A, B, C, D, E, F, G

Notes of scale

Bagatelle

A short, light piece of music

Ballad

A narrative song

Ballet

Stage dance requiring instrumental accompaniment

Baritone

Male voice between tenor and bass

Bass

Lowest male voice, lowest part of a composition

Cantata

Vocal work for chorus or choir

Cello

Four-stringed instrument played with a bow

Chamber Music

Music played in a room for three or more players

Choir

Body of singers in church or at concerts

Chorus

Body of singers usually singing in four parts

Clavier

German for piano

Composition

A piece of music, act of writing it

Concert

Public performance of any music

Concerto

Composition for one or more solo instruments and orchestra

Counterpoint

Simultaneous combination of two or more melodies, one being the counterpoint of the other

Cycle

Set of songs to be sung together

Development

Working-out section of movement in a sonata

Ensemble

A group of performers of no fixed number

Exposition

Setting out of thematic material in a sonata

Fantasy

A piece involving free play of imagination

Flat

Lowering pitch by a semitone

Form

Layout of a composition

Improvisation

To perform according to imagination, often on a given theme

Instrumentation

Writing music for particular instruments

Major

One of the two main scales of tonal system

Minor

The other of the two main scales of tonal system

Movement

Separate sections of a large scale composition

Note

Single sound of specified pitch and duration

Octet

Composition for eight instruments or voices

Opera

Musical work for the stage with singing characters

Opus

This word followed by a number indicates the order of a composer’s composition

Orchestra

Large body of instrumentalists

Orchestration

Setting out work for instruments of an orchestra

Overture

Instrumental introduction or prelude to larger work such as an opera

Passage

Section of a composition

Passage

Section of a composition

Pianoforte

Full Italian name for the piano

Pitch

Height or depth of a note

Prelude

Introductory piece

Quartet

Composition of four instruments or voices

Quintet

Composition of five instruments or voices

Recapitulation

Section of composition that repeats the original material in a form similar to the original

Romance

Piece of vague songlike character

Romantic

Music, usually referring to that of the 19^th century, whose source of inspiration is not purely musical

Rondo

Form in which one section keeps on recurring

Scale

Progression of adjoining notes upwards or downwards

Semitone

Smallest interval in Western music

Sextet

Composition for six instruments or voices

Sharp

Raising of pitch by a semitone

Solo

Part for performing alone

Sonata

A composition divided into exposition, development and recapitulation

Strings

Refers to violins, violas, cellos, and basses of orchestra

Symphony

Serious orchestral work usually in four movements

Tenor

Highest normal male voice

Tone

Quality of musical sound, interval of two semitones

Trio

Composition for three instruments or voices

Viola

Instrument of violin family

Variation

Varied passage of original theme