Canadian Music Centre - About the Music

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

ABSOLUTE MUSIC

is music composed without reference to a story or image; i.e., not programmatic.

ABSTRACT MUSIC

is music that, like absolute music, is composed without reference to a programme; the term is also used to denote music considered to be ‘too academic’.

ACOUSMATIC

refers to a so-called ‘invisible’ sound source, or a sound heard without the listener necessarily being able to identity its source. The word ‘acousmatic’ is used specifically in music to describe a work composed entirely in a studio, and played in concert using a loudspeaker system and without live instrumentalists.

ALEATORY

or aleatoric music is music in which some element of the composition or performance is left to chance; other terminology for this technique includes ‘chance music’ and ‘indeterminate music’. The word ‘aleatory’ is derived from the Latin ‘alea’, or ‘dice’.

ATONAL

music is music in which no definite tonal or key centre (prevailing harmony) is observed.

AVANT-GARDE

is a term possibly borrowed from the French the military term ‘avant-garde’ that means ‘at the vanguard’, or ‘at the forefront of activity’.

CHANCE MUSIC

is music in which some element of the composition or performance is left to chance; also referred to as ‘aleatoric music’ or ‘indeterminate music’.

CHROMATIC

is a word used to describe the use of raised or lowered notes in a melody or harmony that are not the normal notes of the scale or chord; i.e., notes that lie outside of the pitches in the prevailing diatonic scale or key. The chromatic scale is a progression of notes in semitones or half steps and therefore contains twelve notes per octave.

CONTRAPUNTAL MUSIC

or counterpoint is music in which two or more melodies are played simultaneously.

DIATONIC

is a designation for the notes of the major or minor scales, as opposed to the chromatic scale. The term diatonic is also applied to a melody or harmony that is confined to the notes of the prevailing key (i.e., diatonic melody, diatonic harmony)

DODECAPHONIC

music, also known as ‘twelve-tone music’, describes music based on a fixed row or series of notes containing all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale.

ECLECTICISM

is a term used to describe music created from several distinct musical styles, or in which one or more pre-existing sources are re-cast using contemporary techniques.

ELECTROACOUSTIC

is a broad description applied to music in which some aspect of the work is created using electronic means.

ENHARMONIC

is a word used to describe two different names for the same pitch: for example, D sharp and E flat are enharmonic notes.

EXOTICISM

refers to the incorporation into a work of stylistic elements from music outside of the composer’s own cultural heritage. Such ‘borrowings’ may include melody, harmony, rhythm, instruments, or compositional techniques from these sources.

EXPRESSIONISM

is a term borrowed from German art of the early 1900s in which exaggerated emotional expression is created through the distortion of appearance. In music, Expressionism is often realized as angularity in the melody, harmonic dissonance, and the use of an extreme dynamic range.

FORMALISM

is the term used by Soviet officials under Stalin (in 1948) to criticize certain Russian composers, accusing them of an overemphasis of form over musical content (as manifested in ‘atonality’ or the perceived absence of melody).

GEBRAUCHSMUSIK

means, literally, ‘utility music’ and is a term applied to German music in the 1920s written for everyday consumption, and therefore designed for possible performance by amateurs. Gebrauchsmusik also refers to music based on real-life subjects and using common musical idioms.

HOLOSCULPTURE

refers to a sculpture designed from a hologram.

IMPRESSIONISM

is a term used to describe music that communicates a mood or atmosphere through an expanded vocabulary of harmonic, melodic, dynamic, rhythmic, timbral, and formal techniques. Musical Impressionism includes the exploration of subtle and evocative dynamics, phrasing, and instrumental timbres in order to capture otherwise intangible impressions.

IMPROVISATION

implies creating music spontaneously rather than performing from a precisely written score.

INDETERMINACY

or indeterminate music is music in which some element of the composition or performance is left to chance; other terminologies used to describe this technique are ‘chance music’ and ‘aleatoric music’.

LATE ROMANTICISM

refers to music created in the period spanning the turn of the 19th century to the 20th century, and that continues the Romantic compositional techniques of emotional expression and exploitation of harmony, melody, and instrumentation.

MICROTONE

is an interval between two notes that is smaller than a half step, such as a quarter tone or sixth tone.

MINIMALISM

is a term borrowed from the art world of the mid-20th century and applied to music characterized by a deliberate simplicity of harmony, melody, and rhythm. The fundamental components of Minimalism are extreme reduction and simplicity of means, and repetition.

MIXED MEDIA

is used to describe a composition that includes both electronic and acoustic elements.

MODAL HARMONY

is used to define harmony that is not based on major or minor keys, but that is founded on the medieval church modes. There are essentially four basic church modes, each made up of diatonic notes and starting on D (Dorian mode), E (Phrygian mode), F (Lydian mode), and G (Mixolydian mode).

MUSIQUE CONCRÈTE

is a term coined by French engineer Pierre Schaeffer in 1948 to describe music created from the recording of natural sounds.

NATIONALISM

is a movement in music that promotes the use of elements from one’s own cultural heritage (i.e., folksongs, dances, and stories) within a musical composition.

NEOCLASSICISM

refers to the use of genres, compositional techniques, and philosophies of western European music in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Primary characteristics include: clarity of form and texture, emotional restraint, and proportioned structures.

NEOROMANTICISM

refers to the use of the genres and compositional techniques of western European music from the 19th and early 20th centuries, and particularly music that emphasises emotional expression over form. In the late 20th century, composers writing in this style further intensified their musical expression by deliberately applying additional avant-garde compositional techniques.

NON-FUNCTIONAL HARMONY

is a term used to describe a harmony or harmonic progression that does not fit into the predictable and purposeful organisation of a composition.

PANSTYLISM

is a term used to describe the use of more than one distinct musical style within a composition.

PENTATONIC SCALE

is a scale of only five different notes, and distinguished from the diatonic scale (which has seven notes) or the chromatic scale (which has twelve). The pentatonic scale is common in the music of several Chinese, Scottish, African, and other indigenous cultures.

PLUNDERPHONIC

is a term used to describe a new composition created from the electronic distortion or manipulation of existing music.

POINTILLISM

is a late 19th century French style of painting that uses small dots of pure colour to compose images. In music, Pointillism refers to a musical ‘effect’ in which the notes are heard as individual ‘dots’ or sounds rather than as a consecutive, linear progression.

RADIOPHONIC MUSIC

refers to sounds and incidental music produced electronically for radio and television.

SERIALISM

is an early 20th century method of composition developed by Arnold Schoenberg in which a pre-determined series of elements is organised into its various permutations and combinations as the defining feature of a work.

SOUNDSCAPE

means, literally, ‘sonic environment’. R. Murray Schafer introduced the concept of Soundscapes in the 1970s, to bring awareness to the unique sounds in the environment and as a starting point for the creation of compositions out of these elements.

SPRECHSTIMME

translated from the German means ‘speech-song’, or ‘speaking-voice’. Sprechstimme is a vocal style invented by Schoenberg that requires the vocal melody to be produced in a distinct tone that lies between speaking and singing.

TEXTURE

is a term used in music to describe the blending of concurrent musical sounds and melodies in a composition. For example, a polyphonic texture is made up of simultaneous melodic lines; a homophonic texture is chordal. The word ‘texture’ is also used to describe the density of concurrent sounds, as in a thin or thick instrumental texture.

THIRD STREAM JAZZ

is a term coined in the 1950s by American composer Gunther Schuller and is applied to compositions in which jazz and classical concert idioms are combined.

TONAL MUSIC

refers to music that adheres to a particular tonic, or key structure, either major or minor.

TONE-ROW

is the foundation of the twelve-tone technique, in which a composition is based on a specific series of notes (the tone-row) that is then modified according to pre-determined rules of composition for serial technique.

TWELVE-TONE TECHNIQUE

is a compositional technique based on a fixed tone-row or series containing all twelve notes of the chromatic scale.

WHOLE-TONE SCALE

is a scale based on whole-tones, and therefore free of the semitones that distinguish the major and minor keys. There are only two possible whole-tone series, one beginning on (or containing) C and moving in whole-steps, and the second, on D flat/enharmonic C sharp.