Advanced Higher Music Concepts

Advanced Higher Music Concepts

Renaissance

Pavan

Galliard

Motet

Air / ayre

Ballett

Madrigal

Anthem

Chorale

Serial

Nationalist

Electronic Dance Music

Contemporary Jazz

Contemporary jazz is an umbrella term for all kinds of jazz music being played now - as well as jazz music of the 80s, 90s, 00s & 10s – which can feature some or all of the following:

sophisticated, highly chromatic harmonies (verging on impressionist or atonal)

rhythmic experimentation (cross rhythms, changing time signatures)

development of a groove based on just two or three chords

instruments used in experimental ways (melodic instruments used in percussive roles, harmonics and other virtuoso performing techniques)

world music and avant garde influences and

inclusion of instruments never used seriously in jazz before (flugelhorn, flute or oboe)

Appoggiatura

Turn

Suspension

Tritone

Bitonality

Polytonallity

Tone row / note row

Augmented triad

Music played in 2 or more keys at the same time. In this piano piece by Bartok, listen to the left hand ostinato. When the right hand enters with the melody, it is in a different key.

Here is some chamber music which features polytonality.

Consort

Countertenor

Sprechgesang

Piano trio

Fugue

Subject

Countersubject

Answer

Stretto

Antiphonal

Bridge

Leitmotiv

Inversion

Retrograde

Song cycle

When the baddies appear in the Magnificent 7, we always hear this theme ...

Melody / Harmony

Timbre & dynamics

Appoggiatura

Consort

An appoggiatura is an ornament. It leans

on the main note, usually taking half of

its value.

A consort is a group of similar instruments. The term often applies to Renaissance instrumental music.

This is a viol consort.

This is a recorder consort.

Turn

A turn is an ornament comprising 4 notes - the note above the written note, the written note, the note

below the written note and the written note.

Suspension

This effect occurs when a note from one chord is held over to the next chord creating a discord, and is then resolved by moving one step to make a concord.

Sprechgesang

Countertenor

Sprechgesang (speech song) is

a form of vocal music usually heard

in serialist compositions. The singer

performs in a dramatic manner, half

way between singing and speaking.

A male voice, higher than a tenor.

Tritone

A tritone comprises 2 notes which are 3 tones apart, like this -

Both of these tunes begin with a tritone

Tone row / note row

Piano trio

A feature of serialism, this is an arrangement of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale. Melodies and harmonies are derived from this row, with no one note more important than any other. With no tonal centres, the music which results is atonal. The row can be heard in retrograde form and well as in inversion (and retrograde inversion!).

Bitonality

A piano trio is a chamber music ensemble comprising piano, violin and cello.

&

Polytonality

Styles

Augmented triad

The Renaisssance period -

A triad is a 3 note chord. An augmented triad occurs when the 5th of a major chord is raised by a semitone.

Galliard

Pavan

An instrumental dance from the Renaissance period.

Often paired with a pavan, a galliard is lively and has 3 beats in a bar.

An instrumental dance from the

Renaissance period, a pavan is

slow, with 2 beats in a bar.

A diminsished triad is formed by flattening the 3rd and 5th of a major triad - like this.

Remember that a major triad is formed from the 1st, 3rd and 5th steps of a major scale, like this.

Texture, structure & form

A minor triad is formed from the 1st, 3rd and 5th steps of a minor scale - or by flattening the 3rd of a major triad - like this.

Madrigal

A secular work from the Renaissance period, a madrigal is a vocal composition, sung a capella and making use of imitation.

Air / ayre

A song or simple melody. In Renaissance music, this can refer to a lute song, performed by a soloist with lute accompaniment.

Ballett

Answer

From the Renaissance period,

a ballett is a type of madrigal,

sung a cappella. It is in strophic form and features repeated fa la las.

As we have seen, the first theme heard in a fugue is called the subject. Following this, this same theme is heard in imitation in another voice and at a different pitch (usually a 5th higher or a 4th lower). This imitation of the subject is called the answer.

Fugue

A fugue is a polyphonic (contrapuntal) composition. It begins with the main theme - called the subject - played as a single line (no accompaniment). Other lines (voices) enter in succession, imitating the subject.

Subject

Rhythm / Tempo

Chorale

Countersubject

The main theme in a composition. In a fugue, the subject is the first theme heard.

A German hymn tune,

homophonic in texture.

In a fugue, after the subject or answer is played, the continuation of that same instrument or voice is called the countersubject.

Motet

Usually - but not exclusively - from the Renaissance period, a motet is a sacred choral work, polyphonic in texture and with a Latin text.

Anthem

An anthem is a sacred choral piece, sung in English, usually a cappella.

Song cycle

Stretto

Hemiola

In a fugue, stretto occurs when the voices enter one at a time, quickly after the previous entry.

A group of songs linked by a common theme. Schubert, for example, linked some lieder in his song cycles 'Die Schöne Müllerin' and 'Winterreise'.

Antiphonal

Dialogue between one group of voices / instruments and another. A sort of musical question and answer.

Contemporary Jazz

Retrograde

Literally, backwards. A melody can be reversed, making the last note the first of a new theme, and so on. In serialist music, the original tone or note row could later be heard in retrograde form.

Nationalist

Music which incorporates elements of the traditional music (melody, rhythms) of the composer's home country, which evokes a mood or which deals with themes relating to a specific country, e.g. in opera.

Electronic Dance Music

Serial

Leitmotiv

Inversion

A recurring theme - heard in opera, film music, musicals, etc. - intended to bring to mind a specific character, mood, location, etc. Can be difficult to spot without context.

A sort of mirror image effect. If a phrase begins with three notes which ascend by a tone each time, the inversion of the phrase would be three notes which descend by a tone each time.

Bridge

A passage of music which links two main themes.