the tones of the standard major or minor scale.
Diluendo
Growing softer, dying away.
Diminuendo
Diminishing in loudness.
Distinamente
Distinctly.
Dolce
Sweet, soft.
Dolcissimo
Very sweetly, softly.
Doloroso
In a style expressive of pain or grief.
Dorian mode
The church mode that corresponds to the scale from D to D played on the white keys of the piano; the order of intervals is: tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone, tone.
Double bar
The two vertical lines drawn through the staff to indicate the end of a section, movement or piece.
Dynamics
The varying and contrasting degrees of intensity of loudness in musical tones; volume.
Dominant
The fifth tone in the major or minor scale.
Duplet
A group of two equal notes to be executed in the time of three of the same kind of notes in the established rhythm.