Words
Singing in the Rain
Space and Place
Fun and Games
Textures
100
The technique in which the music illustrates or imitates the words being sung
Word painting
100
Many pitches sung over one long, held-out syllable
Melisma
100
Johann Sebastian Bach's large-scale compositions, incorporating the Lutheran chorale, opera, and the baroque concertato medium, were performed in this setting
church
100
Italian poems set to music, to be sung as entertainment among friends
Madrigals
100
The texture of Gregorian chant
Monophonic
200
In this medieval genre, second and third texts elaborate on the meaning implied by an existing segment of a chant
Motet
200
Now extinct, this was a male singer with a soprano or mezzo-soprano range and unusual lung capacity (achieved through surgical means), usually cast in leading roles during the baroque era
Castrato
200
Joseph Haydn’s use of cymbals and bells to evoke the idea of “Turkish music” in his “Military symphony” is an example of this musical practice
Musical exoticism
200
This genre, also called “divertimento,” “scherzando,” and “notturno" in its early days, originally functioned as entertainment music for evening parties.
Symphony
200
In opera, a section of relatively unmetered and dialogue-like singing, over static instrumental accompaniment
Recitative
300
This 15th-century invention contributed to a new market for sheet music for amateur performance
Movable-type printing press
300
This baroque genre, whose name translates to “to be sung,” was a secular composition for solo voice and continuo, with sections of recitative, aria, and arioso
Cantata
300
This sound, pictured above, represented aristocracy, or the outdoors in 18th-century music
Horn fifths
300
This new 18th-century theatrical genre typically revolved around themes of social class, marriage, and deceit
Comic opera (or opera buffa)
300
Musical tastes during this time period rejected polyphony and ornamentation, instead favoring a clear melody and accompaniment texture
Enlightenment/Classical
400
This word comes from the Latin word for "to hold," and describes a vocal part in church organum
Tenor
400
This popular Renaissance technique means the successive entry of multiple voices singing the same (or very similar) melody
Imitation
400
The polyphony composed in this cathedral has been compared to its ornate, Gothic-style architecture
Notre Dame
400
Collections of stylized baroque pieces in binary form, arranged for keyboard or lute
Dance suites
400
In baroque music, this word means BOTH the bass section and the improvised part they play
basso continuo
500
18th-century musical device in which styles and genres are used as “signs” to represent ideas through association
Topics
500
In this kind of mass, each section is constructed around the same melody, usually placed in the tenor part, and often borrowed from an existing song
cantus firmus mass
500
This region was relatively isolated until the fifteenth century, when it came to have a tremendous impact on continental European music
England
500
This composer is known for playing with conventions of musical form and phrasing, to fulfill or deny listeners' expectations.
Joseph Haydn
500
A concerto contains sections of ritornello and solo episodes, similar to the expositions and episodes in this keyboard genre
Fugue