Pitch
What is the relative minor of B♭ major?
G minor
What is another word for a pick-up note?
anacrusis
What pattern is used to relate the 15 major scales?
the circle of fifths
What is the smallest unit of form?
motive/motif
What is the art of giving an instrument instructions for how to play called?
arranging
How is a melodic minor scale different from a natural minor scale?
the 6th and 7th scale degrees are raised
Which beat is stressed in triple meter?
the first (STRONG-weak-weak)
diminished triad
What is a cadence?
a resting point in the music
What is the term for the characteristics of a sound? (two acceptable answers)
tone color or timbre
What is the contour of a melody? What characteristics might it describe?
contour = the profile of a melody; eg. how it ascends/descends/overall flow or being conjunct/disjunct
What is the difference between beat and meter?
beat is the underlying pulse, whereas meter is how the beat is emphasized and grouped
How would you know a chord is in first inversion?
the third of the triad is on the botom
What are the three options a composer has when expected to resolve a dissonant passage?
thwart resolution, defer resolution, or immediately resolve to consonance
What are the two types of polyphony?
counterpoint and imitative polyphony
What is the name of the faintly heard higher pitches when playing a note?
overtones/partials
What is rubato?
slowing and speeding up the beat for expression
What does harmonic progression move between? (from what to what)
from dissonance to consonance
What is the pattern of 32-bar form?
AABA
What is counterpoint?
multiple different melodies being played simultaneously, often in different octaves, fitting into the same harmonic progression
What is a disjunct melody?
one with many big leaps of intervals more than a major second
What tempo term did John Adams create to describe the extremely fast tempo in Short Ride in a Fast Machine?
delirando (in a delirious manner)
What does Charles Ives use in "Charlie Rutlage" to depict a falling horse?
multi-octave cluster chord
What are the three main parts of sonata form? (answer in the order each occurs)
exposition, development, recapitulation
Name the four types of texture in Western music.
monophony (1 melody), homophony (melody + harmony), polyphony (2+ melodies), heterophony (variants of the same melody)