2 SECONDARY - GLOSSARY
Unit 1: Sound
Ear: organ that perceives sound.
Eardrum: membrane of the middle ear, which vibrates in response to sound waves.
Frequency: number of waves per second.
Hearing: faculty of perceiving sounds.
Noise: unwanted sound judged to be unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing
Silence: absence of sound or noise.
Sound: vibration that can be heard when it reaches our ears.
Sound wave: form that sound takes when it passes through air or another medium.
Speaker: electroacoustic device that converts electrical impulses into sounds.
Vibration: periodic back-and-forth motion of the particles of an elastic body or medium
Volume: degree of loudness or the intensity of a sound
Unit 2: Pitch
Clef: symbol at the beginning of the staff. It indicates the name of the notes.
Diatonic: involving only notes proper to the prevailing key without chromatic alteration.
Enharmonic: different names but sound the same.
Flat: lowers the pitch of a note one semitone.
Interval: distance between two notes.
Natural: cancels the effect of a sharp or a flat.
Note: symbol denoting a musical sound.
Pitch: quality which allows us to distinguish between low and high sounds.
Scale: ordered sequence of ascending (low to high) or descending (high to low) notes.
Semitone: the smallest interval used in classical Western music, equal to a half a tone.
Sharp: raises the pitch of a note one semitone.
Staff: group of five lines and four spaces that we use to write notes on.
Unit 3: Duration
Dot: it adds note values and rests half their lenghts.
Duration: quality of sound that allows us to distinguish between long and short sounds. It depends on the wave persistence.
Fermanta: it extends the duration interrupting the time signature for a moment.
Metronome: gadget used to accurately measure the different tempos, indicating the number of beats per minute.
Note values: are symbols that represent the different durations of sounds.
Rests: are symbols that represent the duration of silence.
Rhythm: organization of the different durations of sounds and rests in time.
Tempo: speed of the performance of a piece.
Tie: it adds up the duration of two or more notes which the same.
Time signature: notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value is equivalent to a beat.
Unit 4: Intensity
Dynamics: refers to the volume of a sound or note. The term is also applied to the written musical notation used to indicate dynamics.
Hairpins: symbols that indicate a gradual change of intensity.
Intensity: quality of sound which allows us to distinguish between loud and soft sounds. It depends on the wave amplitude.
Loud: producing much noise.
Noise pollution: annoying or harmful noise in an environment.
Soft: quiet sound.
Units 5 and 6: Timbre
Bowed instrument: played by a bow rubbing the strings.
Chamber music: instrumental music played by a small ensemble. The most important is the string quartet.
Ensemble: a group of musicians, actors, or dancers who perform together.
Pitched instrument: percussion instrument used to produce musical notes of one or more pitches.
Plucked instrument: played by pulling the strings. Plucking can be done with either a finger or a plectrum.
Range: distance from the lowest to the highest pitch that a musical instrument can play.
Struck instrument: played by plucking, picking or strumming the strings.
Timbre: quality of sound that allows us to identify who or what makes the sound.
Unpitched: percussion instrument which is used to produce sounds of indefinite pitch.
Vocal range: distance from the lowest to the highest pitch that a voice can sing.
Unit 7: Melody and harmony
Arpeggio: the notes of a chord played in rapid succession, either ascending or descending.
Cadence: is a point of rest used to separate the different musical ideas or to indicate the end of a piece.
Chord: a group of (typically three or more) notes sounded together.
Harmony: is the study of simultaneous sounds (chords) and their relations.
Major chord: chord that has a root, major third, and perfect fifth.
Melodic motion: line or direction that the notes follow in a melody.
Melody: lineal sequence of pitches of sound that expresses a musical idea.
Minor chord: chord that has a root, minor third and perfect fifth.
Root note: first note in a chord. It is usually the lowest sounding note in a chord.
Triad chord: A three-note chord whose pitch classes can be arranged as thirds.