Catherine Hoang IB Music Terms A capella: Choral singing performed without instruments.

The expression means in chapel style in Italian. Absolute music: Music that makes no intentional reference to a non-musical source, such as a literary work, visual image, historical event, etc. Coined in the Romantic Period to make a distinction between "pure" music and program music (music that tells a story). Accelerando: gradually faster Accent: the emphasis placed on a note as part of the rhythm of a piece of music, or a mark representing it Accompanied Reccitative: a recitative in which the orchestra (or selected members of the instrumental ensemble) play an active role, rather than simply sustaining chords to provide a harmonic foundation for the singer. Accompanied recitatives are fairly common in the Viennese Classical Era (Mozart), but a few examples do appear in Bach's cantatas. Aerophone: any of a class of musical instruments in which a vibrating mass of air produces the initial sound. The basic types include woodwind, brass, and free-reed instruments, as well as instruments that fall into none of these groups, such as the bull-roarer and the siren. Aleatoric: some element of the composition is left to chance, and/or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the determination of its performer(s) Arpeggio: a succession of chord tones. Aria: (Italian) "Air." A self-contained, melodic section of a large-scale vocal work (opera , cantata, or oratorio) sung by a soloist with instrumental or orchestral accompaniment. It is distinct from the more speech-like recitative sections. There are also arias that exist independent of any larger work, and in the Baroque period, some instrumental works were called arias, such as the theme of Bach's Goldberg Variations. Arioso: Sometimes used to identify vocal or instrumental music in a lyrical style. Atonality: Music without tonality, or music that is centered around no central key or scale. First used to describe certain compositions by Arnold Schoenberg, Anton von Webern, and Alban Berg. Schoenberg's term was pantonal. Augmentation: Lengthening the duration of notes in a theme. Ballet: Ballet as a music form progressed from simply a complement to dance, to a concrete compositional form that often had as much value as the dance that went along with it. A classical form of dance; A theatrical presentation of such dancing, usually with music, sometimes in the form of a story Basso Continuo: also called continuo, thoroughbass, or figured bass, in music, a system of partially improvised accompaniment played on a bass line, usually on a keyboard instrument Basso Ostinato: a bass line continuously repeated

Binary: the structural pattern of many songs and instrumental pieces, primarily from the 17th to the 19th century, characterized by two complementary, related sections of more or less equal duration that may be represented schematically as ab. Bitonality: the use in music of two different keys at the same time Blues: the name given to both a musical form and a music genre created primarily within the AfricanAmerican communities in the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads Break: an instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to stoptime being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece. Bridge: a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section. The bridge may be the third eight-bar phrase in a thirty-two-bar form (the B in AABA) Cadence: a point of repose or rest in a work of music, occurring at the end of a piece, a movement, a section, or the end of a phrase. There are several types of cadences: perfect authentic (the strongest affirmation of a key), imperfect authentic, deceptive, plagal (sometimes called "Amen" cadence), and half cadence. Cadenza: literally, cadence; in common usage, however, the term means an improvised or written-out solo passage, usually highly ornamental. Almost always occurs during an interrupted cadence; that is, on the second or third chord prior to a cadence. Call and Response: a form of music in which one musician leads a melody with a call and others respond. It can be verbal or nonverbal, and is most closely associated with African culture and music, although many other cultures use call and response in their musical traditions. Cantata: a composition for one or more voices usually comprising solos, duets, recitatives, and choruses and sung to an instrumental accompaniment Cantus Firmus: 1) the plainsong or simple Gregorian melody originally sung in unison and prescribed as to form and use by ecclesiastical tradition 2) a melodic theme or subject; especially : one for contrapuntal treatment Castrato: a singer castrated before puberty to preserve the soprano or contralto range of his voice Chamber Music: music and especially instrumental ensemble music intended for performance in a private room or small auditorium and usually having one performer for each part Chorale: a hymn or psalm sung to a traditional or composed melody in church; also : a harmonization of a chorale melody <a Bach chorale> Chord: three or more musical tones sounded simultaneously Chordophone: any musical instrument which makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points. (harps, lutes, lyres, and zithers) Chorus: a part of a song or hymn recurring at intervals. something performed, sung, or uttered simultaneously or unanimously by a number of persons or animals

Chorus (Jazz): one full cycle through a song s form. An improviser usually plays at least one chorus during his solo, but may play many more, especially if the song has a short form, such as a blues. Church modes: one of eight scales prevalent in medieval music each utilizing a different pattern of intervals and beginning on a different tone (Ionia, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian) Classicism: characteristics- a concern for musical form with a greater emphasis on clarity with more concise melodic expression and clarity of instrumental color. Clef: a sign placed at the beginning of a musical staff to determine the pitch of the notes Climax: The highest point of anything conceived of as growing or developing or unfolding Coda: a concluding musical section that is formally distinct from the main structure Complete Cadence: A musical cadence, when the final notes of a verse in a chant are on the tonic. Concert Overture: Single-movement concert piece for orchestra, typically from the Romantic period and often based upon a literary program. Concerto: a piece for one or more soloists and orchestra with three contrasting movements Concerto Grosso: literally, large concerto. It features a group of soloists ( concertino ) rather than a single soloist. The rest of the orchestra ("tutti" or "ripieno") accompanies and plays in between phrases featuring the soloists. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos No. 1, 2, and 4 are concerti grossi. Consonance: The simultaneous sounding of two or more tones which produce an effect of stability or harmoniousness. Exactly which combinations of tones are considered consonant varies considerably among different cultures and has changed considerably during the history of Western music. Contrast: procedures of contrast include stratification, juxtaposition, and interpolation. Counterpoint: The art of combining two or more musical lines that are to be played or sung simultaneously. These lines may be said to be "in counterpoint" with each other. The term is in some ways synonymous with polyphony, although counterpoint- most commonly used for Baroque music; polyphony- Medieval, Renaissance periods. Countermelody: a secondary tune, almost equal in importance to the main melody sung or played elsewhere, and occurring simultaneously. Countersubject: a secondary theme in a fugue, which occurs simultaneous with statements of the subject, though in a different voice, in a fugue. A c.s can t appear during the first statement of the subject, which occurs in a single part without any accompaniment. Da capo: from the beginning used as a direction in music to repeat

De capo aria: a 3-part aria, in ABA form. The first A section is contained within the tonic key, and ends with a clear cadence. The B section is contrasting in character and sometimes also in key. A complete repeat of A follows. Development: process by which a musical idea is communicated in the course of a composition. It refers to the transformation and restatement of initial material

Diminution: Statement of a theme in notes of lesser duration, usually one-half, of the original Dissonance: a combination of pitches which is not consonant or displeasing. Dixieland: jazz music in duple time usually played by a small band and characterized by ensemble and solo improvisation Dominant: The fifth tone or degree of a diatonic scale (i.e., any of the major or minor scales of the tonal harmonic system), or the triad built upon this degree. Doto: Drone: A sustained musical sound, usually a bass note or notes. Also, an instrument or part of an instrument that produces such sounds can be called a drone, such as the drones of a bagpipe. Dynamics: The degrees of volume (loudness and softness) in music. Also the words, abbreviations, and symbols used to indicate degrees of volume. Piano (soft) and forte (loud) are most common. Ensemble: a small group of musicians performing together (usually up to 12 instrumentalists is an ensemble, more then 12 becomes a chamber orchestra). Episode: a brief section of a literary or dramatic work that forms part of a connected series Etude: an instrumental musical composition, most commonly of considerable difficulty, usually designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular technical skill. Exoticism: a genre in which the rhythms, melodies, or instrumentation are designed to evoke the atmosphere of far-off lands or ancient time Exposition: 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. Expressionism: embracing most of Schoenberg s post-tonal but pre-twelve-tone music, which is to say that of his "free atonal" period, roughly from 1908 to 1921. Figured Bass: a bass part provided with numbers (figures) which indicate harmonies. Figured bass lines always appear in a part marked "continuo" or "basso continuo." The melodic bass instrument (bassoon, cello) play the pitches indicated by the composer, while the harmonic instrument (lute, organ, harpsichord) play the pitches indicated plus the chord structures indicated by the numbers. No numbers indicate a root position triad. Form: the pattern or design of a piece of music. It contains all of the musical elements: rhythm, harmony and melody. Fortepiano: loud French overture: A style of composition usually used as an introduction to a ballet, opera, or suite. It is divided into sections, the first being stately and regal, using dotted rhythms, the second section is lively and usually fugal, and if there is a third section, it is usually in imitation of the first section. This form originated in the 1650's. Fugue: a polyphonic piece in which a single theme is presented in different parts, often in different keys and ranges. A fugue begins with an exposition, in which the theme (called the "subject" in a fugue) is

played or sung by each part once. Following this, the subject appears in some sections of music, and does not appear at all in others. Bach was considered a master of the fugue. Gamelan: a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included. Glissando: A rapid ascending or descending of the scale. If a glissando is performed on a piano or harp, not every semitone is played, because the finger is drawn across only the white keys in the case of the piano, or the scale available in the case of the harp. If, however, a glissando is performed on a stringed instrument such as a violin, each semitone would be sounded as the finger is either slid up or down the length of a string, or fingering each note separately. A glissando is also possible on wind instruments, however, each note must be fingered separately with the notable exception of the trombone. Grand Staff: In standard Western musical notation, the staff or stave,[1] is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces, each of which represents a different musical pitch, Gregorian Chant: the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services. Harmonics: notes which are produced in a special way. They are notes which are produced as part of the harmonic series . Harmony: the combination of simultaneous musical notes in a chord Heterophonic: independent variation on a single melody by two or more voices Homophonic: having a single melodic line with accompaniment Idee Fixe: A tune that keeps coming back during a piece in various disguises. Berlioz, in Symphonie Fantastique, made one up to represent the woman he loved and had it change to represent her at a ball, in the country - and even in a nightmare, as a witch. A favourite device of the Romantic composers. Idiophone: any musical instrument which creates sound primarily by way of the instrument's vibrating, without the use of strings or membranes. Imitation: when a melody in a polyphonic texture is repeated shortly after its first appearance in a different voice, usually at a different pitch. The melody may vary through transposition, inversion, or otherwise, but retain its original character. Impressionism: a style of musical composition designed to create subtle moods and impressions Incidental Music: music written to accompany or point up the action or mood of a dramatic performance on stage, film, radio, television, or recording; to serve as a transition between parts of the action; or to introduce or close the performance. Because it is written to enhance a nonmusical medium, most incidental music makes little impression on public taste. Incomplete Cadence: a resting point at the end of a musical phrase that does not sound complete, because the pause is on the dominant seventh chord Interval: a combination of two notes, or the distance between their pitches.

Inversion: rearrangement of the top-to-bottom elements in an interval, a chord, a melody, or a group of contrapuntal lines of music. The inversion of chords and intervals is utilized for various purposes, e.g., to create a melodic bass line or (with certain chords) to modulate to a new key. Jazz: American music developed especially from ragtime and blues and characterized by propulsive syncopated rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, varying degrees of improvisation, and often deliberate distortions of pitch and timbre Leap: Ledger Lines: musical notation to notate pitches above or below the lines and spaces of the regular musical staff. Legato: in a manner that is smooth and connected (as between successive tones) direction in music used especially as a

Leitmotif: an associated melodic phrase or figure that accompanies the reappearance of an idea, person, or situation especially in a Wagnerian music drama Libretto: literally, it means "little book." The entire text for an opera, oratorio, or cantata. Lute: a stringed instrument having a large pear-shaped body, a vaulted back, a fretted fingerboard, and a head with tuning pegs which is often angled backward from the neck Madrigal: a complex polyphonic unaccompanied vocal piece on a secular text developed especially in the 16th and 17th centuries Mass: the setting, either polyphonic or in plainchant, of the liturgy of the Eucharist. Mass ordinary: KYRIE,GLORIA,CREDO,SANCTUS,AGNUS DEI, BENEDICTUS Melody: the main theme in a piece of music Membranophone: any musical instrument, as a drum, in which the sound is produced by striking, rubbing, or blowing against a membrane stretched over a frame. Meter: a pattern of fixed beats (subdivisions of musical time) for an entire piece of music or section of music. Meter is indicated by a time signature, which resembles a fraction. Meter usually groups beats in twos, threes, or fours. Individual beats can be subdivided in twos (called "simple meter") or threes ("called compound meter). Minimalism: a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity Minuet and trio: This form is typically employed as the third movement of classical symphonies, string quartets, and other works. It originated as a stately, dignified dance in which the dancing couple exchanged curtsies and bows. But the minuet movement of a symphony or string quartet is written for listening, not dancing. It is in triple meter and usually in a moderate tempo. The Minuet is in A B A form: minuet(A), trio(B), minuet(A). Modulation: The act or process of changing from one key (tonic, or tonal center) to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature.

Monophonic: having a single unaccompanied melodic line Motet: a polyphonic choral composition on a sacred text usually without instrumental accompaniment Motive: a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition. Movement: a self-contained part, or section, of a musical composition or form. Musical (genre): categories which contain music which share a certain style or which have certain elements in common Mute: a device fitted to a musical instrument to alter the sound produced: by affecting the timbre, reducing the volume, or most commonly both Nationalism: usually refers to the various national schools that consciously tried to separate themselves from the standards set in the Classical period by the French, Italian and especially the German traditionalists. Neoclassicism: of, relating to, or constituting a revival or adaptation of the classical especially in literature, music, art, or architecture Nocturne: a composition inspired by, or evocative of, the night, and cultivated in the 19th century primarily as a character piece for piano. Notation: This method of writing music directly indicates the note names through symbols, letters or numbers; when fully developed it also indicates note duration. Octave: a musical interval embracing eight diatonic degrees Opera: a drama set to music and made up of vocal pieces with orchestral accompaniment and orchestral overtures and interludes; Oratorio: a lengthy choral work usually of a religious nature consisting chiefly of recitatives, arias, and choruses without action or scenery Organum: early polyphony of the late Middle Ages that consists of one or more voice parts accompanying the cantus firmus often in parallel motion at a fourth, fifth, or octave above or below; also : a composition in this style Ostinato: a musical figure repeated persistently at the same pitch throughout a composition Overture: the orchestral introduction to a musical dramatic work, an orchestral concert piece written especially as a single movement in sonata form Passacagalia: an instrumental musical composition consisting of variations usually on a ground bass in moderately slow triple time, an old Italian or Spanish dance tune. Pedal point: a sustained tone, typically in the bass, during which at least one foreign, i.e., dissonant harmony is sounded in the other parts. Pentatonic: consisting of five tones; specifically : being or relating to a scale in which the tones are arranged like a major scale with the fourth and seventh tones omitted

Phrase: describes consecutive melodic notes that belong together, and form a coherent unit. A musical work is typically made up of a melody that consists of numerous consecutive phrases. Pitch: the perceived highness or lowness of sound. Pitch can be very specific (A or middle C, for example), or relative (high, low, lower, for example). Pizzicato: a note or passage played by plucking strings Plectrum: a small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick Polonaise: a stately Polish processional dance popular in 19th century Europe Polychordal motet: when two or more choirs of singers (or instruments) alternated (later 16th century) Polychord: consists of two or more chords, one on top of the other. The use of polychords may suggest bitonality or polytonality. Polyphonic: a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to monophony or homophony Polyrhythm: the simultaneous combination of contrasting rhythms in music Prelude: a musical section or movement introducing the theme or chief subject (as of a fugue or suite) or serving as an introduction to an opera or oratorio Primitivism: simple ideas juxtaposed with each other forming new ideas, new images, and new sounds. In music, primitivism was a reaction to the rich complexity of Romanticism and later on, Impressionism. Program music: a type of art music that attempts to musically render an extra-musical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience in the form of program notes, inviting imaginative correlations with the music. Progression: (chord) a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing (or contradicting) a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. Ragtime: rhythm characterized by strong syncopation in the melody with a regularly accented accompaniment in stride-piano style Range : The distance from the lowest to the highest pitch a musical instrument can play. For a singing voice, the equivalent is vocal range. The range of a musical part is the distance between its lowest and highest note. Recapitulation: the third section of a sonata form Recitative: speech-like singing. The term can be used to describe a movement, a texture, or a section within a piece Repetition: where sounds or sequences are often repeated Requiem: a solemn chant (as a dirge) for the repose of the dea

Resolution: The move of a note or chord from dissonance (an unstable sound) to a consonance (a more final or stable sounding one). Retrograde: A succession of notes played backwards. It has always been regarded as an esoteric way of handling a musical structure and one that does not invite the listener's appreciation. Rhythm: the aspect of music comprising all the elements (as accent, meter, and tempo) that relate to forward movement Rhythm Section: the musicians in a popular music band or jazz ensemble who perform the accompaniment musical parts which establish the rhythmic pulse of a song or musical piece, and who lay down the chordal structure and bassline. Riff: the series of notes, chord pattern or musical phrase that are repeated is called a "riff." Ritardando: with a gradual slackening in tempo used as a direction in music

Ritornello: a short recurrent instrumental passage in a vocal composition Romance: Applied to narrative ballads in Spain, it came to be used by the 18th century for simple lyrical pieces not only for voice, but also for instruments alone. Rondo: an instrumental composition typically with a refrain recurring four times in the tonic and with three couplets in contrasting keys Rubato: a fluctuation of tempo within a musical phrase often against a rhythmically steady accompaniment Scat: jazz vocal style using emotive, onomatopoeic, and nonsense syllables instead of words in solo improvisations on a melody. Scherzo: a sprightly humorous instrumental musical composition or movement commonly in quick triple time Secco Recitative: also known by its Italian name "recitativo" ([ret ita ti vo]), is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech. Sequence: the immediate restatement of a motif or longer melodic (or harmonic) passage at a higher or lower pitch in the same voice. It is one of the most common and simple methods of elaborating a melody in eighteenth and nineteenth century classical music (Classical, romantic periods). Serenade: an instrumental composition in several movements, written for a small ensemble, and midway between the suite and the symphony in style Serialism: (serial music) the body of compositions whose fundamental syntactical reference is a particular ordering (called series or row) of the twelve pitch classes C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B that constitute the equal-tempered scale. Sitar: an Indian lute with a long neck and a varying number of strings Sonata: an instrumental musical composition typically of three or four movements in contrasting forms and keys

Sonata Form: (aka sonata-allegro form) is a musical form, a way of organizing a work of music. The original idea of a central organizing form has been very widely used by classical composers since the 18th century, and was originally described by an Italian theorist as "a two part form". Each part was repeated. Sound: a particular musical style characteristic of an individual, a group, or an area Staccato: (Italian) "Separated." Notes which are held for less than their written value, or "separated" from one another. There are various degrees of staccato, and it can be notated in various ways; the most common has a dot placed over or under the note. Notes written to be played staccato are often played in a pointed or spiky manner. Step: an interval in a musical scale Stop (double, triple): the act of playing two notes simultaneously on a melodic percussion instrument (like a marimba) or stringed instrument (for example, a violin or a guitar). In performing a double stop, two separate strings are depressed ("stopped") by the fingers, and bowed or plucked simultaneously (without a string change). Stretto: The presence of two close or overlapping statements of the subject of a fugue, especially towards the end; An acceleration in the tempo of an opera that produces an ending climax; Having gradually increasing speed; With gradually increasing speed String quartet: a musical ensemble of four string players or a piece written to be performed by such a group. Subdominant: the fourth tone of a major or minor scale Subject and answer: Suite: an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet, (Nutcracker Suite) or incidental music to a play Swing: a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States. Symphonic poem (tone poem): piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section (a movement) in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another (non-musical) source is illustrated or evoked. Symphony: an extended musical composition, scored almost always for orchestra. "Symphony" does not necessarily imply a specific form, though most are composed according to the sonata principle. Syncopation: a rhythmic device whereby an accent occurs in some place other than the strong beat (or strong portion of the beat), or where the strong beat (or strong portion of the beat) is de-emphasized through the use of suspension across the strong beat (or strong portion of the beat). Tabla: : a pair of small different-sized hand drums used especially in music of India Tag: Tala: one of the ancient traditional rhythmic patterns of South Asian music usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist

Tambura: an Asian musical instrument resembling a lute in construction but without frets and used to produce a drone accompaniment to singing Ternary: a three-part A B A structure in a piece of music. The first and third parts (A) are musically identical, or very nearly so, while the second part (B) contrasts sharply with it. The B section is often known as a trio. Terraced Dynamics: Expressive style typical of some early music in which volume levels shift abruptly from soft to loud and back without gradual crescendos and decrescendos. Texture: the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition The Russian five: Mily Balakirev, Cesar Cui, Alexander Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nicholas RimsyKorsakoff. Thematic Transformation: a technique of where a leitmotif, or theme, is developed by changing the theme by using Permutation (Transposition or Modulation, Inversion, and Retrograde), Augmentation, Diminution, and Fragmentation.

Theme: the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based. It may be perceivable as a complete musical expression in itself, separate from the work in which it is found Theme and variations: Theme is an important melody that is heard many times in a piece of music. Variation is Music that is repeated but changed in some important way. Tonality: the organization of all the tones and harmonies of a piece of music in relation to a tonic Tone: a sound of definite pitch and vibration Tone Cluster: a musical chord comprising at least three consecutive tones in a scale. Prototypical tone clusters are based on the chromatic scale, and are separated by semitones. Tone color (timbre): the quality of tone distinctive of a particular singing voice or musical instrument Tone row: refers to a non-repetitive ordering of a set of pitch-classes, typically of the twelve notes in musical set theory of the chromatic scale, though both larger and smaller sets are sometimes found. Tonic: the first scale degree of the diatonic scale and the tonal center or final resolution tone . The triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord. Tremolo: the rapid reiteration of a musical tone or of alternating tones to produce a tremulous effect Triad: a chord of three tones consisting of a root with its third and fifth and constituting the harmonic basis of tonal music Trill: a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be identified with the context of the trill. Trio Sonata: a type of musical composition with two melodic parts and basso continuo Tutti: an Italian word literally meaning all or together. 1) It may refer to an orchestral passage in which every member of the orchestra (or a section of an orchestra) is playing at once. For instance, in a concerto it indicates the parts for the whole orchestra as opposed to the soloist. It is applied similarly to choral

music, where the whole section or choir is called to sing. 2) An orchestrator may specify that a section leader (e.g., the principal violinist) plays alone, while the rest of the section is silent for the duration of the solo passage, by writing solo in the music at the point where it begins and tutti at the point he wishes the rest of the section to resume playing. Twelve Tone: a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. The technique is a means of ensuring that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are sounded as often as one another in a piece of music while preventing the emphasis of any[2] through the use of tone rows, an ordering of the 12 pitches. All 12 notes are thus given more or less equal importance, and the music avoids being in a key. The technique was influential on composers in the mid-twentieth century. Unison: a. Identity of pitch; the interval of a perfect prime. b. The combination of parts at the same pitch or in octaves. Variations: a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these. Venetian School: a term used to describe the composers working in Venice from about 1550 to around 1610; it also describes the music they produced. The Venetian polychoral compositions of the late 16th century were among the most famous musical events in Europe, and their influence on musical practice in other countries was enormous. Vibrato: a musical effect consisting of a regular pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation ("extent of vibrato") and speed with which the pitch is varied ("rate of vibrato"). Voice Categories of Opera: the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types. These qualities include but are not limited to: vocal range, vocal weight, vocal tessitura, vocal timbre, and vocal transition points such as breaks and lifts within the voice. Other considerations are physical characteristics, speech level, scientific testing, and vocal registration. Whole tone scale: a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole step. There are only two complementary whole tone scales, both six-note or hexatonic scales Word painting: the musical technique of writing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song. For example, ascending scales would accompany lyrics about going up; slow, dark music would accompany lyrics about death.