Vocabulary 3

  1. A cappella - without instrumental accompaniment
  2. Allegretto - slightly slower than allegro, often implying lighter texture and character as well
  3. Bel canto - “beautiful singing”; an Italian Opera term
  4. Divisi - performers singing the same part are divided to sing different parts.
  5. Espressivo - to play or sing with expression
  6. Half-step - a semi-tone. There are 12 half-steps in an octave
  7. Harmonic minor - a minor scale with a raised 7th
  8. Key signature - sharps or flats at the beginning of each staff to indicate which pitches are to be raised or lowered from their natural state during the piece
  9. Largo - very slow and broad
  10. Legato - to play or sing in a smooth, connected manner
  11. Leading tone - the seventh degree of the diatonic scale, when it is only a half-step below the tonic, gives the feeling of wanting to move up to the tonic
  12. Leggiero - lightly
  13. Lunga - a long pause that is determined by the performer or director
  14. Meter - indicated by a time signature, can be simple or compound
  15. Misterioso - play or sing in a mysterious manner
  16. Niente - dying away to nothing
  17. Opera - a major vocal work that involves theatrical elements
  18. Pesante - heavy, ponderous
  19. Perdendosi - gradually dying away, softer and softer
  20. Phrase - a single musical idea or element which is often defined as a repeated, rhythmic pattern, or a melodic contour
  21. Poco pui mosso - a little more motion
  22. Portamento - special manner of singing where the voice glides from one tone to the next through all the intermediate pitches
  23. Premo - first or upper part
  24. Rubato - Making the established pulse flexible by accelerating and slowing down the tempo; an expressive device
  25. Senza - without
  26. Sequence - the repetition of a phrase at different pitch levels using the same or similar intervals
  27. Solfege - a system used for teaching sight-singing (Do-Re-Mi)
  28. Sotto voce - Softly; with subdued sound; performed in an undertone
  29. Sostenuto - in a sustained manner
  30. Staccato - detached; crisply played
  31. Tempo primo - the original speed
  32. Tenuto - fully sustained; occasionally even a bit longer than the note value requires.
  33. Tessitura - most widely used range of pitches in a piece of music
  34. Triad - three note chord consisting of the root, third, and fifth
  35. Tutti - in a choral work, would indicate all voices