18. Glossary

Art Song – a composition setting a poem to music, generally for one solo voice and piano accompaniment; in German, a lied

Chamber Music – music such as art songs, piano character pieces, and string quartets, primarily performed in small performing spaces, often for personal entertainment

Chromaticism – use of “colorful,” dissonant pitches, that are not included in the key of the composition

Concerto – a composition for a soloist or a group of soloists and an orchestra, generally in three movements in fast, slow, and fast tempos, respectively

Conductor – the individual who leads an orchestra or ensemble

Drone – a sustained pitch or pitches often found in music of the Middle Ages or earlier and in folk music

Idée Fixe – a melodic motive that appears in all five movements of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique to represent the beloved from the program

Leitmotiv – “guiding motive” associated with a specific character, theme, or locale in a music drama, and first associated with the music of Richard Wagner

Mazurka – a Polish dance in triple time, with emphasis on beat 2

Nationalism – pride in one’s nation or cultural identity, often expressed in art, literature, and music

Opera – a drama almost entirely sung to orchestral accompaniment, with accompanying costumes and staging

Plagal Cadence – ending of a musical phrase or composition that consists of a IV (subdominant) chord moving to a I (tonic) chord and most often associated with church music

Program Music – instrumental music intended to represent something extra-musical such as a poem, narrative, drama, or picture, or the ideas, images, or sounds therein

Program Symphony – program music in the form of a multi-movement composition for orchestra

Rubato – the momentary speeding up or slowing down of the tempo within a melody line, literally “robbing” time from one note to give to another

Scena ad Aria – 19th-century operatic combination of a “scena” (a dramatic solo typically including a recitative) plus an aria; here the aria generally has two parts, a slower cantabile and a faster cabaletta

Sonata – a composition for a solo instrument or an instrument with piano accompaniment, generally in three movements in fast, slow, and fast tempos, respectively

Sonata Form – a form often found in the first and last movements of sonatas, symphonies, and string quartets, consisting of three parts—exposition, development, and recapitulation

Song Cycle – a collection of art songs, unified by poet, narrative, musical style, or composer

String Quartet – performing ensemble consisting of two violinists, one violist, and one cellist that plays compositions called string quartets, generally in four movements

Strophic – a composition that uses the repetition of the same music (“strophes”) for successive texts

Symphonic Poem – program music in the form of a single-movement for orchestra; sometimes called a tone poem

Symphony – multi-movement composition for orchestra, often in four movements

Ternary Form – describes a musical composition in three parts, most often featuring two similar sections, separated by a contrasting section, and represented by the letters A – B – A

Through-Composed – a movement or composition consisting of new music throughout, without repetition of internal sections