Documents for "Music: Theory, Forms, and Instruments":

• étude a brief musical composition, usually for piano, fashioned to instruct an instrumentalist in a particular technical problem, such as scales or trills. Succeeding the toccata, popular in the baroque...

• absolute music term used for music dependent on its structure alone for comprehension. It is the antithesis of program music. It is not associated with extramusical ideas or with a pictorial or narrative scheme of emotions, nor does it attempt to reproduce sounds in nature. Hence it is always instrumental, although not...

• absolute pitch the position of a tone in the musical scale determined according to its number of vibrations per second, irrespective of other tones. The term also denotes the capacity to identify any tone upon...

• accordion musical instrument consisting of a rectangular bellows expanded and contracted between the hands. Buttons or keys operated by the player open valves, allowing air to enter or to escape. The air...

• aleatory music [Lat. alea =dice game], music in which elements traditionally determined by the composer are determined either by a process of random selection chosen by the composer or by the exercise of choice by the...

• alpenhorn see alphorn.

• alphorn or alpenhorn [Ger.,=Alps horn], wooden horn from 3 ft to 12 ft (91 cm-3.7 m) long, sometimes curved slightly, with conical bore and a cup-shaped mouthpiece. It produces only the natural harmonics of the tube,...

• alto singing voice the range of which is lower than the soprano by the interval of a fifth. More generally, the term refers to the register in which this voice sings, i.e., the second highest part in a...

• American Negro spirituals see spiritual.

• anthem [ultimately from antiphon ], short nonliturgical choral composition used in Protestant services, usually accompanied and having an English text. The term is used in a broader sense for "national anthems" and for the Latin motets still used occasionally in Anglican services. A full anthem is entirely choral, while a verse anthem includes parts for solo singers. The anthem arose in the Anglican...

• antiphon in Roman Catholic liturgical music, generally a short text sung before and after a psalm or canticle. The main use is in group singing of the Divine Office in a monastery. However, the sung...

• aria elaborate and often lengthy solo song with instrumental accompaniment. In the 16th cent. it was a melody improvised over a strophic bass line, and a distinction was made between instrumental,...

• armonica see harmonica 2.

• art song see song.

• atonality in music, systematic avoidance of harmonic or melodic reference to tonal centers (see key ). The term is used to designate a method of composition in which the composer has deliberately rejected the principle of tonality. Tonality is a form of musical organization that involves a clear distinction between consonance and dissonance, a definite classification of harmonic results as more and less dissonant, and...

• authentic modes see mode , in music.

• bagpipe musical instrument whose ancient origin was probably in Mesopotamia from which it was carried east and west by Celtic migrations. It was used in ancient Greece and Rome and has been long known in...

• balalaika Russian stringed musical instrument, with a triangular body and a long fretted neck fretted instrument. Usually there are three strings, which are generally plucked with a pick. The balalaika is...

• band in music, a group of musicians playing principally on wind and percussion instruments, usually outdoors. Prior to the 18th cent., the term band was frequently applied in a generic sense to cover the combinations of instruments employed by kings and nobles. The term is also used for an ensemble of any one type of instrument, as brass band,...

• banjo stringed musical instrument, with a body resembling a tambourine. The banjo consists of a hoop over which a skin membrane is stretched; it has a long, often fretted neck and four to nine strings,...

• baritone or barytone , male voice , in a lighter and higher range than a bass but lower than a tenor. The term also designates a bass stringed instrument, fretted, with six or seven bowed strings, and up to 20 sympathetic (i.e.,...

• baroque in music, a style that prevailed from the last decades of the 16th cent. to the first decades of the 18th cent. Its beginnings were in the late 16th-century revolt against polyphony that gave rise to the accompanied recitative and to opera. With opera and recitative came the figured bass , used consistently in ensemble music throughout the baroque era. Renaissance polyphony persisted, however, being called the stile antico and considered more appropriate to the church than the nuove musiche. The baroque period was thus one of stylistic duality; it was an era that displayed emotional extremes (see romanticism ). By the end of the era major and minor tonality had replaced the church modes. Contrapuntal writing was resumed in the middle baroque period, but it now had a harmonic basis. Idiomatic writing, taking account of the individual character and capacities of instruments and...

• barrel organ mechanical musical instrument requiring nothing but the regular rotary motion of a handle to keep it going. It probably originated at the beginning of the 18th cent., and was once used extensively...

• barytone see baritone.

• bass in musical harmony, the part of lowest pitch. The term is used for the lowest-pitched male voice and for instruments of low pitch, such as bass clarinet, bass drum, bassoon (bass oboe), and bass trombone....

• bass viol properly, the largest instrument of the viol family. The term now refers most often to the double bass.

• bassoon double-reed woodwind instrument that plays in the bass and tenor registers. Its 8-ft (2.4-m) conical tube is bent double, the instrument thus being about 4 ft (1.2 m) high. It evolved from earlier...

• bell in music, a percussion instrument consisting of a hollow metal vessel, often cup-shaped with an outward-flaring rim, damped at one end and set into vibration by a blow from a clapper within or from...

• bow implement used in playing stringed instruments. Its name originated from the fact that in its early form it resembled an archer's bow, but by the 17th cent. the European bow had gradually become...

• brass wind instrument see wind instrument.

• bugle brass wind musical instrument consisting of a conical tube coiled once upon itself, capable of producing five or six harmonics. It is usually in G or B flat. Its principal use is for military and...

• cadence in music, the ending of a phrase or composition. In singing the voice may be raised or lowered, or the singer may execute elaborate variations within the key. In instrumental music, with...

• calliope in music, an instrument also called steam organ or steam piano in which steam is forced through a series of whistles controlled by a keyboard. It is usually played mechanically, and its shrill...

• canon in music, a type of counterpoint employing the strictest form of imitation. All the voices of a canon have the same melody, beginning at different times. Successive entrances may be at the same or at different pitches. Another form of canon is the circle canon, or round , e.g., Sumer Is Icumen In. In the 14th and 15th cent. retrograde motion was employed to form what is known as crab canon, or canon cancrizans, wherein the original melody is turned backward to become the second voice. In...

• cantata [Ital.,=sung], composite musical form similar to a short unacted opera or brief oratorio , developed in Italy in the baroque period. The term was first used in 1620 to refer to strophic variations in the voice part over a recurrent melody in the bass accompaniment. Gradually the cantata...

• cantor [Lat.,=singer], a singer or chanter, especially one who performs the solo chants of a church service. The office of cantor, at first an honorary one, originated in the Jewish synagogues, in which...

• canzone or canzona, in music, a type of instrumental music in Italy in the 16th and 17th cent. The term had previously been given to strophic songs for five or six voices; usually the canzone had three sections. The...

• carillon in music: see bell.

• carol popular hymn, of joyful nature, in celebration of an occasion such as May Day, Easter, or Christmas. The earliest English carols date from the 15th cent. The carol is characterized by simplicity of...

• castanets percussion instruments known to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, possibly of Middle Eastern origin, now used primarily in Spanish dance music or imitations of it. There are many kinds, the most...

• castrato [Ital.,=castrated], a male singer with an artificially created soprano or alto voice, the result of castration in boyhood. The combination of the larynx of a youth and the chest and lungs of a man...

• celesta keyboard musical instrument patented in 1886 by Auguste Mustel of Paris. It consists of a set of steel bars fastened over wood resonators and struck by hammers operated from the keyboard. The...

• cello or 'cello: see violin.

• chaconne and passacaglia two closely related musical forms popular during the baroque period. Both are in triple meter time and employ a characteristic recurring harmonic pattern or actual bass line of four or eight bars...

• chamber music ensemble music for small groups of instruments, with only one player to each part. Its essence is individual treatment of parts and the exclusion of virtuosic elements. Originally played by...

• change ringing see bell.

• chant general name for one-voiced, unaccompanied, liturgical music. Usually it refers to the liturgical melodies of the Byzantine, Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Anglican churches and is analogous...

• chanter see bagpipe.

• chantey or shanty , work song with marked rhythm, particularly one sung by a group of sailors while hoisting sail or anchor or pushing the capstan. Often it has solo stanzas sung by a leader, the chanteyman, with a...

• cheng Chinese stringed instrument similar to the zither. It is also spelled jeng and tseng.

• chime in music: see bell.

• choir [O.Fr.] 1 A group of singers; traditionally the chorus organized to sing in a church. Usually, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran choirs are composed of men and boys, but occasionally in these churches...

• chorale any of the traditional hymns of the German Protestant Church. The form was developed after the Reformation to replace the plainsong of the earlier service and as a means of congregational participation in the liturgy. Early chorales were mainly translations of Latin hymns set to folksong melodies. The chorale is strophic,...

• chord in music, two or more simultaneously sounding pitches. In tonal music the fundamental chord is called the triad. It consists of three pitches, two a perfect fifth apart and a third pitch a major or...

• chorus in music, large group of singers performing in concert; a group singing liturgical music is a choir. The term chorus may also be used for a group singing or dancing together in a musical or in ballet. By extension it can also mean the refrain of a song. Choral music stems from religious and folk music, both...

• chromatic scale in music: see scale.

• church music 1 Music intended for performance as part of services of worship. With few exceptions, music is essential to the ritual of every religion; the singing of prayers and portions of Scripture is part of...

• cithara see kithara.

• cithern see cittern.

• cittern stringed musical instrument of the guitar family having an oval body, a flat back, and a fretted neck. Its strings, made of wire and varying in number, were plucked. It was first made in the...

• clarinet musical wind instrument of cylindrical bore employing a single reed. The clarinet family comprises all single-reed instruments, including the saxophone. The predecessor of the modern clarinet was...

• clavichord keyboard musical instrument invented in the Middle Ages. It consists of a small rectangular wooden box, placed upon a table or on legs, containing a sounding board and a set of strings. Keys cause...

• clef in music: see musical notation.

• coloratura see soprano.

• computer music term used to describe music composed or performed with the aid of a computer. The first substantial piece of music composed on a computer was the Illiac Suite (1956) by the avant-garde composer Lejaren Hiller (1925-94). Computer music can be divided into two distinct production techniques: MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface—see electronic music ) and software synthesis. In MIDI production a computer is used to control the outputs of synthesizers and signal-processing devices. Software synthesis, however, involves the use of a computer to...

• concert in music, public performance of a group of musical compositions. Originally the word referred simply to a group of musicians playing together; concerts by a solo performer are properly called...

• concertina musical instrument whose tone is produced by free reeds. It was invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1829. It is a chromatic instrument similar to the accordion , but its bellows are attached to hexagonal...

• concerto musical composition usually for an orchestra and a soloist or a group of soloists. In the 16th cent. concertare and concertato implied an ensemble, either vocal or instrumental. At the end of the century concerto referred to music in which two ensembles contested with each other. By 1750 it meant music contrasting a full ensemble with soloists in alternation. The form known as concerto grosso is characterized by a small group of solo players contrasted with the full orchestra. Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1709) and Vivaldi established the concerto grosso in three movements, while Corelli used four or more, alternating fast and slow movements. These three composers were active in the development of all forms of the concerto in the baroque period. J. S. Bach's six Brandenburg...

• concerto grosso see concerto.

• concrete music see electronic music.

• conducting in music, the art of unifying the efforts of a number of musicians simultaneously engaged in musical performance. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance the conductor was primarily a time beater,...

• conductus see motet.

• contrabassoon large, deep-toned instrument of the oboe family, also called double bassoon. Its tube, over 16 ft (5 m) long, is doubled upon itself four times. It was first made by Hans Schreiber of Berlin in...

• contralto female voice of lowest pitch. Originally, the term denoted a second voice set against ( contra ) a high voice ( alto ); thus, a second high voice. Since most second parts were for a high male voice...

• cornet brass wind musical instrument, created in France about 1830 by adding valves to the post horn. It is usually in B flat and is the same size as the B flat trumpet, but has a more conical bore. The...

• counterpoint in music, the art of combining melodies each of which is independent though forming part of a homogeneous texture. The term derives from the Latin for "point against point," meaning note against note in referring to the notation of plainsong. The academic study of counterpoint was long based on Gradus ad Parnassum (1725, tr. 1943) by Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741), an Austrian theorist and composer. This work formulates the study of counterpoint into five species—note against note, two notes against one, four...

• countertenor a male singing voice in the alto range. Singing in this range requires either a special vocal technique called falsetto, or a high extension of the tenor range. Countertenors were required during...

• crumhorn J-shaped, double-reed musical instrument used throughout Europe from the 15th cent. through the 17th cent. It possesses a soft, reedy tone. The reed is enclosed by a wooden cap with a hole at the...

• cymbals percussion instruments of ancient Asian origin. They consist of a pair of slightly concave metal plates which produce a vibrant sound of indeterminate pitch. Known in Europe since the Middle Ages,...

• double bass bowed stringed musical instrument, the contrabass of the modern orchestral string section. It originated as a double-bass viol , an instrument described as early as 1566. A true double-bass violin appeared during the 18th cent. but was rejected as unwieldy and of poor tonal quality. The present double bass is tuned in fourths and usually has a flat back and sloping shoulders but has never...

• double bassoon see contrabassoon.

• drum in music, percussion instrument, known in various forms and played throughout the world and throughout history. Essentially a drum is a frame over which one or more membranes or skins are...

• dulcimer stringed musical instrument. It is a wooden box with strings stretched over it that are struck with small mallets. The number of strings may vary. The dulcimer is related to the psaltery and modern zither. It originated in the Middle East and was adopted in Europe in the Middle Ages. It is known, in varying forms, in Turkey, Iran, China (including Tibet), and other parts of Asia, the Middle East,...

• electro-acoustic music see electronic music.

• electronic music or electro-acoustic music, term for compositions that utilize the capacities of electronic media for creating and altering sounds.

• English horn musical instrument, the alto of the oboe family, pitched a fifth lower than the oboe and treated as a transposing instrument. It has a pear-shaped bell, giving it a soft, melancholy tone. The first important parts for it were written by Rossini in William Tell (1829) and by Meyerbeer in Robert le diable (1831). Other composers, notably Wagner, have used it in opera and orchestral music. The 18th-century form of the instrument was curved, whence, possibly, its misleading designation as a horn. In...

• equal temperament see tuning systems.

• falsetto [Ital.,=diminutive of false ], high-pitched, unnatural tones above the normal register of the male voice , produced, according to some theories, by the vibration of only the edges of the larynx. Some male altos are tenors skilled in the use of falsetto. Falsetto tone is usually thin and expressionless,...

• fantasia [Ital.,=fancy], musical composition not restricted to a formal design, but constructed freely in the manner of an improvisation. In the 16th and 17th cent., however, the term designated a...

• fife small transverse flute with six to eight finger holes adopted for military music by Swiss regiments serving in France in the late 15th cent. The fife was used in the British army until the end of...

• figure in music, short melodic or rhythmic pattern, the smallest grouping of notes that will produce a single distinct impression. In this sense figure is synonymous with motive. In music before the 18th cent., a figure had an additional meaning of symbolic significance; it was an illustration in sound of textual details, e.g., a descending group of notes for any word...

• figured bass in music, a system of shorthand notation in which figures are written below the notes of the bass part to indicate the chords to be played. Called also thorough bass and basso continuo, it arose in...

• flügelhorn three-valved brass instrument similar in size and shape to the trumpet but having a conical rather than a cylindrical bore and possessing a larger bell. Because of these differences the tone of the flügelhorn is mellower than that of the trumpet. It is used...

• flageolet small straight flute of conical bore, with a whistle mouthpiece. The number of finger holes varies, as does the length, which may be from 4 to 12 in (10.2-30.5 cm). The flageolet, related to the recorder...

• flamenco Spanish music and dance typical of the Gypsy , or gitano. Flamenco dancing is characterized by colorful costumes, intense and erotic movements, stamping of the feet ( zapateado ), and clapping of the hands ( palmada ); its execution is brilliant, noisy, and passionate. Flamenco music is believed to have originated in the early 19th cent. from the canto hondo [Sp.,=deep song] of Andalusia, a highly emotional and tragic type of song accompanied by a guitar. By the mid-19th cent. flamenco had become a generally popular entertainment form, and it...

• flute in music, generic term for such wind instruments as the fife , the flageolet , the panpipes , the piccolo , and the recorder. The tone of all flutes is produced by an airstream directed against an edge, producing eddies that set up vibrations in the air enclosed in the attached tube. In the transverse flute, the...

• French horn brass wind musical instrument. Fundamentally a metal tube of narrow conical bore, it is curved into circles because of its great length. The horn ends in a wide flare. It is a development (c.1650)...

• fugue [Ital.,=flight], in music, a form of composition in which the basic principle is imitative counterpoint of several voices. Its main elements are: (1) a theme, or subject, stated first in one voice alone and then successively in all voices; (2) the continuation of a voice after the subject, forming an...

• glass harmonica see harmonica 2.

• glee in music, an unaccompanied song for three or more solo voices in harmony. The word glee [Anglo-Saxon, gligge or gliw =music] has been associated with vocal music from the time of the medieval gleeman or jongleur. The glee consisted of several short, individual pieces interpreting a poetic passage. The form is...

• glockenspiel [Ger.,=bell-play], percussion instrument. The medieval glockenspiel was a sort of miniature carillon (see bell ), sometimes played mechanically by means of a rotating cylinder with protruding pins. In the 16th cent. it was given a keyboard. The 18th-century glockenspiel had metal bars instead of bells, and...

• gong percussion instrument consisting of a disk, usually with upturned edges, 3 ft (91 cm) or more in diameter in the modern orchestra, often made of bronze, and struck with a felt- or leather-covered...

• Gregorian chant see plainsong.

• ground bass melodic phrase used repeatedly as a bass line. In its earlier form, developed in the 13th and 14th cent., the ground or basso ostinato [Ital.=obstinate] never varied in harmonization or pitch. The tenor, or pes, of Sumer Is Icumen In is such a ground. Another sort was developed during the 17th cent. by Purcell and his contemporaries. This ground was not rigid as to pitch, sometimes moving from bass to soprano. It was composed...

• guitar musical instrument related to the lute, modern guitars normally having six strings that are plucked with the fingers or strummed with a pick. Earlier versions had pairs of strings like the lute...

• harmonic 1 Physical term describing the vibration in segments of a sound-producing body (see sound ). A string vibrates simultaneously in its whole length and in segments of halves, thirds, fourths, etc. These segments form what is known in algebra as a harmonic series or progression, since the...

• harmonica 1 The simplest of the musical instruments employing free reeds, known also as the mouth organ or French harp. It was probably invented in 1829 by Friedrich Buschmann of Berlin, who called his...

• harmonium see reed organ.

• harmony in music, simultaneous sounding of two or more tones and, especially, the study of chords and their relations. Harmony was the last in the development of what may be considered the basic elements...

• harp stringed musical instrument of ancient origin, the strings of which are plucked with the fingers. Harps were found in paintings from the 13th cent. BC at Thebes. In different forms it was played by...

• harpsichord stringed musical instrument played from a keyboard. Its strings, two or more to a note, are plucked by quills or jacks. The harpsichord originated in the 14th cent. and by the 16th cent. Venice was...

• hautboy see oboe.

• homophony species of musical ensemble texture in which all voice parts move more or less to the same rhythm, in which a listener tends to hear the highest voice as the melody and the lower voices as its...

• horn in symphonic and chamber music: see French horn.

• hula traditional Hawaiian dance usually performed standing with symbolically descriptive arm and hand movements and gracefully sensual undulations of the hips; it is also done in a sitting position...

• hurdy-gurdy musical instrument with three strings, caused to vibrate by a wooden wheel turned by a crank. Stopping was accomplished by keys that usually affected only one string that played the melody, the...

• hymn song of praise, devotion, or thanksgiving, especially of a religious character (see also cantata ).

• imitation in music, a device of counterpoint wherein a phrase or motive is employed successively in more than one voice. The imitation may be exact, the same intervals being repeated at the same or different pitches, or it may be free, in...

• instrumentation in music: see orchestra and orchestration.

• intermezzo . 1 Any theatrical entertainment of a light nature performed between the divisions of a longer, more serious work. 2 In the 17th and 18th cent., a short independent comic scene with everyday characters was interpolated between acts of serious operas. In the 18th cent. it developed into opera buffa (see opera ); a famous example is Pergolesi 's La serva padrona. 3 In the 19th cent., a short independent piece having the character of an interlude, or a movement of such character in a larger work such as a symphony or sonata. It was a favorite form of Schumann...

• interval in music, the difference in pitch between two tones. Intervals may be measured acoustically in terms of their vibration numbers. They are more generally named according to the number of steps they...

• jew's-harp or jews'-harp, musical instrument of ancient lineage composed of a small metal frame containing a flexible metal tongue. The frame is held between the teeth and the metal tongue is plucked with the fingers. Each...

• kettledrum in music, percussion instrument consisting of a hemispherical metal vessel over which a membrane is stretched, played with soft-headed wooden drumsticks. Of ancient origin, it appeared early in...

• key 1 In music, term used to indicate the scale from which the tonal material of a given composition is derived. To say, for example, that a composition is in the key of C major means that it uses as its basic tonal material the tones of that...

• kithara or cithara , musical instrument of the ancient Greeks. It was a plucked instrument, a larger and stronger form of the lyre , used by professional musicians both for solo playing and for the accompaniment of poetry and song. It consisted of a relatively square wooden box that extended at one end into heavy arms...

• koto a Japanese string instrument related in structure to the zither. It consists of an elongated rectangular wooden body, strung lengthwise with 7 to 13 silk strings. The uniformly long strings are tuned to one of several standard tunings by moveable wooden...

• libretto [Ital.,=little book], the text of an opera or an oratorio. Although a play usually emphasizes an integrated plot, a libretto is most often a loose plot connecting a series of episodes...

• lied and lieder: see song.

• lute musical instrument that has a half-pear-shaped body, a fretted neck, and a variable number of strings, which are plucked with the fingers. The long lute, with its neck much longer than its body,...

• lyre generic term for stringed musical instruments having a sound box from which project curved arms joined by a crossbar. The strings are stretched between the crossbar and the sound box and are...

• madrigal name for two different forms of Italian music, one related to the poetic madrigal in the 14th cent., the other the most common form of secular vocal music in the 16th cent. The poetic madrigal is a...

• mandolin musical instrument of the lute family, with a half-pear-shaped body, a fretted neck, and a variable number of strings, plucked with the fingers or with a plectrum. The earlier mandolin, with five...

• march in music, composition intended to accompany marching. The only constant characteristics of a march are duple meter and a fairly simple rhythmic design. In mood, marches range from the moving death...

• marimba see xylophone.

• measure in music, a metrical unit having a given number of beats, the first of which normally is accented, although the accent may be displaced by syncopation. Measures are separated on the staff by...

• melodeon or melodium: see reed organ.

• melody succession of single tones of varying pitch. Melody is the linear aspect of music, in contrast to harmony, the chordal aspect, which results from the simultaneous sounding of tones. Melody must be...

• meter in music, the division of a composition into units of equal time value called measures, and the subdivision of those measures into an underlying pattern of stresses or accents (see measure ). Meter is usually indicated by a time signature, a fraction whose numerator indicates the number of beats in a measure and whose denominator indicates the note value that is the unit of beating...

• metronome in music, originally pyramid-shaped clockwork mechanism to indicate the exact tempo in which a work is to be performed. It has a double pendulum whose pace can be altered by sliding the upper...

• mezzo-soprano see soprano.

• minstrel professional secular musician of the Middle Ages. The modern application of the term is general and includes the jongleurs. Certain very able jongleurs ceased their wanderings and were attached to a court to play or sing the songs of the troubadours or trouvères who employed them. To these and to some itinerant musicians was applied in the 14th cent. the term ménétrier and later ménestrel, from which the word minstrel is derived, to indicate a higher social class than jongleur. Increasing in number and influence, these minstrels were organized and given protection of the law. Their function was at times similar...

• mode in music. 1 A grouping or arrangement of notes in a scale with respect to a most important note (in the pretonal modes of Western music, this note is called the final or finalis ), and the patterns of larger and smaller steps (in Western music, whole and half steps) which these notes form. In the Middle Ages eight modes were developed as a theoretical foundation for plainsong performance, notation, and composition. These modes, derived from church practice, and explained either in their own terms, or using terms drawn from ancient Greek music theory, were grouped in...

• modulation in music, shift in the key center of a composition. For its accomplishment use is made of the fact that each chord figures in the harmonic relationships of several keys. In modulating from one key to another, a chord that is...

• motet name for the outstanding type of musical composition of the 13th cent. and for a different type that originated in the Renaissance. The 13th-century motet, a creation (c.1200) of the school of...

• motif in music: see motive.

• motive or motif , in music, a short phrase or passage of two or more notes and repeated or elaborated throughout the composition. The term is usually used synonymously with figure. A special kind of motive is the leitmotiv, wherein a character or a dramatic idea is represented throughout an opera by one or more motives. The leitmotiv technique is almost as old as opera...

• mouth organ see harmonica 1.

• music For information on types of music see such articles as absolute music ; aleatory music ; chamber music ; church music ; computer music ; electronic music ; jazz ; program music ; rock music...

• musical glasses see harmonica 2.

• musical instruments are classified in various ways, but the system devised in 1914 by Kurt Sachs and E. M. von Hornbostel has been accorded recognition by both anthropologists and musicologists because it is...

• musical notation symbols used to make a written record of musical sounds.

• musicology systematized study of music and musical style, particularly in the realm of historical research. The scholarly study of music of different historical periods was not practiced until the 18th cent.,...

• mute in music, device designed to diminish uniformly the loudness of a musical instrument. For example, a trumpet mute is cone-shaped and fits into the instrument's bell, and a violin mute is a wooden...

• neume in music: see musical notation.

• nocturne [Fr.,=night piece], in music, romantic instrumental piece, free in form and usually reflective or languid in character. John Field wrote the first nocturnes, influencing Chopin in the writing of...

• note in musical notation , symbol placed on or between the lines of a staff to indicate the pitch and the relative duration of the tone to be produced by voice or instrument. The largest note value in common use in the...

• obbligato [Ital.,=obligatory], in music, originally a term by which a composer indicated that a certain part was indispensable to the music. Obbligato was thus the direct opposite to ad libitum [Lat.,=at...

• oboe [Ital., from Fr. hautbois ] or hautboy , woodwind instrument of conical bore, its mouthpiece having a double reed. The instruments possessing these general characteristics may be referred to as the oboe family, which includes the English horn , the bassoon , and the contrabassoon or double bassoon. The oboe was developed in the mid-17th cent. in France from various older double-reed instruments, which the oboe, with its greater expressive and dynamic range, largely...

• ocarina musical wind instrument with eight finger holes and two thumb holes, rather egg-shaped, and made of metal, terra-cotta or plastic. Unlike other wind instuments, it produces pure tones that lack...

• octave [Lat.,=eighth], in music, the perfect interval between the 1st and 8th tones of the diatonic scale. The upper note of a perfect octave has a frequency of vibration twice that of the lower, and in modern Western notation the two have the same...

• opera drama set to music.

• operetta type of light opera with a frivolous, sentimental story, often employing parody and satire and containing both spoken dialogue and much light, pleasant music. In the early 19th-century opéras comiques of Boieldieu, Auber, and Adolphe Adam, there was a growing tendency toward sophistication, preparing the way for Offenbach, who during the French Second Empire created the operetta. The distinction...

• ophicleide [Gr.,=serpent with keys], brass wind musical instrument of relatively wide conical bore, largest of the keyed bugles ; invented in 1817 by Jean-Hilaire Asté of Paris. It had from 8 to 11 keys and a full, loud tone; since its intonation was deficient, however, it was soon displaced in the orchestra by the bass...

• opus [Lat.,=work], in music, term used in cataloging a composer's works, designating either a single composition or a group published together or considered a unit. Opus numbers assigned by the composer...

• oratorio musical composition employing chorus, orchestra, and soloists and usually, but not necessarily, a setting of a sacred libretto without stage action or scenery. The immediate forerunner of...

• orchestra and orchestration an orchestra is a musical ensemble of mixed instruments based on strings and winds, under the direction of a conductor, employing four classes of instruments: strings, woodwinds, brass, and...

• organ a musical wind instrument in which sound is produced by one or more sets of pipes controlled by a keyboard, each pipe producing only one pitch by means of a mechanically produced or electrically...

• organum in music, compositional technique, developed in Europe during the 10th cent., in which each note of Gregorian chant melody was doubled by another note. In the earliest examples, called parallel...

• ornament in music, notes added to a melodic line for the purpose of embellishment or decoration, often called graces. Ornamentation was practiced as early as the Middle Ages by the singers of plainsong, and...

• ostinato see ground bass.

• overture instrumental musical composition written as an introduction to an opera, ballet, oratorio, musical, or play. The earliest Italian opera overtures were simply pieces of orchestral music and were...

• Pandean pipes see panpipes.

• panpipes   Pandean pipes , or syrinx , musical wind instrument, consisting of graduated tubes closed at one end and fastened together. The player holds the instrument vertically and blows into the open end of the tube; each tube has...

• passacaglia see chaconne and passacaglia.

• passion music choral music whose text depicts events immediately surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus. The earliest passions, composed from the 9th to the 14th cent., were monophonic and employed the actual...

• percussion instrument any instrument that produces musical sound when its surface is struck with an implement (such as a mallet, stick, or disk) or with the hand. Perhaps the most universally familiar percussion...

• piano or pianoforte, musical instrument whose sound is produced by vibrating strings struck by felt hammers that are controlled from a keyboard.

• piccolo small transverse flute pitched an octave higher than the standard flute. Its tone is bright and shrill, and it can produce the highest notes in the orchestral range. The piccolo is used in orchestras and especially in...

• pitch in music, the position of a tone in the musical scale , today designated by a letter name and determined by the frequency of vibration of the source of the tone. Pitch is an attribute of every musical tone; the fundamental, or first harmonic , of any tone is perceived as its pitch. The earliest successful attempt to standardize pitch was made in 1858, when a commission of musicians and scientists appointed by the French government...

• pizzicato in music, the technique of plucking the strings of an instrument that is usually bowed. Directions for playing pizzicato are found in early 17th-century music. Paganini introduced left-hand...

• plainchant see plainsong.