MUSIC MIDTERM NOTES:

MUSICAL LINE

• Pitch: How high or low a note sounds.

• Frequency: How fast a sound vibrates (higher vibration = higher pitch).

• Interval: The distance and space between two notes.

• Melody: A series of notes that sound good together, like a musical sentence. has to be linear. not played at the same time. 

• Range: The distance between the lowest and highest notes a singer or instrument can play.

• Contour: The shape of a melody (whether the notes go up or down).

• Conjunct: When a melody moves smoothly, with small steps between notes.

• Disjunct: When a melody jumps between notes that are farther apart.

• Phrase: A small section of a melody, like a musical "sentence."

• Cadence: A resting point in music, like a period in a sentence.

• Climax: The most exciting or highest point in a melody.

• Countermelody: A second melody played at the same time as the main one.

RHYTHM AND METER

• Time: How long a sound lasts or how we organize music in time.

• Rhythm: The pattern of long and short sounds in music.

• Meter: How beats are grouped in music (like 4 beats per measure).

• Duration: How long a note or rest lasts.

• Beat: The steady pulse you feel in music.

• Pulse: Same as the beat—the steady underlying pulse.

• Measure: A section of music that contains a set number of beats.

• Barline: The line that divides measures in sheet music.

• Duple: Music with 2 beats per measure.

• Triple: Music with 3 beats per measure.

• Quadruple: Music with 4 beats per measure.

• Simple Meter: Beats are divided into two parts (like 1, 2, 1, 2).

• Compound Meter: Beats are divided into three parts (like 1-and-a, 2-and-a).

• Syncopation: When notes are played off the main beat, making the rhythm feel a bit unexpected.

• Mixed Meter: Changing time signatures within a piece.

• Polyrhythm: Multiple rhythms happening at the same time.

• Nonmetric music: Music that doesn’t have a strong, regular beat.

HARMONY: MUSICAL DEPTH

• Melody: The main tune of a piece of music.

• Chord: When you play more than one note at the same time.

• Harmony: Notes that are played together to support the melody.

• Scale: A series of notes in order, like a musical ladder.

• Octave: When two notes are eight steps apart but sound similar.

• Tonic: The fundamental”: baseline pitch. home" note that feels stable and where music usually back down the stairs where it wants to return.

• Triad: A basic three-note chord.

• Major: A type of scale or chord that sounds happy or bright.

• Minor: A type of scale or chord that sounds sad or dark.

• Dissonance: Notes that clash or sound tense together.

• Consonance: Notes that sound pleasant together.

• Drone: A long, continuous note played under the melody.

MUSICAL TEXTURE

• Texture: How many layers of sound are happening at once.

• Monophonic: One single melody without harmony.

• Polyphonic: Multiple independent melodies playing at the same time.

• Homophonic: A main melody with chords supporting it.

• Heterophonic: Two versions of the same melody played slightly differently.

• Imitation: When one voice or instrument copies what another has just played.

• Canon: A melody that’s repeated by different voices starting at different times.

• Call and Response: One voice or instrument plays a phrase, and another answers it.

MUSICAL FORM

• Form: The overall structure of a piece of music.

• Theme: A main melody or idea in music.

• Variation: A change made to the theme.

• Strophic: Music where the same section is repeated, like a song with verses.

• Through-composed: Music that doesn’t repeat; it keeps changing.

• Coda: The ending section of a piece of music.

• Improvisation: Making up music on the spot.

• Motive: A short, repeating musical idea.

• Binary: A form with two sections (A-B).

• Ternary: A form with three sections (A-B-A).

• Rounded Binary: Like binary, but with a little bit of A repeated at the end (A-B-A').

• Ostinato: A repeated musical pattern.

MUSICAL EXPRESSION

• Tempo: How fast or slow the music is.

• Expression Markings: Symbols or words in music that tell you how to play with feeling.

• Dynamics: How loud or soft the music is.

• Crescendo: Gradually getting louder.

• Decrescendo: Gradually getting softer.

• Ritardando: Gradually slowing down.

• Accelerando: Gradually speeding up.

• A tempo: Returning to the original speed.

STYLE AND GENRE

• Genre: A category or type of music (like rock, classical, etc.).

• Difference between form and genre: Form is the structure of a piece, genre is its style or type.

• How are genre and form related?: Genre sets expectations for what kind of music you’ll hear, while form shows how it's organized.

• How do genre and form interact?: Different genres often use specific forms (like pop songs often have verse-chorus form).

MIDDLE AGES

• Fall of Rome: The collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 AD. let back to kngihts and king of hill.

• Feudal/Manorial Systems: A social structure where lords owned land, and peasants worked it in exchange for protection.

• Pope Gregory: Credited with organizing church music, particularly Gregorian Chant.

• Charlemagne: A powerful ruler who helped spread Christianity and education in Europe.

• Hildegard: A famous female composer of church music in the Middle Ages.

• Chant (Gregorian Chant/Plainchant/Plainsong): Simple, religious singing with no instruments and no regular rhythm.

  • Features of chant: Monophonic, free rhythm, and sacred.

  • Syllabic: One note per syllable.

  • Neumatic: A few notes per syllable.

  • Melismatic: Many notes per syllable.

• Notre Dame and the advent of harmony: A time when composers started experimenting with adding harmonies to plainchant.

• Organum: Early harmony, with one voice singing the chant and another singing parallel or a drone.