Chapter 21-24 Vocabulary Flashcards
(26 cards)
Virtuosity
Remarkable technical skill
Opera
Music drama that is generally sung throughout, combining the resources of vocal and instrumental music with poetry and drama, acting and dancing, scenery and costumes.
Figured Bass
Baroque practice consisting of an independent bass line that often includes numerals indicating the harmony to be supplied by performer. Also called Thorough-Bass
Bass Continuo
Italian for “continuous bass.” See figured bass. Also refers to a performance group with a choral instrument (harpsichord, organ) and one bass melody instrument (cello, bassoon); also Continuo
Major-Minor Tonality
A harmonic system based on the use of major and minor scales, widely practiced from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth century. See also Tonality
Equal Temperament
Turning system (used today) based on the division of the octave into twelve equal half steps.
Castrato
Male singer who was castrated during boyhood to preserve his soprano or alto vocal register, prominent in seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century opera.
Improvisation
The creation of a musical composition while it is being performed, as in Baroque ornamentation, cadenzas of concertos, jazz, and some non-Western musics.
Doxology
A prayer of thanks to God, sung after a psalm or at the close of the Magnificat.
Da Capo (A-B-A structure)
An indication of return to the beginning of a piece.
Recitative
Solo vocal declamation that flows the inflections of the text, often resulting in a disjunct vocal style; found in opera, cantata, and oratorio. Can be secco or accopagnato.
Aria
Lyric song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment, generally expressing intense emotion; found in opera, cantata, and oratorio.
Overture
An introductory movement, as in an opera or oratorio, often presenting melodies from arias to come. Also an orchestral work for concert performance.
Sinfonias
Short instrumental work, found in Baroque opera, to facilitate scene changes.
Libretto
Text or script of an opera, oratorio, cantata, or musical (also called the “book” in a musical).
Masque
English genre of aristocratic entertainment that combined vocal and instrumental music with poetry and dance, developed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Hornpipe
Country dance of the British Isles, often in a lively triple meter, optional dance movement of solo and orchestral Baroque suites. A type of duple-meter hornpipe is still popular in Irish traditional dance music,
Scotch Snap
Short-long rhythm.
Ground Bass
A repeating melody, usually in the bass, throughout a vocal or instrumental composition.
Chorale
Congregational hymn of the German Lutheran church.
Lutheran Cantata
The resulting elaboration-of-chorale, a sort of musical sermon on the original hymn.
Collegium Musicum
An association of amateur musicians, popular in the Baroque era. Also a modern university ensemble dedicated to the performance of early music.
Bar Form (A-A-B)
Section A
Section B
Three part A-A-B form, frequently used in music and poetry, particularly in Germany.
> The first section (Section A) is repeated with new words
> The second section (Section B) is rounded off with the same closing phrases as the first.
Oratorio
Large-scale dramatic genre originating in the Baroque, based on a text of religious or serious character, performed by solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, similar to opera but without scenery, costumes, or action.
