Pitch
What is conjunct?
The organisation of beats into regular patterns.
What is metre?
Not many layers of sound playing at once.
What is thin texture?
Gradually getting louder.
What is a crescendo?
Repeating an idea already heard in the music.
What is repetition?
Where sounds sit from high to low.
What is register?
A piece has a regular pulse, but no instrument clearly articulates that pulse.
What is implicit beat?
A passage begins with only a solo flute, then gradually adds violin, cello and piano parts until several independent layers are sounding simultaneously.
What is an example of texture density changing?
Things like accents and different ways of beginning or ending a sound.
What is articulation?
Re-using a musical idea by changing it throughout a piece.
What is motivic development?
A melodic fragment that is repeated at a different pitch.
What is a sequence?
A metre in which each beat divides naturally into three quavers.
What is compound metre?
The musical function performed by a particular instrument or layer, such as melody or accompaniment.
What is role?
Suddenly soft.
What is subito piano?
A section returns after contrasting material, producing an overall A–B–A pattern.
What is ternary form?
The rate of change of chords.
What is harmonic rhythm?
Multiple rhythmic patterns occurring at the same time.
What is polyrhythm?
Two instruments play the melody in a similar fashion, but with slight variations between them.
What is heterophonic texture?
Sliding between notes on a violin.
What is portamento?
There are no repeating sections in the music; each section is new.
What is through-composed?
Taking a major scale and starting it on the second note.
What is the dorian mode?
11 quaver beats per bar.
What is 11/8 time signature?
The size, shape and method of sound production.
What impacts the timbre of an instrument?
A device that you put inside the bell to alter the sound of the instrument.
What is a brass mute?
A method of motivic development where you halve the lengths of the notes.