Music Vocab List

Appoggiatura: Leaning note; grace note; note of embellishment usually one step above (sometimes, though seldom, it is one step below) the main note.

Atonal: Music that Has no specific tonality

Canon: Strict counterpoint in which each voice exactly imitates the previous voice at a fixed distance.

Chromatic: 1. Any music or chord that contains notes not belonging to the diatonic scale. 2. Music which proceeds in half steps.

Countermelody: A second but subordinate melodic line sometimes found in music which has a melody and an accompaniment.

Dissonant: Two or more notes sounded together which are discordant, and, in the prevailing harmonic system, require resolution to a consonance.

Harmony: The combination of notes sounded simultaneously to produce chords. Usually, this term is used to describe consonance, however, it can also be used to describe dissonance.

Heterophonic: The practice of two or more musicians simultaneously performing slightly different versions of the same melody.

Homophonic: A style of composition in which there is one melody, and all the voices and accompaniments move rhythmically together.

Imitation: The repetition in a second voice or part of a theme, motif, or phrase presented by a first voice or part.

Interval: The distance between two pitches.

Legato: A directive to perform a certain passage of a composition in a smooth, graceful, connected style, as opposed to staccato.

Major: Term referring to a sequence of notes that…