Listening Pieces
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Vivaldi, The Four Seasons
combination of tones that sounds discordant and unstable
dissonance
nonreligious music; when there is text, it is usually in the vernacular
secular music
backward statement of the fugue subject
retrograde
a music drama that is sung throughout, combining the resources of vocal and instrumental music with poetry and drama, acting and dancing, scenery and costumes
opera
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Handel, Messiah
volume of music
dynamics
monophonic melody with a freely flowing, unmeasured vocal line; liturgical chant in the Roman Catholic Church
Gregorian chant
virtuoso composition, generally for organ or harpsichord, in a free and rhapsodic style; in the Baroque period, often served as the introduction to a fugue
prelude/toccata
a performer of extraordinary technical ability
virtuoso
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Bach, The Art of Fugue
structure and design in music; organizing principle of music
central service of the Roman Catholic Church
Mass
in a fugue, a secondary theme heard against the subject
countersubject
Baroque polyphonic form in which one or more themes are developed by imitative counterpoint
fugue
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Palestrina, Pope Marcellus Mass
short melodic idea; smallest fragment of a theme that forms a melodic-harmonic-rhythmic unit
motive
sections of the Roman Catholic Mass that vary from day to day throughout the church year according to the liturgical occasion
Proper
an introductory movement in an opera or oratorio to present melodies and arias to come
overture
mirror or upside-down image of a melody in a fugue
inversion
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Arcadelt, Il bianco e dolce cigno
defines the relationship of pitches with a common tonal center
key
Renaissance secular work originating in Italy for voices, with or without instruments, set to a short, lyric love poem
madrigal
interlude or intermediate section in the Baroque fugue that serves as an area of relaxation between statements of the subject; in a concerto, the free and inventive material that alternates with returns of the instrumental refrain
episode
in a fugue, the first section in which the voices enter in turn with the subject
exposition