Baroque – Flashcards

a contrapuntal composition in which a short melody or phrase (the subject) is introduced by one part and successively taken up by others and developed by interweaving the parts.

a type of instrumental dance music that consists of several movements or short pieces in the same key and functions as dance music or dinner music during social gatherings.

a composition for an instrumental soloist, often with a piano accompaniment, typically in several movements with one or more in sonata form.

The concerto grosso, plural concerti grossi, is a form of baroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists and full orchestra.

a concerto in which a single soloist is accompanied by an orchestra. It is the most frequent type of concerto. It originated in the Baroque Period (c. 1600-1750) as an alternative to the traditional concertino (solo group of instruments) in a concerto grosso.

a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers

a form of musical accompaniment used in the Baroque period. It means "continuous bass". Basso continuo, sometimes just called "continuo", was played by a keyboard instrument and another bass instrument such as cello, violone (an old form of double bass) or bassoon.

a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession.

a short concerto freer in form. It normally takes the form of a one-movement musical composition for solo instrument and orchestra, though some concertinos are written in several movements played without a pause.

the body of instruments accompanying the concertino in baroque concerto music. "the concertino is accompanied by ripieno strings"

a short instrumental refrain or interlude in a vocal work. a recurring tutti section in a concerto.

a passage to be performed with all voices or instruments together.

a virtuoso solo passage inserted into a movement in a concerto or other work, typically near the end.

with two or more independent melodic lines.

the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based. In forms such as the fugue this may be known as the subject.

a second or subsidiary subject, especially accompanying the subject or its answer in a fugue.

the restatement of a motif or longer melodic (or harmonic) passage at a higher or lower pitch in the same voice.

the initial presentation of the thematic material of a musical composition, movement, or section. The use of the term generally implies that the material will be developed or varied.

a process by which a musical idea is communicated in the course of a composition. It refers to the transformation and restatement of initial material, and is often contrasted with musical variation, which is a slightly different means to the same end.

a compositional device where a melody, theme or motif is presented in longer note-values than were previously used.

Retrograde inversion is a musical term that literally means "backwards and upside down": The inverse of the series is sounded in reverse order.

Diminution may be a form of embellishment in which a long note is divided into a series of shorter, usually melodic, values

An element found in music that is a digression from the main structure of the composition. It is a passage that is not a part of the main theme groups of a composition, but is an ornamental or constructive section added to the main elements of the composition. In a fugue, it is a connective passage or area of relaxation between entrances of the subject. a digression from the major figure

a section at the end of a fugue in which successive introductions of the theme follow at shorter intervals than before, increasing the sense of excitement.

a note sustained in one part (usually the bass) through successive harmonies, some of which are independent of it.

two or more voices (or instrumental parts) sing or play the same music starting at different times. A round is a type of canon, but in a round each voice, when it finishes, can start at the beginning again so that the piece can go "round and round".

a short theme, usually in the bass, that is constantly repeated as the other parts of the music vary.

Slow duple meter

Triple meter and sounds like running

Slow, stately, triple meter

Lively compound time (musical rhythm or meter in which each beat in a bar is subdivided into three smaller units, so having the value of a dotted note.

a lively dance associated with sailors, typically performed by one person.

a slow, stately ballroom dance for two in triple time, popular especially in the 18th century.

quick duple meter

an introductory piece of music, most commonly an orchestral opening to an act of an opera, the first movement of a suite, or a piece preceding a fugue.

Lengthy work for voices and orchestra consisting of: -Recitatives -Choruses -Arias

a dramatic work in one or more acts, set to music for singers and instrumentalists.

a medium-length narrative piece of music for voices with instrumental accompaniment, typically with solos, chorus, and orchestra.

a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy (principally that of the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, and Lutheranism) to music.

originally, music set to the gospel narrative of the passion of our Lord; after the Reformation, a kind of oratorio, with narrative, chorals, airs, and choruses, having for its theme the passion and crucifixion of Christ.

a musical composition (or part of one) consisting of or resembling a harmonized version of a simple, stately hymn tune.

a long, accompanied song for a solo voice, typically one in an opera or oratorio.

a group singing choral parts in connection with soloists or individual singers. a piece of music for singing in unison. a part of a song that recurs at intervals, usually following each verse; refrain.

a rhythmically free vocal style that imitates the natural inflections of speech and that is used for dialogue and narrative in operas and oratorios; also : a passage to be delivered in this style.

a piece of music played by an orchestra at the beginning of an opera or play.