Selected Glossary

Alberti bass a repeated keyboard figuration of broken chords, usually played by the Left hand

Augmented-sixth chord a seventh chord built on the lowered sixth degree of the scale

Bel canto literally, “beautiful singing”; describes the expressive, legato, heavily ornamented singing of baroque-era operas and early nineteenth-century Italian operas by Bellini, Rossini, and Donizetti

Brillante piano style from first half of nineteenth century, characterized by rapid, showy figuration with many scales, runs, and keyboard embroidery

Cadence harmonic point of pause or completion at the end of a piece, section, or Phrase

Cadenza improvisational section in which performer can show off impressive skill and speed

Character piece a nineteenth-century instrumental composition that explores a scene, a mood, or even an aural portrait of an individual; within this broad genre are works by Felix Mendelssohn (Lieder ohne Worte), Robert Schumann (Kinderszenen), and Frédéric Chopin (nocturnes, impromptus, ballades)

Contrafactum (plural, contrafacta) song created by adding new words to existing Music

Dominant the fifth degree of the scale or the chord built on the fifth degree, with a strong tendency to move to the tonic chord

Figured bass baroque-era keyboard notation that indicates with numbers which chord to play above a given bass line

Full cadence resting point on the tonic chord

Half cadence resting point on the dominant chord

Half-diminished chord chord built of two minor thirds plus a minor seventh

Half step interval between two adjacent notes on the keyboard, either white key to

black key, or white key to white key, if th ere is no black key between them

Homophonic musical texture that moves predominately from chord to chord

Interval distance or relationship between two pitches, whether heard one after another or sounding together

Modified strophic song form in which most verses are sung to the same musical tune, but one or two verses are altered for intentional contrast, such minor key

Modulation musical transition from one key to another

Plagal cadence cadence that moves from the subdominant chord to the tonic, often used for “Amen” at the end of hymns

Primo the treble part of a piano duo

Romance short instrumental piece of lyrical, sentimental nature, without any fixed form