Music A-Level

Music A-Level glossary

867 key terms for Music A-Level, A to Z, each linked to the topic pages that use it.

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A

A cappella: Vocal music performed entirely without instrumental accompaniment, used in pop to create striking textural contrast or draw focus to the lyrics.AQA
AABA (32-bar song form): A standard song structure in which the bridge provides harmonic and melodic contrast, not just a lyrical change.AQA
Accelerando: Instructs performers to gradually increase the speed of the music, building tension.AQA
Accented passing note: Falls on a strong beat, creating a more pronounced dissonance against the underlying chord before resolving by step.AQA
acciaccatura: A crushed note played as quickly as possible before the main note, often written with a slashed stem.AQA
Action and drive: They can be moved rapidly in parallel motion along the fretboard, creating driving, rhythmic riffs that propel a scene forward.AQA
Added 2nd: Introduces a mild dissonance that thickens the texture without altering the chord's fundamental function, and lacks a 7th.AQA
added 6th: A major or minor triad with an additional major sixth above the root, lacking the leading-tone tension of a 7th chord.AQA
added 6th chord: A major or minor triad with an additional major sixth above the root, providing a jazzy, unresolved yet stable colour frequently found in musical theatre…AQA
added sixth chord: Consists of a major or minor triad with an added major sixth above the root, lacking the leading-note tension of a seventh chord.AQA
Additive and subtractive processes: Primary methods of achieving metamorphosis, slowly altering repeated patterns, for example by adding a note to an ostinato to change the metric feel and…AQA
Additive melody: A process of gradually introducing notes, used alongside rhythmic displacement and contrapuntal textures.AQA
Additive rhythms: Rhythms where a regular metre is disrupted by the addition of a small rhythmic value, such as a semiquaver.AQA
Advanced rhythmic and harmonic structures: Complex time signatures and advanced harmonic structures influenced by classical composers and jazz greats.AQA
African American musical roots: Blue notes are a defining characteristic of jazz, originating from African American musical traditions.AQA
Alap: The foundational, unmetered opening section of a traditional Indian classical raga performance, introducing the notes of the raga and establishing its…AQA
Aleatoric and chance processes: Chance is used to determine the sequence of sections, creating fluid, unpredictable structures.AQA
Altered chords: Alterations are shown in brackets or as superscripts, such as C⁷⁽♭⁵⁾ for a dominant seventh with a flattened fifth.AQA
Alternative tunings: Tunings other than standard guitar tuning, used to allow rich, unconventional chord voicings and open, ringing strings.AQA
Alternatives to functional tonality: Modal music often relies on parallel chord movement, drones or ostinatos to establish a tonal centre without traditional dominant-tonic resolutions.AQA
Ambient and atmospheric textures: Sparse textures and use of space and silence create a sense of space, psychological depth and subtle emotion, with texture and rhythm over long-breathed…AQA
Ametrical: Music that lacks a perceptible regular beat, metre, or time signature, creating a fluid and free rhythmic feel.AQA
Antecedent phrase: The opening 'question' phrase, which typically ends with an imperfect cadence, creating a sense of harmonic tension and expectation.AQA
Antiphonal texture: A musical dialogue or 'call and response' between two distinct groups of voices or instruments, creating a spatial and conversational effect.AQA
appoggiatura: A note approached by leap and resolved by step, which is the exact reverse of an échappée note.AQA
Aria: Provides a moment of emotional reflection or lyrical expression for a solo character, highly structured with melismatic passages, regular metre and full…AQA
arpeggio: A contour that outlines chords by skipping notes and moving between chord tones.AQA
arrastre: A slower, heavy slide or glissando leading into a strong beat, frequently executed by the double bass to anchor the rhythm.AQA
Articulation: This describes how individual notes are performed, including vocal techniques like melisma, vibrato and falsetto, and instrumental techniques such as…AQA
Articulation and playing techniques: Drummers employ specific techniques to alter these sounds, including using brushes instead of sticks for a softer texture and opening and closing the hi-hat…AQA
Asymmetrical metre and grouping: A standard 4/4 metre containing eight quavers is divided into asymmetrical groupings of three, three and two quavers.AQA
Atmosphere and mood: Understanding how harmonic choices interact with the on-screen action is essential for analysing media scores.AQA
Atonality: The lack of a traditional tonal centre, which strict twelve-tone composition ensures by not repeating a pitch until all other eleven have been sounded.AQA
Atonality and ambiguity: Ambiguous tonality can build suspense, and non-traditional tonal structures are used for specific dramatic effects.AQA
Atonality and Serialism: Atonality completely abandons a tonal centre, and is often structured later through serialism.AQA
Atonality and tonality: Atonality lacks a tonal centre entirely, whereas many composers used extended tonality, modality, or returned to tonal centres.AQA
Auditory perception: The listener's ear naturally groups certain accented or overlapping notes together, perceiving a new, distinct melody that floats above the texture.AQA
Augmentation: Proportionally lengthening the note values of a melody or rhythm, typically doubling them, making the passage sound slower.AQA
Aural analysis: Identifying musical features from an audio extract using correct terminology, such as aurally identifying a 'basso continuo' or a 'ritornello' structure.AQA
Aural identification: Linking terms to actual musical examples by identifying complex musical devices by ear.AQA
Aural perception: Identifying chords by listening for the chord quality and its bass note to determine the inversion.AQA
Auxiliary notes: Non-chord tones that embellish a static melody by stepping away from a harmony note and immediately returning to it.AQA
Avant-garde performance techniques: Objects such as screws, rubber, or wood are inserted between the strings to create percussive, non-pitched, or altered-pitch sounds.AQA

B

B section in ternary form: Usually a complete, self-contained musical idea, unlike rounded binary.AQA
Backbeat: A fundamental rhythmic device in pop music, characterised by a strong accent on the normally unaccented beats of the bar.AQA
Balanced phrases: Phrases, frequently forming antecedent and consequent pairs, that create a sense of question and answer and a satisfying sense of proportion and structural…AQA
Bandoneon: A button accordion central to Argentine tango, providing its distinctive reedy, melancholic timbre and rhythmic drive.AQA
Bass melody instrument: An instrument such as a cello, violone or bassoon that plays the written bassline.AQA
Bass suspension: A suspension in which the bass note itself is held over and resolves downwards, often creating a 2-3 interval pattern against an upper voice.AQA
Basso continuo: A part usually played by a bass melodic instrument and a chordal instrument realising the figured bass, providing the harmonic foundation.AQA
Beaming: The grouping of notes that reflects the underlying simple or compound metre in a musical score.AQA
Bebop Characteristics: The style is characterised by rapid tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, and intricate syncopation.AQA
Belt: A powerful, resonant vocal technique used in musical theatre to deliver high-energy, emotional climaxes, typically pushing the chest voice above its natural…AQA
Belting: A technique where a singer carries their chest register above its natural break, producing a loud, powerful, and intense sound common in pop anthems.AQA
Big Band Orchestration: Writing and arranging for a big band, with voicing techniques across sections and innovative orchestrations such as plunger mutes and growling brass.AQA
Binary form: Consists of two sections, typically with section A modulating to the dominant or relative major, and section B returning to the tonic.AQA
Birdsong transcription: Meticulous transcriptions of birdsong that became a primary melodic resource and often form the core melodic and rhythmic substance of a section.AQA
Birimintingo: Rapid, virtuosic and improvised instrumental runs on the kora that contrast with the steady ostinato of the kumbengo.AQA
Blending of musical genres: Combining traditional Broadway styles with pop, rock, jazz, and Latin influences.AQA
Blue note: The flattened fifth added to the minor pentatonic scale, whose dissonance creates tension that resolves to the perfect fourth or fifth.AQA
Blue notes: The flattened third, fifth and seventh of a scale, to which pitch-bending is frequently applied to heighten emotional tension and emphasise ambiguous tonality.AQA
Blues characteristics: A bluesy feel added to a melodic line by the rough, vocalised effect of a smear, associated with blues-influenced styles.AQA
Blues scale: A hexatonic scale formed by taking the minor pentatonic scale and adding a flattened fifth, which acts as a characteristic 'blue note'.AQA
Blues tonality: A distinct tonality that blends major and minor elements, often using dominant seventh chords for the tonic, subdominant and dominant.AQA
bols: Spoken syllables used on percussion instruments like the tabla to represent different drum strokes.AQA
bottleneck slide: A technique where the player uses a bottleneck slide along the string for a distinctively smooth, metallic sound.AQA
bowed tremolo: Moving the bow back and forth very quickly on a single string, creating a shimmering, tense texture.AQA
bpm: A precise numerical measurement of tempo, indicating exactly how many beats occur within a 60-second period.AQA
bridge: A section that introduces contrasting harmonic, melodic, or rhythmic material to prevent repetition fatigue.AQA
buffo bass: A voice type requiring a singer capable of rapid comic patter and a resonant lower register, used for Bartolo.AQA

C

Cadential 6/4: A specific harmonic progression used to embellish a perfect cadence, consisting of a second inversion tonic chord resolving to a root position dominant chord…AQA
Cadential structure: The use of cadences to establish phrasing, recognising and naming perfect, imperfect, plagal and interrupted cadences and their structural role.AQA
cadenza: A virtuosic solo passage, typically inserted near the end of a concerto movement, allowing the performer to display technical brilliance.AQA
Call and response techniques: A dialogue in which musical phrases are passed back and forth between two distinct groups, one group answering the musical statement of another.AQA
Canon: A strict contrapuntal technique where an initial melody is imitated exactly by one or more subsequent parts entering after a specified time delay.AQA
Cell: A minimal musical unit, often just a few pitches or a rhythmic gesture, used to generate larger structures.AQA
Central axis: A single note or a barline around which durational values mirror each other symmetrically on either side.AQA
Changes: The core harmonic framework established by the head, upon which subsequent improvisations are based.AQA
Character development: Anchored to the specific musical alterations made to a leitmotif, reflecting changes in the narrative or the character's psychological state.AQA
Character development through music: Using musical elements to develop character and narrative, as when contrasting timelines are reflected in distinct musical styles and emotional arcs.AQA
Character pieces for piano: A genre from which the Norwegian March Op.AQA
characterisation: The delineation of character, which Mozart achieves through melody, harmony, orchestration and texture.AQA
Characterisation through melody: Mozart contrasts their activities musically, giving Figaro a precise, rhythmic motif and Susanna a flowing, lyrical melody.AQA
Characterisation through music: Mozart uses harmony, melody and rhythm to depict Cherubino's character, showing his breathless, confused awakening to love.AQA
chicharra: Bowing the strings behind the bridge, producing a gritty, scraping sound that adds rhythmic tension.AQA
Chiptunes: Simple 8-bit music from which video game music evolved into complex, fully orchestrated symphonic pieces.AQA
Chord changes: The harmonic progression that underpins a piece of music, forming the structural foundation for both the composed melody and the subsequent improvised solos.AQA
Chord extension: Notes stacked in thirds above the basic triad to create 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th chords.AQA
Chord extensions: Created by continuing to stack thirds above the root, third, and fifth of a standard triad, adding colour, tension, and emotional depth.AQA
Chord inversions: The cadential 6/4 consists of a second inversion tonic chord (I⁶₄ or Ic) resolving to a root position dominant chord (V or V⁵₃).AQA
Chord nomenclature: Chord symbols provide a shorthand for harmony, allowing musicians to quickly interpret complex harmonic structures, inversions and alterations without reading…AQA
Chord qualities: Major, minor, dominant, diminished and augmented are represented in commonly used jazz harmony symbols.AQA
Chord substitution: Replacing one chord with another to create a different bassline, alter the voice leading, or introduce new harmonic colours while maintaining the original…AQA
Chord substitutions: Alterations such as the tritone substitution that add harmonic interest and tension to standard changes while maintaining the overall harmonic destination.AQA
Chord symbols and notation: The associated symbols for chords, such as Roman numerals or contemporary chord symbols, depending on the musical context.AQA
Chordal: A form of homophony where all parts move together in the same rhythm, creating a block-chord effect, often found in chorales or hymn tunes.AQA
Chordal instrument: An instrument such as a harpsichord, organ or lute that improvises chords based on figured bass notation.AQA
Chorus: One complete cycle of the piece's underlying chord progression or form, over which the head is played and improvisations occur.AQA
Chromatic auxiliary: Uses a non-diatonic pitch to create stronger pull towards the resolution, such as stepping down a semitone.AQA
Chromatic harmony: Alterations such as the augmented triad C⁺, consisting of a major third and an augmented fifth, can be implied by chromatic passing notes in the melody.AQA
Chromatic passing note: Moves by a semitone between two diatonic notes a whole tone apart, adding colour and tension to the melodic line.AQA
Chromaticism: The use of chromatic harmony, including applied chords and suspensions, alongside diatonic harmony, involving consonance, dissonance and resolution.AQA
circle of 5ths progression: A series of chords where the roots move down by a fifth, or up by a fourth, with each successive chord.AQA
Classical and jazz fusion: A blending of jazz improvisation with classical music traditions, including counterpoint and classical techniques.AQA
Classical Crossovers: The integration of classical music elements, such as romantic-era piano flourishes and symphonic arrangements, is recognised in their music.AQA
Classical harmonic language: The harmonic language includes diminished sevenths and modulation to related keys like the dominant (F major), with a dominant pedal building tension before…AQA
Classical operatic forms: The aria utilises a rondo-like structure with a concluding coda, rather than strict sonata form.AQA
Classical orchestration techniques: Muted strings and prominent wind parts reflect his racing heartbeat and agitation, creating a breathless, agitated texture.AQA
Click tracks: Programming these in studio recordings is supported by understanding mm.AQA
Cluster chord: A musical chord comprising at least three adjacent tones in a scale.AQA
coda: Concludes a movement or piece, extending beyond the standard structural boundaries to provide a sense of finality, often reinforcing the tonic key through…AQA
Codetta: Concludes a section within a movement, such as the exposition, rather than the entire movement.AQA
Col legno: String players strike the strings with the wood of the bow, producing a dry, percussive, and skeletal sound.AQA
Colla voce: An Italian musical direction meaning with the voice, instructing instrumentalists or the conductor to follow the singer's tempo and rhythmic phrasing rather…AQA
Collective improvisation: A context in which players embellish a core melody with distinct rhythmic or melodic ornaments, creating a layered effect.AQA
Colouristic: A term used when describing the effect of non-functional chords in early 20th-century art music.AQA
Complex compositional forms: Featuring intricate, through-composed forms rather than standard head-solo-head structures.AQA
Compositional techniques: Complex polyphony and contrapuntal textures such as fugues, melody-dominated homophony with chordal accompaniment, and denser, richer textures with thicker…AQA
Compound intervals: Intervals that exceed an octave, calculated by adding seven to the simple interval or describing it as an octave plus the simple interval.AQA
Compound time: The main beat is a dotted note that divides into three equal parts, for example in 6/8 time two dotted crotchet beats per bar each divide into three quavers.AQA
Concertino: A small group of soloists, which usually performs the episodes.AQA
Conductor and ensemble coordination: The role of the conductor or instrumentalists in adapting to the vocalist's timing, ensuring the accompaniment remains synchronised with the singer's…AQA
conjunct: Stepwise motion that moves by adjacent notes, creating smooth, lyrical lines.AQA
Consequent phrase: The answering phrase, usually matching the antecedent in length and rhythm, but concluding with a perfect cadence to resolve the tension.AQA
Consonant intervals: Intervals such as perfect fifths, octaves, and major or minor thirds that sound stable and provide a sense of resolution or rest.AQA
Contemporary European jazz: A modern European jazz context in which classical techniques are integrated with jazz improvisation.AQA
Contemporary R&B and Pop Fusion: A fusion of genres and cultural influences spanning R&B, pop, hip-hop and soul, incorporating elements such as gospel and funk into a single track.AQA
Contemporary styles: Modern electronic production, synthesisers, or influences from popular genres such as rock and jazz.AQA
contour: The shape of a melody as it moves through time, described as ascending, descending, stepwise, conjunct, disjunct, scalic, triadic or arpeggio.AQA
Contrapuntal: Often used interchangeably with polyphonic, referring to the technique of counterpoint where independent lines are harmonically interdependent yet…AQA
Contrapuntal ensemble writing: Intricate contrapuntal textures and ostinato figures used to drive dramatic tension.AQA
Contrapuntal textures: Complex textures that composers build using augmentation and diminution to manipulate thematic material.AQA
Contrasting period: A period in which the consequent has new melodic material rather than starting like the antecedent.AQA
Contrasting phrases: Mozart shapes the dialogue through these rather than a sonata-form exposition, using them to build the comic conflict.AQA
Cool jazz: Pioneered by Davis with the 'Birth of the Cool' sessions, characterised by relaxed tempos and lighter tones.AQA
Cool jazz and modal jazz: Jazz styles of which the stemless Harmon mute sound became a defining characteristic.AQA
Countermelodies: A textural change students must identify, alongside the layering of vocal parts in a finale, and analyse how these choices support the storytelling.AQA
Countermelody: A secondary melodic line played or sung simultaneously with the primary melody, enriching the texture and providing harmonic and rhythmic contrast.AQA
crescendo: A gradual dynamic change, alongside diminuendo, used by composers to specify changes in volume.AQA
Cross rhythms: Occur when two conflicting rhythmic patterns are played simultaneously, creating a complex, polyrhythmic texture.AQA
Cross-cultural fusion: Fusion styles created when ragas are blended with Western elements such as harmony or electronic instrumentation in contemporary traditional music.AQA
Cross-cultural instrumentation: Combining the sitar and tabla with piano, strings or synthesisers, creating a unique cross-cultural dialogue.AQA
Cross-cultural orchestration: Ethnic instruments are often integrated into a broader Western orchestral framework to maintain cinematic scale while providing local colour.AQA
Cross-rhythm: Occurs when conflicting patterns, such as triplets against duplets, are played simultaneously, creating complex textures typical of Romantic piano works.AQA
Cue: A specific, discrete piece of music composed for a particular moment in a film, television show, or video game, with a defined start and end point.AQA
Cyclical structures: Deliberate reuse of thematic, rhythmic, or harmonic material across multiple movements or sections of a composition to create overarching unity.AQA

D

Dance forms and metric character: Composers often exploit metres for specific characters, such as using 6/8 for a lilting pastorale or a lively gigue.AQA
Dance forms in opera: The Cavatina begins in a moderate triple metre imitating an aristocratic minuet, then accelerates into a rapid duple-metre contredanse.AQA
Delay: Produces distinct, repeating echoes, adding spatial depth and altering the perceived environment of the sound.AQA
Density and spacing: Producers manipulate textural density, moving from a sparse texture in a verse to a dense, thick texture in a chorus to heighten the emotional impact.AQA
Descant: A specific type of countermelody that sits higher in pitch than the main melody.AQA
Development: The section that explores and fragments the themes, passing through various related and distant keys to create harmonic tension.AQA
Development of the piano as a solo instrument: The Romantic era saw the piano become an instrument of immense expressive range, championed by Chopin, Brahms and Grieg.AQA
diatonic circle of 5ths: A circle of 5ths progression that stays within the key.AQA
Diatonic glissando: A glissando executed using the white keys.AQA
Diatonicism vs chromaticism: Strictly diatonic tonal music can be distinguished from tonal music that incorporates chromaticism for expressive purposes while maintaining a clear tonal…AQA
Diegetic music: Music that exists within the world of the film, so the characters on screen can hear it.AQA
diminished (octatonic) scale: An eight-note scale built from alternating whole and half steps, also known as the octatonic scale.AQA
diminuendo: A gradual dynamic change, alongside crescendo, used by composers to specify changes in volume.AQA
Diminution: Proportionally shortening the note values, usually halving them, creating a faster, more urgent feel.AQA
disjunct: Motion that involves leaps, adding drama or energy to the melody.AQA
Dissonance: Intervals that create harmonic tension, such as major or minor seconds, sevenths, and tritones, requiring resolution to a consonance.AQA
Dissonance and consonance: The level of harshness or stability in harmony, used to reflect the dramatic situation, mood or character relationships on stage.AQA
Dissonance and harmony: Blue notes frequently clash with the underlying accompaniment, such as a flattened third in the melody over a dominant seventh chord containing a major third,…AQA
Dissonance and tension: A quality produced by clusters, which deliberately avoid traditional harmonic resolution to underscore dramatic, unsettling on-screen events.AQA
Distortion: A specific instrumental effect that alters an electric guitar's signal to create a gritty, aggressive tone characteristic of rock and heavy metal.AQA
Divisi: A means by which composers achieve textural variety using only vocal resources in a cappella works.AQA
Dominant 13th chord: Contains the root, major third, perfect fifth, minor seventh, major ninth, perfect eleventh, and major thirteenth, though the fifth and eleventh are often…AQA
Dominant 7th: A chord that adds a minor seventh to chord V, creating a tritone dissonance that resolves to chord I.AQA
Dominant pedal: Sustains the fifth degree of the scale, creating harmonic tension and a strong sense of anticipation, effective in pre-choruses or bridges before a resolution…AQA
Dorian mode: A minor-type scale with a major sixth, often found in Celtic folk traditions, giving a brighter sound than the natural minor.AQA
Double time: A rhythmic device frequently used in jazz where the perceived tempo of the music doubles while the underlying chord progression and actual bar length remain…AQA
Downbeat: The beats one and three of the bar, typically played by the bass drum and contrasting with the backbeat.AQA
Drag: To place notes fractionally after the pulse, resulting in a relaxed, laid-back, or bluesy feel.AQA
Dramatic effect: Glissandi are frequently used for this purpose, or to create a sense of comedy, tension, or magic.AQA
Dramatic function: Use of an unaccompanied section to create a moment of intimacy, to contrast with heavily orchestrated numbers, or to draw focus to the lyrics and vocal blend.AQA
Dramatic function and narrative: The bridge often shifts the emotional tone or advances the narrative before returning to the familiar material of the final chorus, driving the dramatic…AQA
Dramatic function of melody: Melody as a fundamental element used to convey character, emotion, and narrative in music for theatre.AQA
Dramatic function of musical elements: How specific instrumental techniques contribute to the mood, atmosphere, or stylistic authenticity of a theatre piece.AQA
Dramatic narrative: The theatrical story that composers enhance through their choice of sonority.AQA
Dramatic pacing: Secco recitative advances the plot rapidly after the duet concludes, shifting the mood from cheerful anticipation to dramatic tension.AQA
Dramatic pacing and structure: A loose sonata form is driven by the dramatic action of the scene, with sonata form elements adapted to suit the unfolding dramatic narrative.AQA
Dramatic preparation and resolution: The intro prepares the listener and the performer for the narrative to follow, while the outro provides a sense of closure or transition.AQA
Dramatic scoring: Using standard orchestral instruments to convey emotion, underscore dialogue and drive the narrative, with mutes altering timbre and volume for dramatic effect.AQA
Dramatic text setting: Allowing the vocalist to stretch or compress time for dramatic effect, creating a fluid, speech-like delivery in recitative-like passages, dramatic monologues…AQA
Dramatic underscoring: The use of harmony to underscore dramatic events, such as unresolved dissonant chords building suspense during a tense scene.AQA
Drone: A sustained or continuously repeated pitch, or set of pitches, that provides a harmonic foundation throughout a section or an entire piece.AQA
Drum kit anatomy: Key elements include the kick drum, snare drum, hi-hat, toms, and cymbals, and identifying individual components aurally is part of recognising the kit.AQA
Dynamics: These dictate the volume, ranging from quiet acoustic verses to powerful, layered choruses.AQA
Dynamics and contrast: Affected by layering, as adding more layers typically increases the perceived volume and intensity.AQA

E

Early electronic instruments: The ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument invented in 1928, is a prime example.AQA
Early jazz and swing: The growl or talking trumpet is heavily associated with early jazz and the 'Jungle Style' of Duke Ellington's orchestra.AQA
échappée note: A specific type of unaccented non-chord tone used to embellish a melody, approached by step from a chord tone and resolved by a leap in the opposite direction…AQA
Echo: Creates distinct, delayed repetitions of a sound, often used to suggest vast spaces like canyons.AQA
Edition-specific performance practice: The edition and translation are at the discretion of teacher and student, but the edition AQA names for the examination should be checked so its expressive…AQA
Electric guitar: A standard contemporary instrument identified by its use of magnetic pickups and common effects like overdrive or chorus.AQA
Electroacoustic music: A field of art music since 1910 in which looping is a fundamental technique.AQA
Electronic and acoustic fusion: A contemporary approach integrating electronic music, flamenco and Western classical elements, using synthesisers and the piano alongside the sitar and tabla.AQA
Electronic and tape music: The introduction of electronic instruments and tape manipulation, which composers used alongside everyday objects as percussion to create unique sonorities.AQA
Electronic Dance Music (EDM): A genre on which Daft Punk had influence, alongside pop, according to the note.AQA
Electronic effects: Modern electronic instruments, synthesisers, and studio effects, including reverb, delay, and synthesis, that alter acoustic sonorities in fusion styles.AQA
Electronic instruments: Frequently employed in media music to create distinct atmospheres, futuristic soundscapes or psychological tension.AQA
Electronic sound manipulation: Electronic manipulation employed alongside extended instrumental techniques and unconventional instrument pairings to craft distinctive soundscapes.AQA
electronic tremolo: An amplitude modulation effect that rapidly varies the volume of a sustained note, commonly heard on electric guitars in cinematic soundtracks.AQA
Embouchure adjustments: Subtle changes through which wind players such as saxophonists and trumpeters achieve pitch-bends.AQA
Emotional and narrative function: The dramatic function a melody has within a film score or video game soundtrack, conveying emotion, establishing character, and driving the narrative.AQA
Emotional resolution: A tonal framework provides emotional stability or resolution in a media context, conveying safety, heroism, or resolution.AQA
English traditional folk and sea shanties: Traditional English folk melodies, dance tunes and sea shanties are used as source material, with Bellowhead primarily arranging pre-existing songs and tunes…AQA
Enharmonic equivalents: Spellings used by composers to simplify reading or to facilitate complex modulations.AQA
Enharmonic keys: Keys that sound identical in equal temperament but are spelled differently in musical notation.AQA
Enharmonic modulation: A modulation spotted in a score by a chord approached in one key but resolved as if spelled differently in the new key.AQA
Enharmonic pivot chords: Chords such as the German augmented sixth sounding like a dominant seventh, used to transition between enharmonic keys.AQA
Ensemble writing and polyphony: Mozart weaves contrasting vocal lines into a cohesive, dramatic ensemble, and moments of homophony versus polyphony show how characters align or conflict.AQA
Episode: A contrasting section usually performed by the soloist or a small group of soloists (concertino), featuring virtuosic material and harmonically unstable,…AQA
Equal phrases: Phrases that share the same duration, typically four bars, creating the symmetry characteristic of the Classical period.AQA
Establishing mood and atmosphere: Tempo, metre and rhythm are vital for establishing mood, with regular metres providing stability and irregular metres generating tension.AQA
European art music: Art music of, or growing out of, the European tradition, which is how the western classical tradition is defined for this specification.AQA
Evolution of piano texture: Chopin's transparent, arpeggiated textures are contrasted with the thicker, more contrapuntal piano writing typical of Brahms.AQA
Expanded tonality and dissonance: He expanded traditional tonality using intense chromaticism, modal inflections, and biting dissonance, rather than adopting serialism.AQA
Expansion of the orchestra: Unusual instruments were used for expanding the orchestral palette or achieving specific programmatic effects.AQA
Exposition: The section that introduces two contrasting themes, typically moving from the tonic to the dominant or relative major.AQA
Expression of emotion: The secco recitative uses angular vocal leaps and shifting harmonies to portray Figaro's growing anger.AQA
Expressive chromatic harmony: Sophisticated diatonic harmony enriched by expressive chromaticism, including secondary dominants and diminished chords.AQA
Expressive chromaticism: Grieg's use of chromaticism, diminished chords and extended harmonies to create expressive tension and a nocturnal atmosphere.AQA
Expressive devices: Techniques such as sotto voce and vibrato that shape the expressiveness of a performance.AQA
Expressive harmony and chromaticism: Chopin's harmonic language is rich and innovative, utilising extensive chromaticism, diminished sevenths, and expressive dissonances to heighten emotional…AQA
Expressive performance techniques: Devices such as a glissando that add character and a vocal-like quality to performances.AQA
Expressive phrasing: A key aspect of jazz in which the subtle manipulation of timing relative to the underlying pulse is used.AQA
Expressive techniques: The growl or talking trumpet transforms the traditional pure brass tone into a highly expressive, vocalised, and gritty sound, adding intense emotional depth…AQA
Expressive use of sound: How a composer uses sonority to enhance the mood, character, or dramatic intent of the music.AQA
Expressive vocal and instrumental techniques: Devices such as pitch bends used to convey heightened emotion, mimic speech patterns, or add a blues or jazz inflection to a vocal or instrumental line.AQA
Expressive vocal techniques: The vocal style is highly ornamented, using rubato and dramatic dynamic shifts to convey emotion.AQA
Extended chords: Chords such as 7ths and 9ths that artists frequently incorporate to add interest to a pop song.AQA
Extended Forms: Structures beyond the standard 12-bar blues or 32-bar AABA, often expanding standard forms or creating multi-movement suites.AQA
Extended harmony: Adding notes beyond the basic triad and seventh to create richer, more complex harmonies, such as 9ths, 11ths and 13ths.AQA
Extended instrumental techniques: Methods such as string harmonics or brass mutes used alongside electronic manipulation and unconventional instrument pairings to craft distinctive soundscapes.AQA
Extended techniques: Unusual playing methods that vastly expand the orchestral palette, such as flutter tonguing for wind instruments or col legno and sul ponticello for strings.AQA
Extended vocal techniques: Non-traditional vocal sounds, such as overtone singing or whispering, common in modern unaccompanied vocal works.AQA

F

Fade in: A gradual increase in the volume of a track from silence to its baseline level, often used at the start of a song to build anticipation or introduce layers…AQA
Fade out: A gradual decrease in the volume to silence, typically at the end of a track, avoiding abrupt endings and creating a sense of the music continuing indefinitely.AQA
Fado and Saudade: Fado is characterised by its expressive, melancholic vocal style, and saudade is the profound sense of longing central to it that dictates the expressive…AQA
Falsetto: A vocal register just above the modal voice, often used by male singers to reach higher notes with a breathy, lighter tone.AQA
Fermata: A symbol in a musical score, a dot with a semi-circle above it, indicating where a pause occurs.AQA
Figured bass: Notation with numbers that guides the chordal instrument's improvised accompaniment.AQA
Fill: A brief transitional phrase, rather than a distinct structural block like an instrumental section.AQA
Filters and envelopes: Means by which synthesisers shape the sound over time.AQA
fingered tremolo: Rapidly alternating between two distinct pitches, similar to a trill but usually with a wider interval.AQA
Flutter-tonguing: One of the other unusual effects from this era, used to create novel textures and atmospheres rather than traditional melodic lines.AQA
Folk music influences: Norwegian folk elements such as the gangar walking dance and a Hardanger fiddle-like sound evoked through open fifths and pedal points.AQA
Folk rock: A musical genre combining elements of traditional folk music with rock music, emerging in the mid-20th century.AQA
Followers: One or more subsequent parts that imitate the leader exactly, entering after a specified time delay.AQA
Form and design: The formal design and organisation of a musical work, on which composers of the Western classical tradition relied to provide coherence.AQA
Formal innovation: Composers frequently departed from traditional Classical and Romantic forms, developing innovative approaches to structure.AQA
Fours: A structural and improvisational technique where two or more musicians alternate playing four-bar solo phrases.AQA
fp (fortepiano): Instructs the performer to play a note loudly and then immediately drop to a quiet dynamic, creating a striking contrast within a single sustained pitch or…AQA
Fragmentation: The breaking down of a longer melodic idea into shorter segments, often to build tension.AQA
Free atonality: An approach in which dissonance is emancipated and chords are built from intervals like seconds and sevenths rather than thirds.AQA
Free jazz: A jazz context in which ametrical passages are often found, where performers interact without the constraints of a strict pulse.AQA
French House and Disco: Styles blended in Daft Punk's music, with four-on-the-floor drum patterns and syncopated basslines typical of French house.AQA
Fugal texture: A highly structured form of imitative counterpoint in which a central theme, known as the subject, is introduced sequentially in all voices.AQA
Functional harmony: Major and minor tonalities that rely on chord progressions, such as the ii-V-I, to establish a key.AQA
Functional tonality: A hierarchical system where pitches and chords are organised around a central tonic note, firmly established in the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras.AQA
Functional versus non-functional harmony: Functional harmony uses dominant-tonic progressions, while non-functional progressions update traditional sounds without them.AQA
Funk and soul rhythms: His music features syncopated funk grooves and funk-inspired rhythmic grooves.AQA
Fusion of folk, jazz, and classical elements: Traditional English folk melodies are fused with elements of jazz, classical, pop and world music, including jazz harmony and classical orchestration.AQA
Fusion of styles: Bridging the gap between heritage styles and modern electronic dance or pop genres, expanding the sonic palette of traditional music.AQA
Fusion of traditional and contemporary instrumentation: Traditional acoustic instrumentation featuring the Portuguese guitar and classical guitar is expanded by incorporating orchestral arrangements, piano, and…AQA

G

Genre evolution: The stylistic evolution of genres such as rock, funk and R&B over the specified time period from 1960 to the present.AQA
Genre fusion: Power chords are often associated with rock or metal genres, and are frequently integrated into orchestral media scores to add weight and drive to action…AQA
Genre-specific instrumentation: Media composers often incorporate standard jazz, rock, and pop instruments to ground a scene in a specific era, culture, or genre.AQA
Genre-specific vocabulary: Terms related to harmony, melody, rhythm, structure, texture and instrumentation specific to the genre or historical period.AQA
German Lieder tradition: A tradition in which through-composed form became particularly significant in the 19th-century Romantic period.AQA
Glissando: A pitch movement that may articulate the intervening semitones or scale degrees depending on the instrument, unlike a continuous slide.AQA
Globalisation of traditional music: Contemporary production techniques and broader instrumentation are balanced with authentic Fado tradition to appeal to a global audience.AQA
Groove: The rhythmic feel or underlying pattern that creates a sense of forward motion and compels the listener to move.AQA
Groove and momentum: Established by ostinatos, which are fundamental for driving the rhythmic momentum in pop music.AQA
Grotesque and sarcastic musical topics: His style often features stark contrasts, juxtaposing profound tragedy with grotesque, sarcastic marches or trivial waltzes.AQA
Ground bass: A specific type of ostinato located in the lowest part, also known as a basso ostinato.AQA
Guide tones: The 3rd and 7th, which determine the chord's quality while extensions add colour.AQA

H

Habanera rhythm: A highly distinctive, syncopated rhythmic ostinato that originated in 19th-century Cuba and became a foundational element in various Latin American and…AQA
half-diminished 7th: A chord consisting of a root, minor third, diminished fifth, and minor seventh, often used as a predominant chord or for dramatic, ambiguous tension in…AQA
half-diminished seventh chord: Consists of a root, minor third, diminished fifth, and minor seventh, often functioning as chord iiø⁷ in a minor key ii-V-i progression.AQA
Half-time feel: A variation that might place the backbeat on beat three instead of two and four, altering the song's energy and perceived tempo without changing the…AQA
half-whole diminished scale: A primary form of the diminished scale heavily used over dominant seventh chords.AQA
Harmon mute: A specialised metal mute used predominantly by brass players, particularly trumpeters, in jazz, which completely seals the bell using a cork ring.AQA
Harmonic ambiguity: A deliberate tonal ambiguity created by the lack of a third, which obscures whether the chord is major or minor.AQA
Harmonic analysis: The study of chords and their associated chord symbols, including standard and extended chords, inversions and secondary dominant sevenths.AQA
Harmonic and Melodic Complexity: Chromatic chords, secondary dominants, and modal mixture create tension, with the harmonic minor scale and classical-style chord progressions also appearing.AQA
Harmonic and melodic contrast: The bridge provides harmonic, melodic and lyrical contrast, frequently featuring a modulation to a new key or a change in rhythmic feel.AQA
Harmonic and rhythmic complexity: Rich harmonic language featuring extended chords and modulations, alongside intricate rhythms such as syncopation and changing time signatures.AQA
Harmonic and tonal structures: Set in E flat major, the aria uses chromaticism to show emotional instability, with a move to the dominant and diminished seventh chords for dramatic effect.AQA
Harmonic colour: Chord extensions introduce colour and mild dissonance, expanding the harmonic palette of the 20th century.AQA
Harmonic complexity: His music uses jazz-influenced extended chords such as 9ths, 11ths and 13ths, with chromaticism and secondary dominants rather than simple diatonic harmony.AQA
Harmonic dissonance and bitonality: His harmonic language frequently employs dissonance, bitonality, and unexpected modulations to reflect the gritty, socially conscious themes of his works.AQA
Harmonic dissonance and complexity: Advanced harmonic language frequently employing added-note chords, extended dissonances, and occasional polytonality to reflect psychological complexity.AQA
Harmonic dissonance and tension: Unresolved dissonances, seventh and ninth chords, bitonality and chromaticism are used to subvert tonal expectations and build psychological tension.AQA
Harmonic enrichment: Chords are frequently enriched beyond standard triads and seventh chords by incorporating other added notes.AQA
Harmonic extensions: 7ths, 9ths, 11ths and 13ths are represented in commonly used jazz harmony symbols.AQA
harmonic function: Despite containing the notes of the tonic chord, the I⁶₄ functions as a double appoggiatura to the dominant chord, a dominant decoration rather than a true…AQA
Harmonic identification: Naming chords and harmonic progressions from a printed score, accounting for the key signature and accidentals.AQA
Harmonic innovation: Use of complex harmonies, extended and altered chords, chromaticism and parallel harmony, creating tension and release within a big band context.AQA
Harmonic innovation and chromaticism: Chopin uses intricate chromatic harmony, employing chromaticism as expressive colouration within a single melodic line rather than only for modulation.AQA
Harmonic language: Diatonic harmony creates a sense of stability, heroism, or romance, while extended chords and quartal harmony provide a modern or ethereal quality.AQA
Harmonic progression: Understanding chord symbols allows musicians to quickly interpret complex harmonic structures, inversions and alterations within a pop music context.AQA
Harmonic progression and tonality: Codas often reinforce the tonic key through repeated perfect cadences, and introductions often establish the key.AQA
Harmonic progressions: A sequence of chords that create harmonic tension and resolution, such as the I - VI - II - V progression.AQA
Harmonic rhythm: The rate at which chords change, which students must analyse by noting whether chords change rapidly or remain static and discussing the resulting effect on…AQA
harmonic sequence: A chord progression repeated immediately at a higher or lower pitch level.AQA
Harmonic sophistication: A highly sophisticated harmonic idiom, utilising extended chords such as 9ths and 13ths, altered chords, and complex substitutions.AQA
Harmonic stability and tension: The contrast between a tonic pedal's anchoring stability and a dominant pedal's tension and drive towards resolution.AQA
Harmonic stasis: A sense of stasis or timelessness created when drones establish tonal centres without traditional functional harmony.AQA
Harmonic Substitution and Contrafacts: Chord substitutions, extended chords and altered chords create dense harmonic progressions, often with new, complex melodies over standard chord changes.AQA
Harmonic support: The subordinate harmony that supports a primary melodic line within a homophonic texture.AQA
Harmonic tension: The dissonant, unstable nature of the half-diminished seventh chord is perfect for conveying mystery or unresolved tension in film scores.AQA
Harmonic variation: A bridge achieves this through changes in harmony, such as moving to the subdominant or relative minor, altering the rhythmic feel, or introducing a new…AQA
Harmonics: Produced by lightly touching a string at specific nodes, creating a high, glassy, and ethereal pitch.AQA
Harmony and Emotion: A harmonic language incorporating extended chords, suspensions and gospel-style cadences, blending emotive gospel-inspired harmonies with electronic production.AQA
Harmony and tonality: Post-1910 art music departs from traditional functional harmony, with modernism introducing atonality and serialism.AQA
Head: The main thematic melody of a piece, typically played at the very beginning and often repeated at the end of a performance.AQA
Head and solos arrangement: Jazz performances typically state the 'head' (melody) in this form before cycling through the entire structure repeatedly to provide the harmonic framework…AQA
Head arrangement: The most common structural format, where the main melody is played at the beginning and end, sandwiching a series of improvised solos based on the underlying…AQA
Head-out: The reprise of the head at the end of the piece, after the improvised solos.AQA
Hemiola: A rhythmic device used to create tension, momentum, or contrast, temporarily imposing a two-beat feel in triple time without altering the written metre.AQA
Heterophonic texture: Occurs when two or more musicians simultaneously perform variations of the same melodic line.AQA
Heterophony: The simultaneous performance of different variations of the same melody.AQA
Hexatonic scale: Contains six notes per octave; the term often refers to the augmented scale, alternating minor thirds and semitones, which creates a highly chromatic,…AQA
Hindustani classical music: Traditional Indian classical music whose techniques include meend, complex ragas and talas, and whose improvisatory nature includes alap, jor and jhala.AQA
Historical periods: The Baroque orchestra was small, string-dominated and featured a continuo, the Classical orchestra established a standard symphonic force, and the Romantic…AQA
Historical stylistic changes: Texture evolved significantly across the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods of the Western classical tradition from 1650 to 1910.AQA
Historical traditions: The tradition encompasses a vast repertoire from 1650 to 1910, including the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras.AQA
Homophonic: A texture consisting of a single dominant melody supported by harmonic accompaniment, the most prevalent texture in the Western classical tradition from 1650…AQA
Homophonic texture: A melody supported by chordal accompaniment, common in solo ballads to ensure lyrics are clearly understood.AQA
Hook: A short musical idea, often a riff or phrase, designed to be catchy and memorable to 'catch' the listener's ear.AQA
Horror and suspense tropes: Staple techniques in horror, thriller, and science fiction soundtracks, where clusters create fear, chaos, or an eerie atmosphere.AQA
Hybrid orchestration: Electronic elements such as sub-bass drops, sequenced arpeggios and manipulated samples are blended seamlessly with a traditional symphony orchestra.AQA

I

Imitation: Something the two upper parts frequently engage in, along with dialogue and suspensions, creating a rich polyphonic web above the continuo.AQA
Imitative texture: A specific type of polyphony where a melodic idea is introduced in one part and subsequently echoed by other parts, often at different pitch levels.AQA
Imperfect cadence: A cadence, also known as a half close, ending on chord V, often I–V, ii–V or IV–V, creating an unresolved resting point that demands continuation.AQA
Impressionist techniques: Parallel open fifths that break traditional voice-leading rules to create atmospheric colour.AQA
Improvisation: The practice of improvising solo phrases, as when musicians respond to each other's rhythmic and melodic ideas.AQA
Improvisation techniques: Solo and ensemble improvisations on basic tunes and chord patterns, such as the 12-bar blues.AQA
Individual expression: A highly individualised sound that jazz musicians often strive for rather than a blended orchestral tone.AQA
Innovative orchestration: His instrumentation, such as saxophones, banjo, and harmonium, subverts traditional operatic orchestration.AQA
Instrument roles: The function of specific instruments within the texture, such as a tambura providing a drone or a tabla providing a rhythmic layer.AQA
Instrumental: A passage in pop music where no lead vocals are present, allowing the accompanying instruments or a solo instrument to take the melodic focus.AQA
Instrumental hook: A recurring guitar or synth riff that serves as a type of hook in pop music.AQA
Instrumental section: A distinct structural block that provides contrast to the vocal-heavy verses and choruses, offering a moment of musical development or a shift in mood.AQA
Instrumental techniques: Specific methods of playing that alter the timbre and rhythmic drive of a track and contribute to its texture, groove and stylistic genre.AQA
Instrumental virtuosity: Virtuosic kora playing featuring complex polyrhythms, rapid ostinatos and intricate improvised melodic lines.AQA
Instrumentation and orchestration: Composers frequently employ electric guitars to introduce rock or pop idioms, providing driving rhythmic textures or soaring melodic solos that contrast with…AQA
Instrumentation and timbre: Traditional acoustic instruments such as the acoustic guitar, fiddle, or mandolin alongside electric instruments associated with rock, such as the electric…AQA
Integration of jazz and popular idioms: His style blends European classical traditions, cabaret, jazz, and popular dance idioms, creating a distinct, often satirical musical language.AQA
Integration of technology and orchestra: Blending electronic synthesizers with traditional orchestral instruments, using music technology, sampling and collaborative production techniques to shape…AQA
Interaction with visual media: How melodic features such as sequence, ornamentation, and thematic transformation interact with the visual action on screen.AQA
Interactive media scoring: Structural approaches to scoring for media such as video games, which use non-linear, looping structures.AQA
Interlocking layers: Complex layers created by polyrhythm that drive the music forward in styles such as African, Latin American or fusion.AQA
Interrupted cadence: A cadence, typically V–vi, that subverts the expectation of a perfect cadence and propels the music forward.AQA
Interval recognition: Identifying difficult or dissonant intervals, such as tritones, sevenths, or ninths, within the melodic line.AQA
Interval structure and omission of the third: Because they lack a major or minor third, they have an ambiguous, open tonal quality and avoid the muddy dissonance that full triads can produce under heavy…AQA
Intervallic augmentation: Increasing the distance between the notes of a melody, for example expanding a second to a third.AQA
intro: Establishes the mood, tempo, key and stylistic world before the vocal entry, often introducing key motifs or setting the scene for the characters' actions.AQA
Introduction: Precedes the main thematic material, often establishing the key, mood and tempo, and may feature distinct material or foreshadow primary themes.AQA
Inversions: A slash chord like C/E indicates a C major triad played with an E in the bass, representing a first inversion chord.AQA
Inversions and basslines: A slash chord like C/E indicates a C major triad played over an E bass note, creating a first inversion that smooths basslines.AQA
Inverted pedal: Placed in the highest part (soprano), creating a piercing, ethereal effect.AQA
Irregular metre: Occurs when the beats in a bar cannot be divided into equal groups of two or three, often resulting from combining simple and compound beats.AQA

J

Jazz articulation: Includes the smear, a deliberately imprecise, vocalised effect that adds character and a bluesy feel to a melodic line.AQA
Jazz Drumming Techniques: A specific percussion technique, highly characteristic of jazz drumming, executed by striking the rim and the skin of the drum simultaneously with the same…AQA
Jazz fusion: Integrating electric instruments and rock rhythms, as Davis pioneered in the late 1960s.AQA
Jazz influences in art music: The added 6th sonority, often associated with jazz, was embraced by composers to blend classical and popular idioms.AQA
Jazz notation conventions: Symbols such as Cmaj⁷, Cmin⁷ and C⁷ indicate chord qualities and extensions in commonly used jazz harmony notation.AQA
Jazz styles and eras: The specific jazz style being studied, to which sonority contributes in terms of mood, style or historical period.AQA
Jazz terminology: In this terminology a chorus is the structural unit over which the head is played and improvisations occur, not a contrasting lyrical section.AQA
Jazz-influenced harmony: A harmonic language featuring slash chords, modal mixtures and unresolved dissonances, reflecting jazz influences.AQA

K

Keyboard techniques: On a piano or synthesizer, a glissando is executed by sweeping a finger or thumb across the white or black keys, creating a rapid cascade of diatonic or…AQA
Kora: A 21-string West African harp-lute, played with the thumbs and index fingers, creating intricate polyphonic textures.AQA
Kumbengo: The repeated ostinato riff from which birimintingo passages break away.AQA

L

Large-scale contemporary arrangements: Highly contemporary arrangements transform simple traditional melodies using complex harmonies, syncopation, changing time signatures and varied textures.AQA
latigo: A fast, aggressive glissando sliding up the string, creating a sharp, shrieking effect that heightens emotional intensity.AQA
Latin American musical traditions: The 3 + 3 + 2 rhythm is a foundational rhythmic cell in Contemporary traditional music, particularly in Latin American styles.AQA
Layered ostinati: A specific textural device that students must be able to recognise in media scores.AQA
Layering: The superimposition of multiple musical parts, motifs, or sonic textures, used to thicken the harmonic texture or increase dynamic intensity.AQA
Leader: The initial melody in a canon, which is imitated exactly by one or more subsequent parts.AQA
Legato phrasing: Detailed phrasing relied on by Romantic composers like Chopin, with subtle dynamic shading, to convey intense emotion.AQA
Leitmotif: A musical idea used to represent characters and themes, as in 'Aerith's Theme' with its lyrical melodies and rich harmonies.AQA
librettist: The writer of the libretto; for this work it was Lorenzo Da Ponte.AQA
Looping: A production and performance technique involving the repetition of a recorded audio sample or MIDI sequence to create a continuous ostinato.AQA
Lower auxiliary: Steps down before returning up to the original harmony note.AQA
Lydian mode: A major-type scale with an augmented fourth, which creates a floating, unresolved quality.AQA
Lyrical and structural freedom: Songs that avoid traditional verse-chorus forms, opting instead for through-composed or modified strophic structures that serve the narrative arc of the…AQA
Lyrical melodic construction: Expansive melodies shaped by lyrical phrasing, wide intervals and sequences.AQA

M

Mainstream popular music: Popular mainstream music derived from and including a number of musical genres, spanning from 1960 to the present day.AQA
Major and minor keys: Pop songs may be firmly rooted in these, and the third degree of the scale and quality of the tonic chord help determine which it is.AQA
Major pentatonic: Comprises the root, major second, major third, perfect fifth, and major sixth.AQA
Major pentatonic scale: Consists of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th degrees of the major scale, omitting the 4th and 7th degrees to avoid semitone clashes.AQA
matras: The individual beats of a tala, grouped into distinct sections called vibhags.AQA
Media music conventions: The augmented triad's raised fifth creates a sense of ambiguity or otherworldly suspense, frequently used in sci-fi or fantasy soundtracks.AQA
Mediant key relationship: A shift from G minor to the remote key of B major, showing a fondness for such relationships alongside rich inner-voice counterpoint.AQA
Meend: Microtonal slides in Indian classical music that capture the nuances of non-Western traditions.AQA
Melancholy and saudade: Fado is characterised by melancholic melodies and themes of longing and saudade, which is nostalgia.AQA
Melisma: Setting in which a single syllable is sung across multiple different notes, frequently employed to highlight important words or convey intense emotion.AQA
Melodic and rhythmic frameworks: Complex ragas as melodic frameworks and talas as rhythmic cycles, which Shankar balances with structured Western song forms and modern production.AQA
Melodic and rhythmic word-painting: The vocal line uses syllabic text setting, wide leaps and rapid patter, with rhythm matching the meaning of the text.AQA
Melodic contour: The shape of a melody, which in an angular melody is jagged and disjointed rather than smooth and flowing.AQA
Melodic contour and intervals: The shape of a melodic line and the specific intervals used, which composers craft to elicit psychological responses.AQA
Melodic contour and movement: The shape of a melody and whether it moves by step or leap, which composers craft to reflect the dramatic context.AQA
Melodic hook: A memorable vocal line that serves as a type of hook in pop music.AQA
Melodic improvisation: Characterised by fluid, horn-like phrasing, wide intervallic leaps, and a strong sense of narrative development.AQA
Melodic motion: The movement of a melody, described as conjunct when it moves by step or disjunct when it moves by leap.AQA
Melodic ornamentation and cantabile style: A lyrical right-hand melody is supported by a wide-ranging, arpeggiated left-hand accompaniment, and melodies are decorated with intricate, virtuosic…AQA
Melody: A linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity, often the primary focus of a composition supported by harmony.AQA
Melody and accompaniment: A specific type of homophony where a clear tune stands out above an accompanying figure, such as broken chords or arpeggios.AQA
Melody and harmony: The repeated or slightly varied melody and chord progression over which the verse's changing lyrics are sung, analysed for harmonic and melodic construction.AQA
Melody and hooks: The chorus contains the primary lyrical and musical motif or 'hook', and its melodic shape can be analysed.AQA
Melody and lyrics: A verse typically features the same underlying melody and chord progression each time it occurs, but with different lyrics.AQA
Metamorphosis: A compositional technique where a musical idea, such as a motif, melody, or rhythm, is gradually and continuously transformed over time.AQA
Metre: Organises beats into regular patterns, such as duple, triple, or quadruple time, establishing the framework for rhythmic phrasing.AQA
Metrical displacement: Occurs when a motif is shifted so its accents fall on different beats than originally established, conflicting with the underlying metre.AQA
Metrical structure: The fundamental beat structure of the bar, which irregular metre affects, as opposed to syncopation, which displaces accents within a regular metre.AQA
Metronome marking (mm): A precise indication of tempo specifying how many of a particular note value occur in one minute.AQA
Micro-timing: Subtle manipulation of timing relative to the underlying pulse, a key aspect of expressive phrasing and swing feel.AQA
Micropolyphony: A highly dense texture consisting of many independent, closely spaced lines, so dense that individual lines cannot be distinguished, creating a mass of sound.AQA
middle eight: The contrasting 'B' section within the standard 32-bar AABA song form, typically eight bars long.AQA
Minimalism: An aesthetic associated with composers who utilised additive and subtractive processes to slowly alter repeated patterns, creating a hypnotic or evolving…AQA
Minimalism and ostinato: Building tension through slow harmonic changes and dynamic swells rather than complex melodic development, with repetitive ostinatos and slow harmonic rhythm.AQA
Minimalism and phase shifting: A 20th-century style associated with the technique, in which a motif is shifted against the metre to drive the music forward through rhythmic dissonance.AQA
Minimalism and process music: Minimalist processes like additive and subtractive rhythmic construction are used to build structural frameworks.AQA
Minimalist techniques and ostinatos: Layering of short, repeating rhythmic motifs builds complex soundscapes, and ostinatos are relied on heavily alongside syncopation.AQA
Minimalist textures: Sustained open fifths used as a static drone or pedal point to anchor shifting rhythmic patterns without dictating a strict functional progression.AQA
Minor pentatonic: Consists of the root, minor third, perfect fourth, perfect fifth, and minor seventh.AQA
Minor pentatonic scale: Uses the 1st, minor 3rd, 4th, 5th, and minor 7th degrees.AQA
Mixolydian mode: A mode indicated by a flattened seventh in a major-type scale, often used to create a rustic feel.AQA
Mixtures: Compound stops where a single key plays multiple pipes tuned to overtones, usually octaves and fifths, adding brilliant, piercing high frequencies to the…AQA
mm (metronome marking): Provides a precise indication of tempo by specifying the exact number of beats per minute.AQA
mock-heroic tone: A tone created by the mock-heroic quality of the aria, with trumpets and timpani adding a pompous, military quality.AQA
Modal: Based on modes rather than traditional major or minor scales, often relying on drones, ostinatos and parallel chord movement and avoiding traditional perfect…AQA
Modal harmony: A traditional approach that relies on modes and avoids functional dominant-tonic progressions.AQA
Modal inflections: Features such as the absence of a leading note, which contrast with diatonic major and minor keys within this era.AQA
Modal jazz: A later development that abandons traditional major/minor functional harmony altogether, instead using modes like Dorian as the tonal basis.AQA
Modal tonality: A tonality such as Dorian or Mixolydian, prevalent in folk traditions, that blends with modern harmonic structures.AQA
Modal vs tonal harmony: Modal jazz replaces functional harmony with static chords built on fourths, whereas tonal jazz relies on resolving progressions like ii-V-I.AQA
Modality: Music based on modes rather than the major/minor tonal system, appearing for specific expressive effects in the Western classical tradition.AQA
Mode: A scale with a specific sequence of intervals.AQA
Modernisation of traditional music: A fusion preserving the melodic and lyrical heritage of folk music, as when a traditional modal melody is set over a heavy, syncopated rock drum beat.AQA
Modernist and avant-garde techniques: His style includes complex modernist dissonance and aleatoric techniques alongside traditional elements.AQA
Modes of limited transposition: Symmetrical scales, such as the octatonic scale, that can only be transposed a few times before repeating their pitch content and create a sense of harmonic…AQA
Modified sonata form: A structure lacking a development section, which propels the music forward with relentless momentum.AQA
modulating sequence: A harmonic sequence that passes through multiple keys.AQA
Modulation: A shift between sections, such as a minor verse leading to a relative major chorus, or an abrupt semitone or tone upward shift often used in final choruses.AQA
Modulation and key changes: Changes of key are frequently used to align with narrative shifts or visual cuts on screen.AQA
Monophonic: A texture consisting of a single melodic line without accompaniment, regardless of the number of performers.AQA
Monophonic texture: A single melodic line without accompaniment, which might highlight a character's isolation.AQA
mordent: A single rapid alternation with the note above (upper) or below (lower).AQA
Motif: A component used by composers to construct melodies, which can be altered rather than assumed to be a completely new melody.AQA
Motivic development: Transformation of returning material, such as a specific motif, through inversion or rhythmic augmentation upon its recurrence.AQA
Motivic development and ostinato: His style avoids traditional melodic development, favouring short, repetitive ostinatos instead of extended lyrical melodies.AQA
Motor-rhythm: Features a continuous, driving quaver or semiquaver pulse that propels the music, a hallmark of Baroque fast movements.AQA
Music and psychological narrative: His musical choices, such as the shrieking glissandos in the *Psycho* shower scene, directly enhance the narrative and emotional impact of the media.AQA
Music for Media: A context in which composers use modes to evoke specific atmospheres, historical periods or cultural settings.AQA
Music technology: Modern technology such as loop pedals or digital audio workstations used to build complex textures from a single performer.AQA
Music Technology and Production: Use of contemporary music technology including drum machines, sampling and synthesizers, alongside live instrumentation like brass sections, horns and rhythm…AQA
Music technology and synthesisers: He pioneered the use of the Moog synthesiser and Clavinet to create distinctive basslines and rhythmic textures.AQA
Music Technology and Timbre: Synthesizers, arpeggiators, and heavy guitar effects like fuzz and distortion are used, and specific guitar effects such as the Kaoss Pad should be discussed…AQA
Musical analysis: Recognising varied harmonic approaches aurally and in scores, and understanding how they define the style of specific composers.AQA
Musical contrast: An a cappella texture set against accompanied sections to highlight lyrics or emotion, with instruments joining an initially unaccompanied vocal line.AQA
Musical cryptograms and personal motifs: A defining characteristic is his use of musical cryptograms, most notably the DSCH motif, which acts as a personal signature in his works.AQA
Musical energy and dynamics: A glissando adds dramatic flair, energy, or a sense of transition in pop music.AQA
Musical evolution (1920-present): Jazz spanning from 1920 to the present, with defining traits essential for analysing how it evolved across different eras and styles.AQA
Musical framing and boundaries: The intro and outro serve crucial dramatic and musical functions, framing a song or scene.AQA
Musical fusion: The blending of traditional musical features with contemporary elements and styles within a piece of music.AQA
Musical fusion and innovation: Tango nuevo incorporates jazz and classical elements, with fusion-based textures and sophisticated innovations.AQA
Musical irony and characterisation: Mozart uses musical irony, such as Basilio's polite but malicious musical phrasing, and differentiates the three characters simultaneously through their…AQA
Musical layers: Texture involves identifying layers such as monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic and heterophonic, and describing their interaction and relative density.AQA
Musical layers and arrangement: How different melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic layers are combined, with instrumentation and arrangement choices directly affecting the overall texture of a…AQA
Musical layers and interaction: How different melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic layers are combined, and how these layers interact, build, and contrast.AQA
Musical narrative and setting: Composers use ethnic instruments to establish a sense of location and enhance the visual narrative.AQA
Musical nationalism: A nationalist approach to Romantic piano literature, seen in Grieg's miniature-focused style with modal harmony and folk-dance rhythms.AQA
Musical notation: The tradition is normally notated, relying on written scores rather than oral transmission or improvisation as its primary method of preservation.AQA
Musical pacing and timing: How the music develops in tandem with the visual pacing, and how the cue concludes, whether it fades out, ends abruptly on a cut, or resolves into the next…AQA
Musical structure and contrast: Together, dynamics and articulation shape the emotional trajectory of a song, highlight structural changes, and define the stylistic nuances of the artist's…AQA
Musical structure and form: A bridge is a contrasting section in a song's structure, typically occurring after the second chorus, and in a standard AABA song form the 'B' section acts as…AQA
Musical styles and genres: These comprise modern, contemporary classical, electronic art, experimental and minimalist music, as well as other forms.AQA
Musical tension and resolution: Its primary function is transitional, creating musical and emotional tension that is resolved in the subsequent section.AQA
Musical terminology: Specific vocabulary that students must be able to identify and apply to both music heard and notated, as found in the tables appropriate to the selected area…AQA
Musical texture: Textures such as homophony for powerful, unified statements, or polyphony to depict chaotic crowd scenes, used by composers in choral numbers.AQA
Musical timing and pacing: Understanding metronome markings allows students to analyse the exact pacing of a cue and how the composer calculates timings to match the unfolding cinematic…AQA
Musical transformation: Altering a leitmotif in rhythm, harmony, tempo, or instrumentation to reflect changes in a character's situation or psychological state.AQA
Musical transitions: A function of the glissando, bridging sections, alongside adding excitement or providing textural contrast to traditional acoustic instruments.AQA
Musique concrete: Tape manipulation techniques through which sampling originated in art music.AQA
Mutes and modifications: The 'talking' effect is created by simultaneously manipulating a plunger mute over the bell of the trumpet, opening and closing it to mimic the vowel sounds…AQA

N

Narrative and exposition: The role verses play in theatrical music, being crucial for exposition and advancing the plot and for storytelling and character development.AQA
Narrative cohesion: Something built in music for media through the use of recurring musical phrases associated with a particular person, place, idea, or emotion.AQA
Narrative development: The primary function of the verse is to tell the story, develop the theme, or provide context for the song.AQA
Narrative function: Harmony is a vital tool for establishing mood, character, and narrative progression in music for media.AQA
Narrative function of key: Understanding how tonality interacts with the visual narrative is crucial for analysing media music.AQA
Narrative function of music: Use of source music to establish a specific historical period, geographical location, or social setting, or to blur the lines between diegetic and…AQA
Narrative impact of popular music styles: The distinct timbres and rhythmic drives of these instruments contribute to the narrative, such as a distorted guitar for aggressive action or a smooth…AQA
Nationalism and folk influences: Grieg's piano works are heavily influenced by Norwegian folk music, using modal inflections, drone basses and rhythmic motifs derived from traditional dances.AQA
Nationalism in Romantic music: A style blending Western classical traditions with Norwegian folk elements, exemplified by Grieg's nationalist character piece.AQA
Neoclassicism: Some neoclassical works retained established frameworks like sonata form.AQA
non-chord tone: A note that is not part of the underlying chord, such as an échappée note, which creates a brief moment of dissonance before resolving.AQA
Non-diatonic chords: Chords incorporated alongside diatonic harmony, along with substitutions, to add interest to a pop song.AQA
Non-diegetic: Music that the characters on screen cannot hear.AQA
Non-diegetic music: Music within a soundtrack that is not part of the scene, used alongside diegetic music to establish setting, era, or character identity.AQA
Non-functional and modal harmony: Modal scales, pedal points and unresolved or ambiguous chords create atmosphere, with static harmony and modal inflections avoiding traditional dominant-tonic…AQA
Non-functional harmony: Use of chords for their individual sonority, colour, or texture rather than their traditional role in establishing a key through functional progressions.AQA
Non-retrogradable rhythm: Alternative term for palindromic rhythms, particularly in relation to Olivier Messiaen.AQA
Non-retrogradable rhythms: Palindromic rhythmic cells that remain identical when played backwards, sounding the same forwards and backwards.AQA
Non-Western musical influences: Influences such as West African drumming and Balinese gamelan, blended with Western classical traditions and electronic music techniques.AQA
nostalgia: A quality often associated with the stable yet colourful sonority of the added 6th chord in film scores.AQA
Notation and symbols: The written marks in staff notation, including performance directions, dynamics and articulation marks, that must be correctly interpreted.AQA
Note addition: A minimalist technique where a simple cell is repeated and a new note is inserted during subsequent repetitions, gradually lengthening the phrase.AQA
Note subtraction: A minimalist technique where a fully formed motif has notes gradually removed one by one until only a fragment remains.AQA
Nuevo tango: A style created by Piazzolla that fuses traditional Argentine tango with contemporary elements from jazz and classical music.AQA

O

Octatonic scale: A scale alternating whole and half steps, allowing only three distinct transpositions.AQA
Octaves: When performers play the same melody but separated by an interval of an octave.AQA
Open fifth: A chord or interval consisting only of a root note and its perfect fifth, deliberately omitting the major or minor third.AQA
opera buffa: A genre of classical opera, of which Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro K.492 is a cornerstone.AQA
Orchestral brilliance and texture: Mozart's brilliant orchestration, such as the independent use of woodwind and the driving rhythmic vitality.AQA
Orchestral development: The standard orchestral types evolved significantly across the Western classical tradition from 1650 to 1910, from a small string-dominated Baroque orchestra…AQA
Orchestral families: The four groups are strings, woodwind, brass and percussion, and instruments must be classified into the correct one.AQA
Orchestral symbolism: The orchestration supports the vocal and dance textures, including standard horn reinforcement in tutti passages.AQA
Orchestration: The selection of specific instrumental timbres to represent characters, moods or settings, and the way theatrical scores are arranged to support the stage…AQA
Orchestration and instrumentation: Identifying the instruments playing, their registers, and how different timbres blend or contrast to create orchestral textures and dramatic effects.AQA
Orchestration and texture: A bridge may feature different orchestration, and sudden changes in key, texture or instrumentation are key indicators of a bridge section.AQA
Orchestration and timbre: Heavily features brass and timpani, creating a parodic military march style that is crucial for establishing the military parody.AQA
Original score: The original music composed for the film, as distinct from a compilation of featured songs.AQA
Ostinato: A repeated pattern, such as the habanera rhythm played by the bass or lower strings, providing a steady groove over which melodies and counter-rhythms can be…AQA
Ostinato and repetition: A continuous ostinato created by repeating a recorded audio sample or MIDI sequence, heard as exact, mechanical repetition of a phrase.AQA
outro: Concludes the song, often by fading out, ending on a sustained tonic chord, or repeating the chorus hook with improvised vocal ad-libs.AQA
Overlapping entries: These build the comic conflict, and the alternating vocal phrases become shorter and overlap as the characters' tempers flare.AQA

P

Pacing and energy: Higher bpm typically drives energetic dance numbers, while lower bpm supports reflective ballads, and bpm markings ensure consistent pacing across performances.AQA
Palindromic rhythms: Rhythmic sequences that are identical whether played forwards or backwards, often termed non-retrogradable rhythms by Messiaen.AQA
Palm muting: A technique on electric guitars used to create a dampened, chugging rhythm.AQA
Panning: Distributing sound across the stereo field, creating width and allowing different parts to sit clearly in the mix.AQA
Parallel 3rds: When two melodic lines move in the same direction, maintaining a constant interval of a third between them.AQA
Parallel harmonic motion: They are frequently played as parallel, shifting shapes along the guitar fretboard, driving the rhythmic momentum of a track without strictly adhering to…AQA
Parallel period: A period in which the consequent often begins with the exact same melodic material as the antecedent before altering the ending for the perfect cadence.AQA
passing note: A note approached and resolved by step in the same direction, unlike an échappée note which resolves by leap.AQA
Passing notes: Non-chord tones that connect two different harmony notes by stepwise motion, filling in the melodic gap.AQA
Pause: The prolongation of a note or rest beyond its written rhythmic value, temporarily suspending the metre.AQA
Pedal note: A sustained or repeated note sounded against changing harmonies, some of which are dissonant with it.AQA
Pedal point: A sustained or continuously repeated note, typically in the bass register, against which changing harmonies are played.AQA
Pedalling: Lifts the dampers from the strings, allowing notes to ring out and creating a richer, more resonant tone.AQA
Pentatonic glissando: A glissando executed using the black keys.AQA
Pentatonic scale: Contains five notes per octave, and the major pentatonic avoids semitones and tritones, producing a stable, consonant sound often used to evoke folk music.AQA
Pentatonic substitution: Used by jazz musicians to access upper extensions of chords.AQA
Percussive timbre and sonority: The drum kit comprises various components with distinct timbres, and recognising these components and techniques is crucial for analysing rhythm and sonority.AQA
Perfect cadence: A progression of V–I that provides a conclusive finish to a phrase.AQA
Performance contexts: The music is normally intended for public performance, such as symphonies played in concert halls or operas staged in theatres.AQA
Performance practice: Composers and musical directors use bpm markings alongside traditional Italian terms to convey a composer's intentions.AQA
Performance techniques: Playing without the removable central stem, producing a highly distinctive, metallic, buzzing and focused tone that cuts through an ensemble.AQA
Period instrumentation: The instrumentation and specific techniques used, such as the natural trumpet in Purcell or the transverse flute in Vivaldi.AQA
Phase shifting: An effect where identical loops gradually move out of sync, generating complex rhythmic and melodic variations.AQA
Phasing: A compositional technique where two or more instruments play the same repeating musical figure at slightly different tempos, gradually shifting out of sync.AQA
Phrase: A component used by composers to construct melodies, described using terminology such as antecedent and consequent phrases.AQA
Phrasing: The shaping of a melody into phrases, which may be balanced, symmetrical or irregular.AQA
Piano glissando: An expressive technique where the performer slides their fingers rapidly across the keys, sounding every adjacent note within the slide's range.AQA
Pitch alteration and microtonality: Expressive pitch alterations such as a flattened third or a microtonal pitch sliding between the minor and major third.AQA
Pitch bend: An expressive articulation technique where a musician slightly alters the pitch of a note, often by microtonal increments, before returning to the original…AQA
Pitch bending: A technique on synthesisers used to emulate vocal phrasing.AQA
Pitch bending and microtonality: Instrumentalists and vocalists often bend or slide into these notes, creating a microtonal expressive effect that cannot be precisely notated on a standard…AQA
Pitch collections: Pentatonic and hexatonic scales are pitch collections used extensively in art music since 1910 to create distinct melodic and harmonic colours.AQA
Plagal cadence: A progression of IV–I that offers a softer resolution.AQA
Planing: Parallel chord movement where chords shift in parallel motion without regard for diatonic function.AQA
Playing techniques: Specific methods used to manipulate timbre, such as sul ponticello, harmonics, or vocal ornamentation, to create expressive and culturally specific sounds.AQA
Pointillism: A sparse texture where individual notes are isolated and distributed among various instruments, rather than being merely staccato.AQA
Polarised texture: A musical texture with a strong emphasis on the outer parts, specifically the melody and bass, leaving inner parts to fill out the harmony.AQA
Political context and Socialist Realism: His music is deeply intertwined with the political landscape of the Soviet Union, balancing personal expression with the demands of Socialist Realism.AQA
Polymetre: Different metres played simultaneously, distinct from polyrhythm, which involves contrasting rhythms within the same metre.AQA
Polyphonic: A primary texture that students must be able to identify in a given extract.AQA
Polyphonic texture: A dense texture that could represent chaos or conflicting emotions during an ensemble number.AQA
Polyphony: Involves independent melodies sounding simultaneously, unlike heterophony which relies on a single underlying melodic framework.AQA
Polyrhythm: A broader term for multiple simultaneous rhythms, unlike cross rhythm, which specifically involves the conflict of different metric pulses.AQA
Polytonality and Bitonality: Two or more keys sound simultaneously, with bitonality involving two keys sounding at the exact same time.AQA
Portamento: An expressive performance technique involving a smooth, continuous glide from one pitch to another, passing through all the intermediate microtonal frequencies.AQA
Portuguese guitar: A teardrop-shaped plucked lute with twelve strings, essential to the mournful sound of Fado music.AQA
Post-1960 musical context: The time-bound definition of pop music as spanning from 1960 to the present, excluding music from the 1950s.AQA
Power chords: A staple of rock and pop-punk harmony consisting solely of the root note and the perfect fifth, often with the root doubled an octave higher.AQA
Precision and synchronisation: Adhering to a strict metronome marking is critical for synchronising the musical score with the visual action.AQA
predominant chord: A function frequently taken by the half-diminished 7th, adding a poignant, unresolved quality ideal for suspense or tragedy.AQA
Preparation: The first of the three stages, in which the note held over is consonant.AQA
Primary triads: Chords I, IV and V, which establish the tonal centre and drive cadences.AQA
Progressive Rock Influences: Muse incorporates progressive rock elements, making their style much heavier and more complex than typical Britpop.AQA
Push: To articulate notes slightly ahead of the strict metronomic pulse, creating a sense of urgency, excitement, or forward drive.AQA

Q

Quality: One of perfect, major, minor, augmented or diminished, determined using the major scale of the lower note as a reference.AQA

R

Raga: A melodic framework used in Indian classical music, forming the basis for improvisation and composition, including ascending and descending patterns and a…AQA
Rallentando: Requires a gradual slowing down, typically used to prepare for a cadence or a new section.AQA
Rap: A vocal delivery characterised by rhythmic, rhyming speech rather than sung melody, used to deliver dense exposition or express urgent emotions.AQA
rapid syllabic patter: A feature of the vocal line in which Bartolo lists his legal jargon while the strings play driving semiquavers.AQA
Rasa: The emotional mood of the chosen raga, which the alap serves to establish.AQA
Recapitulation: The section that resolves the tension by restating both themes in the tonic key.AQA
Recitative: Mimics the natural rhythms of speech to advance the plot or deliver dialogue rapidly, typically syllabic with sparse accompaniment.AQA
Recitativo accompagnato: Recitative with orchestral support, using fuller orchestral accompaniment for dramatic effect.AQA
Recitativo secco: Dry recitative supported only by continuo, using sparse accompaniment.AQA
Recurring themes and leitmotifs: Extensive use of recurring themes and leitmotifs to unify large-scale structures and represent specific characters or ideas.AQA
Reed stops: Stops such as the trumpet or oboe that produce sound via a vibrating brass tongue, creating a penetrating, rich sonority.AQA
Relative and parallel relationships: Relative keys share a key signature, whereas parallel keys share a tonic, and recognising both relationships is needed in score analysis.AQA
Relative minor: A key sharing the same key signature as the original key, for example C major and A minor.AQA
Religious and spiritual themes: His music expresses spiritual narratives and emotional intensity, often using plainchant melodies as foundational material.AQA
Resolution: The movement of a dissonance to a consonance, as in a 4-3 suspension where a dissonant fourth resolves downwards by step to a stable third.AQA
Resultant melody: A musical line that emerges from the combination of two or more independent parts, rather than being explicitly written as a single continuous line.AQA
Retrograde: The act of playing a sequence backwards, distinct from a palindromic rhythm which is inherently symmetrical and identical in retrograde.AQA
Reverb: Used not just to simulate acoustic spaces but as a creative tool to alter the decay and spatial perception of sounds, creating vast, artificial sonic…AQA
Rhythm: Something affected by phasing, which must be recognised alongside its effect on texture in post-1910 art music.AQA
Rhythm and Groove: Rhythmic, percussive delivery with syncopation, swung semi-quavers and polyrhythmic textures in the accompaniment, forming sophisticated rhythmic grooves.AQA
Rhythm and Metre: Syncopated rhythmic figures which the technique is frequently used to punctuate within big band arrangements.AQA
Rhythm changes: A quintessential progression based on George Gershwin's 'I Got Rhythm', featuring a 32-bar AABA structure with a distinctive I-VI-II-V turnaround in the A…AQA
Rhythm section roles: The rhythm section, made up of drums, bass and chordal instruments, establishes groove and genre.AQA
Rhythmic ambiguity: Created by metrical displacement, as the listener perceives the original internal accents of the motif clashing with the written time signature.AQA
Rhythmic and harmonic adaptation: Traditional tunes, modes, and vocal styles arranged with a rock-style rhythm section and amplified instruments, creating a driving, energetic sound.AQA
Rhythmic and melodic roles: The roles of contemporary instruments in a pop arrangement, between which the listener should distinguish.AQA
Rhythmic and textural complexity: Complex arrangements use syncopation, changing time signatures and varied musical textures, often building from a sparse start to a dense, full-band climax.AQA
Rhythmic complexity: Layers often use contrasting subdivisions, creating cross-rhythms or polyrhythms, while each layer maintains its distinct rhythmic identity.AQA
Rhythmic complexity and tension: Driving rhythmic ostinatos build momentum, syncopation creates off-beat accents and cross-rhythms add complex layers of agitation.AQA
Rhythmic density: Increased rhythmic density, such as moving from quavers to semiquavers, which double time creates during improvised solos.AQA
Rhythmic dissonance: Disrupts the primary pulse, adding depth and intensity to the cinematic experience.AQA
Rhythmic drive and momentum: Established by composers employing ostinati, alongside building texture or creating harmonic stasis.AQA
Rhythmic drive and syncopation: A fast Allegro vivace tempo in cut common time with short, fragmented phrases, syncopation and continuous quaver movement portrays his agitation.AQA
Rhythmic flexibility: A strong but flexible rhythmic understructure, featuring swing rhythms and syncopation that drive the music while allowing expressive freedom.AQA
Rhythmic flexibility and speech patterns: Rhythmic flexibility, including changing metres and syncopation, which closely mirror natural speech patterns.AQA
Rhythmic foundation: A stable foundation provided by ostinatos over which melodies and harmonies can develop.AQA
Rhythmic foundation and groove: The drum kit is central to the rhythmic foundation of pop music, and the kick drum is vital for anchoring the groove and locking in with the bassline.AQA
Rhythmic hook: A distinctive beat that serves as a type of hook in pop music.AQA
Rhythmic interlocking: Interlocking rhythmic and melodic patterns played by two or more parts can lead the listener's ear to group accented or overlapping notes into a new, distinct…AQA
Rhythmic ostinato: The rhythm functions as an ostinato or foundational groove, providing a structural framework for other interlocking parts in Latin fusion genres.AQA
Rhythmic syncopation: Milonga is characterised by a syncopated 2/4 rhythm and driving, syncopated basslines, giving it a lively feel.AQA
Rhythmic tension: A sense of unease, unpredictability or driving tension that mirrors the dramatic narrative, frequently created by composers employing irregular metres.AQA
Riff: A short, repeated musical phrase, often played by a lead instrument or the rhythm section, forming a key identifying feature of a piece.AQA
Ritenuto: Means 'held back' and demands an immediate, rather than gradual, reduction in speed, often for dramatic emphasis.AQA
Ritornello: A recurring main theme played by the full orchestra (tutti) that establishes the main thematic material and often returns abbreviated and in different related…AQA
Ritornello form: A structural principle used by Bach in BWV1041, contrasting with Vivaldi's programmatic elements and virtuosic flute writing.AQA
Rock, funk and R&B: Genres explicitly named as included in, and from which pop music is derived, within the specification's definition.AQA
Romantic expression and rubato: Expressive rubato and ornamentation such as fioritura enhance the expressive, vocal quality of the melody.AQA
Romantic music: Music of the 19th century in which portamento became a highly characteristic expressive device, used to heighten emotional intensity and connect notes in a…AQA
Romantic piano music: Music in which pedalling contributes to the expressive qualities, used extensively by composers to shape colour and texture.AQA
Romantic virtuosity: The technical demands of the Presto sections, including rapid passagework, wide leaps, and heavy chordal textures, serving the expressive and dramatic…AQA
Rounded binary form: A specific type of binary form where the opening material of section A returns in the tonic key towards the end of section B, creating an ABA' feel while…AQA
Rubato: The expressive pushing and pulling of tempo, stretching certain notes while compressing others, without losing the fundamental underlying pulse.AQA

S

sam: The heavily accented first beat of the cycle, where performers resolve complex rhythmic improvisations.AQA
Sampling: Involves taking a portion of a sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or sound object within a new composition.AQA
Sampling and Looping: A technique analysed in Daft Punk's work, involving looping, filtering and pitch-shifting of funk and disco records.AQA
Satire and social class: Mozart uses the aristocratic minuet as a satirical challenge to the Count's authority, while the contredanse of the lower classes symbolises Figaro taking…AQA
Satire and social commentary: His harmonic language reflects the gritty, socially conscious themes of his works, and his vocal writing conveys cynical or satirical texts.AQA
Scale construction: Built by adding a flattened 5th (or sharpened 4th) to the minor pentatonic scale, giving the degrees 1st, minor 3rd, 4th, flattened 5th, 5th and minor 7th.AQA
Scale degrees and intervals: The major mode is characterised by a major third above the tonic, while the minor mode features a minor third.AQA
Scat singing: Using the voice as an improvisational instrument, which Armstrong popularised as a vocalist.AQA
Score analysis: Identifying the concept in a score and applying appropriate terminology to describe musical elements within a set work accurately.AQA
Score reading: Visually recognising melodic intervals, harmonic progressions, rhythmic devices and textural features in a printed score.AQA
Score reading and notation: Key signatures must be written or identified correctly on both treble and bass staves, with accidentals placed in the standard order and octave.AQA
Scottish traditional music: MacMillan's style incorporates elements of Scottish folk music, such as grace notes, Scotch snaps and modal melodies.AQA
Second inversion: A chord position with the fifth in the bass, often used in cadential six-four progressions.AQA
Secondary 7th: Any diatonic seventh chord that is not the dominant seventh, built on degrees other than the dominant.AQA
Secondary dominant 7ths: Seventh chords that temporarily tonicise a chord other than the tonic, such as V⁷ of V.AQA
Secondary seventh: A diatonic seventh chord built on a degree other than the dominant, such as the supertonic ii⁷ or submediant vi⁷, frequently used in jazz-influenced pop to…AQA
Secondary triads: Chords II, III, VI and VII, which provide harmonic variety and are often used in sequences.AQA
Sequence: A device that moves pitch level, whereas a riff repeats at the same pitch.AQA
Serialism: A compositional technique developed by Arnold Schoenberg in the early 1920s, built on the foundational ordering of the twelve chromatic pitches known as a…AQA
Sforzando accents: Sudden accents used by Beethoven to create dramatic surprise.AQA
sfz (sforzando): Dictates a sudden, strong accent on a single note or chord, often used to create dramatic surprise.AQA
Simple time: Each main beat is divisible into two equal halves, for example in 3/4 time the crotchet beat divides into two quavers.AQA
Singspiel: German opera that uses spoken dialogue rather than sung recitative.AQA
Sitar: A plucked string instrument with sympathetic strings and movable frets, iconic in Indian classical music and fusion.AQA
Slap bass: A prominent technique on the bass guitar, pioneered in funk, where the player strikes the lower strings with the thumb and snaps the higher strings with the…AQA
slide: An expressive technique where a performer glides continuously from one pitch to another, indicated in a score by a straight or wavy line connecting two notes.AQA
Small Ensemble Interaction: The rhythm section shifts from time-keeping to interactive accompaniment.AQA
smear: A distinctive jazz articulation technique involving a rough, sliding approach to a note, typically from a lower pitch.AQA
Social and gender dynamics: Figaro abandons his measuring motif and joins Susanna's lyrical theme, demonstrating that she will be the dominant partner.AQA
Solo break: A type of instrumental section, such as a guitar or saxophone solo, that can serve as a structural bridge.AQA
Solo improvisation: Individual solo performances that shifted jazz focus away from collective polyphonic improvisation.AQA
Solo structure: Improvisations are typically measured in choruses, with a soloist playing for one or multiple choruses over the established harmonic changes.AQA
Soloistic improvisation: Unaccompanied fills or extended improvisations played by a soloist in the space left empty by the accompaniment during stop time.AQA
sonata form: A large-scale musical structure widely used in the Classical and Romantic periods, particularly in first movements of symphonies, sonatas and string quartets.AQA
Song form: Frequently encompasses verse-chorus structures or strophic forms (AAA), where the same music is repeated for each stanza of lyrics.AQA
Song structure and form: A verse is a fundamental structural section in pop music, leading naturally into a pre-chorus or chorus within a standard verse-chorus structure.AQA
Songwriting techniques: Unlike a verse or chorus, the bridge usually only occurs once or twice and serves to propel the song forward.AQA
Sonic branding in modern cinema: Using music technology and sampling to create specific timbres and the sonic identity of modern blockbuster films.AQA
Sonority: The unique tone colour or quality of a sound that distinguishes different voices and instruments, even when playing the same pitch and volume.AQA
Sotto voce: A direction to perform in a quiet, hushed, or subdued manner, creating a sense of intimacy or mystery.AQA
Soundtrack: The complete audio component of a film, including music, dialogue, and sound effects.AQA
Source music: Music in a film, video game, or television show that originates from a source within the fictional world of the narrative.AQA
Source scoring: A blurring of the lines where a diegetic sound seamlessly transitions into a non-diegetic orchestral score.AQA
Spatial effects in music: Effects created as musical phrases are passed back and forth between separated ensembles, with composers using antiphony to generate contrast in spatial…AQA
Standard form: Often refers to the 32-bar AABA structure, where an initial eight-bar 'A' section is repeated, followed by a contrasting eight-bar 'B' section and a final 'A'…AQA
Static harmonic foundation: A harmonic basis that does not move, established by drones in music for media.AQA
Static harmony: A musical passage where the underlying chord remains unchanged for an extended period, creating a sense of suspended time and a lack of forward harmonic motion.AQA
Stereo field: The left and right channels across which sound is distributed, creating width in the mix.AQA
Stop time: A dramatic rhythmic device where the rhythm section stops its regular groove and plays punctuated, accented hits, leaving the space between them empty.AQA
Strophic form: A form (AAA) in which the same music is repeated for each stanza of lyrics, without a distinct chorus.AQA
Structural cohesion: The unity and cohesion provided when returning elements recur across different movements in the absence of traditional functional harmony.AQA
Structural contrast: Created in sections where the backbeat drops out or changes, often used to build tension.AQA
Structural contrast and dynamics: Other textures are frequently employed to create contrast and build energy, with changes in textural density between sections used to build dynamics.AQA
Structural development: Layering fundamentally shapes the structural and textural progression of a piece, with the gradual addition of layers contributing to it.AQA
Structural development through texture: How the texture changes or develops throughout a piece, noting the layering of instruments or building of density.AQA
Structural function: Unifying a section or piece, building tension, or establishing a persistent mood without relying solely on functional harmonic progression.AQA
Structural functions of music: Instrumentals serve crucial dramatic and structural functions, including overtures, entr'actes, dance breaks and underscoring.AQA
Structural innovation: A structural departure from strict sonata form in favour of an alternating, episodic design, relying on the alternation and variation of two contrasting themes.AQA
Structural innovation in character pieces: Traditional structures, such as ternary form, are adapted to create evocative character pieces, often utilising ternary or modified forms.AQA
structural innovation in the 20th century: The structural placement and proportion of the cadenza, noting if it deviates from traditional classical models.AQA
Structural pacing: Sudden tempo changes, accelerando or rallentando mirror the visual narrative, and analysing how tempo, metre and rhythm interact underscores the visual drama.AQA
Structural role of texture: Texture used as a primary structural element rather than just a byproduct of harmony, with changes in texture often defining the form of a piece.AQA
Structural tonal tension: Created when a Classical sonata movement establishes the tonic key firmly before modulating to the dominant or relative major, and resolved in the…AQA
Structural transitions: A bridge is a structural section that connects two different parts of a song, providing a contrasting passage that leads back to the final chorus.AQA
Structural use of rhythm: Rhythm became a primary structural element rather than just supporting melody, using syncopation, cross-rhythms, polyrhythms and ostinati.AQA
Structure: The organisation of a song into distinct sections, creating a journey for the listener.AQA
Structure and form: How loops contribute to the structure, with the introduction, removal or filtering of a loop defining different sections of a song.AQA
Studio production and arrangement: Dynamic contrast is often achieved through arrangement—adding or removing instruments—and studio techniques like compression, fade-outs and volume automation.AQA
Studio production techniques: Layering is closely associated with looping and a modern, studio-produced sound, with DAWs and multitrack recording making complex layering possible.AQA
Stylistic influences: A hallmark of blues, jazz, and soul influences within pop music, contributing to a bluesy, soulful, or expressive feel.AQA
Stylistic interpretation: Smears enhance the relaxed, expressive phrasing that defines authentic jazz performance and are deliberate stylistic choices.AQA
Sung-through operatic structure: An approach that eliminates spoken dialogue, relying entirely on music to drive the narrative.AQA
Surface rhythm: The rhythmic layer that must be distinguished from the underlying harmonic structure when understanding double time.AQA
Sus4: Replaces the third of the chord with a perfect fourth, creating an open, ambiguous sound that delays or avoids traditional resolution.AQA
Suspense and resolution: Film composers use dominant pedals to build suspense or anticipation before a dramatic climax, while tonic pedals suggest arrival.AQA
Suspension: A non-chord tone where a note from a previous chord is held over into a new chord, becoming dissonant, before moving down by step to a consonance.AQA
Swell pedal: A pedal that allows expressive dynamic control by opening and closing shutters around a division of pipes, enabling smooth crescendos and diminuendos.AQA
Syllabic: Each syllable of a word is sung to a single, distinct pitch, which ensures lyrics are clearly understood and drives the rhythm forward.AQA
Syllabic word-setting: A vocal feature in which one note is sung per syllable.AQA
Symmetrical scales: Scales such as the whole-tone or octatonic, used as a technique to create tonal ambiguity.AQA
Symphonic orchestration: Lush, symphonic orchestrations and driving, march-like ostinatos underscore moments of intense dramatic conflict.AQA
Synchronisation: Using bpm to align the pit orchestra with on-stage choreography, lighting cues, and scene changes.AQA
Synchronisation with visual action: Tempo, metre and rhythm are vital for synchronising with on-screen action, with tempo changes mirroring the visual narrative.AQA
Synchronisation with visual media: The meticulous matching of a cue's start and end points with the on-screen action, dialogue, or scene changes.AQA
Syncopated rhythmic feel: A dense rhythmic feel characteristic of global traditions, where different instrumental parts interlock without a single dominant pulse.AQA
Syncopation: Accents fall on the first, fourth and seventh quavers, deliberately avoiding the strong beats two and three, creating a highly syncopated feel.AQA
Synthesisers: Instruments recognised by their electronically generated timbres, often featuring distinct waveforms such as sine, square, or sawtooth.AQA
Synthesizers, samplers and drum machines: Electronic instruments composers utilise to generate sounds that traditional acoustic instruments cannot produce.AQA

T

tag: A coda, one of the structural devices that can be added to the overarching form.AQA
tala: A repeating rhythmic cycle providing the structural framework for composition and improvisation in Indian classical music and contemporary traditional styles.AQA
tambor: Striking the strings or the body of the instrument, generating a percussive, unpitched thud that reinforces the syncopated tango rhythms.AQA
Tape loops: Early forms of sampling utilised by composers to construct complex textures.AQA
Technological applications in film scoring: Composers and conductors use click tracks set to a specific mm to ensure the performance aligns perfectly with the film's frame rate and visual cues.AQA
Technological developments in music: Synthesisers offer an immense range of artificial and sampled sounds, and can replicate acoustic instruments, generate unique electronic textures, or provide…AQA
Technological integration: Incorporating guitar synthesizers and 12-string electric guitars to expand the sonic possibilities of jazz guitar.AQA
Tempo: Dictates the speed of the underlying beat, often indicated by Italian terms and able to fluctuate to heighten emotional impact.AQA
Tempo and pace: Italian terms indicate precise tempo modifications, and understanding them is essential for analysing how pace shapes expressive character.AQA
Tempo rubato: Rhythmic flexibility that is a hallmark of his style, allowing for expressive freedom within a structured accompaniment.AQA
tension: A dramatic effect created by tremolo, often used in film scores to build anticipation or underscore fear.AQA
Tension and atmosphere: What tremolo in string or woodwind writing can build or affect in dramatic moments of a scene.AQA
Tension and release: Chromaticism, dissonance, and atonality are frequently employed to generate tension, fear, or ambiguity.AQA
Ternary form: Features three distinct sections, where the middle section provides contrast, and the return of A is a full restatement.AQA
Terraced dynamics: Sudden shifts between loud and soft, typical of the Baroque era.AQA
Tertiary keys: Keys related by a third, such as moving from C major to E flat major or A flat major, a technique increasingly common in the Romantic era to create dramatic…AQA
Text setting: The way vocal melodies are set to lyrics, primarily syllabic or melismatic, and essential for analysing vocal performances and melodic construction.AQA
Text setting and vocal delivery: A conversational rhythmic delivery in verses that ensures lyrical clarity, with attention to whether the setting is syllabic or melismatic.AQA
Text-setting and narrative expression: New music for every stanza reflects the changing narrative or emotional content of the lyrics.AQA
Textural contrast: The contrast between Brahms' dense, symphonic piano textures and Grieg's often lighter, folk-inspired textures.AQA
Textural layering: A feature of Grieg's writing, alongside chromaticism and extended chords, used to create a nocturnal atmosphere.AQA
Textural layering and complexity: Built by composers employing ostinati, with minimalist composers layering melodic and rhythmic ostinati and introducing gradual phase shifts or additive…AQA
Textural music: A type of music in which static harmony is prevalent, with the listener's focus shifted towards texture, timbre and rhythm.AQA
Texture: Describes how different layers of sound interact within a musical composition, and is a vital tool for establishing mood, character, and narrative focus.AQA
Texture and arrangement: The interaction of looped elements with other musical elements, including how looping affects repetition within the arrangement.AQA
Texture and density: Combining multiple independent rhythmic patterns simultaneously creates a complex, polyphonic texture, and together the layers form a dense, driving groove.AQA
Texture and dynamic contrast: Thick, layered and dynamically powerful soundscapes, largely homophonic or layered, focusing on rhythmic drive, texture and dynamic swells rather than…AQA
Texture and dynamics: The chorus often features a thicker texture and higher dynamic level to create a sense of climax.AQA
Texture and polyphony: Polyphonic textures involve distinct, independent written lines, and their interaction with phase shifting and rhythmic interlocking produces secondary…AQA
The 'Ellington Effect': Parts written for the specific timbres and playing styles of individual band members, tailoring the writing to their strengths.AQA
The 32-bar form: A structure in which the 'A' section presents the main melodic and harmonic material, usually 8 bars long, which is then repeated.AQA
The bridge (middle eight): The 'B' section, which introduces contrasting melody and harmony, often moving to a new key, before returning to the final 'A' section.AQA
The circle of fifths: Understanding it is essential for quickly determining key signatures and recognising the relationship between relative and parallel keys in score analysis.AQA
The integrated musical: A form pioneered in Rodgers' work with Hammerstein in which songs and dances directly advance the plot and develop character.AQA
The Romantic nocturne: A lyrical character piece aligning closely with the pan-European Romantic tradition of the nocturne, as in Grieg's 'Notturno', Op.AQA
Thematic contrast: The alternation of a lyrical F major Andantino with a stormy A minor Presto con fuoco, developing them through varied repetition and increasing technical…AQA
Thematic development: The process by which composers develop motifs, phrases and themes throughout a piece, tracked by observing how a motif is altered.AQA
Thematic development and motifs: Recurring melodic ideas and their transformation, used to represent characters or ideas within theatrical works.AQA
thematic development and transformation: How the cadenza develops thematic material from earlier in the movement or introduces new motifs.AQA
Thematic transformation: Altering a motif, such as changing its instrumentation to a solo woodwind or shifting its harmony, to reflect changes in the narrative or the character's…AQA
Thematic transformation and leitmotifs: Extensive use of leitmotifs and thematic transformation, which evolve alongside character development.AQA
Thematic unity: Overarching unity created by the deliberate reuse of thematic material across multiple movements or sections of a composition.AQA
Thematic unity and motifs: Recurring musical motifs and themes used to provide structural unity across a whole musical.AQA
Theremin: An electronic instrument historically associated with science fiction and eerie, otherworldly settings.AQA
Three over four: Three equally spaced notes played in the time of four standard beats, superimposing a three-beat pattern over a four-beat metre.AQA
Through-composed: A musical structure where the music is relatively continuous, non-sectional and non-repetitive, with new music for every stanza.AQA
Through-composed form: New music is written for every stanza to reflect changing emotions or plot developments.AQA
Through-composed forms: Extended, evolving structures used instead of standard head-solos-head formats.AQA
Timbral contrast: Contrast created by combining different sonorities, such as a warm acoustic piano and a harsh distorted electric guitar.AQA
Timbral innovation: Composers sought new timbres by incorporating unusual instruments into their ensembles.AQA
Timbral manipulation: The effect on a cluster's timbral impact and emotional resonance caused by its instrumentation, whether played on piano or orchestrated across sections.AQA
Timbral qualities: The characteristic sound of standard orchestral instruments, which composers use to affect the mood of media music.AQA
Timbre: The sharp, piercing and highly accented 'crack' produced by the technique, which cuts clearly through the texture of a jazz ensemble.AQA
Timbre and distortion: They sound highly resonant and aggressive when played with distortion on an electric guitar.AQA
Timbre and instrumentation: Distinct musical lines or timbres are added, fusing acoustic folk elements with modern electronic sounds such as a synthesised bassline and a drum machine beat.AQA
Timbre and sonority: Solo vocal types are categorised by range and timbre, such as coloratura soprano or lyric tenor, essential for identifying roles in opera and oratorio.AQA
Timbre and texture: Studio effects alter the natural timbre of traditional acoustic instruments and blend acoustic folk instruments with modern studio effects to create…AQA
Timbre and tone colour: The distinct quality of each instrument, exploited by composers for dramatic effect, such as a solo oboe expressing poignant sorrow or a full brass section…AQA
Timbre as a structural device: Sonority elevated to the same importance as pitch and harmony, becoming a primary structural element that composers manipulate to delineate structure or form.AQA
Tonal ambiguity: Created through the avoidance of perfect cadences or the use of extended chords, so the overall key centre is not firmly rooted.AQA
Tonal architecture: The use of tonality, such as modulating to the dominant in the exposition, to delineate different sections of a movement.AQA
Tonal centre: A central pitch or key around which the composition is organised, providing a sense of resolution and stability.AQA
Tonal centres and modulation: The relationship of harmonic progression to a tonal centre, including sudden modulation used to highlight a character's realisation or a plot twist.AQA
Tonal contrast: The central material moves to B major, the A material returns in E minor, and only the brief coda turns to E major.AQA
Tonal harmony and dramatic modulation: Traditional tonal harmony that frequently employs dramatic modulations to heighten emotional impact.AQA
Tonal stability vs. ambiguity: The pentatonic scale is stable and consonant due to the absence of tritones, while hexatonic scales are used to create tonal ambiguity or chromatic tension.AQA
Tonality and modulation: Determining the key of a passage and identifying modulations to related or distant keys, with accidentals such as raised leading notes as strong indicators.AQA
Tone cluster: A highly dissonant musical chord comprising at least three adjacent notes in a scale, used to generate extreme tension, fear, or psychological disorientation.AQA
Tone clusters: Used by composers to create dense, dissonant textures that obscure traditional tonal harmony.AQA
Tone colour: The quality of a sound that distinguishes different voices and instruments, used to establish mood, define characters, and enhance the dramatic narrative.AQA
Tone row: A specific, non-scalar ordering of the twelve chromatic pitches chosen by the composer, which can be transposed to start on any of the twelve pitches.AQA
Tonic minor: A key sharing the same tonic note but with a different key signature, for example C major to C minor.AQA
Tonic pedal: Sustains the first degree of the scale, often used in introductions or codas to firmly establish the key and provide harmonic stability.AQA
Traditional features: Indigenous instruments, folk melodies, cultural scales and traditional rhythmic patterns that influence the music.AQA
Traditional instrumentation: Traditionally, it features a solo vocalist accompanied by a classical guitar and a Portuguese guitar, which provides intricate, plucked counter-melodies.AQA
Traditional thematic development: The classical approach from which metamorphosis differs significantly, being distinct from gradual and continuous transformation involving repetitive…AQA
Traditional versus fusion textures: Traditional styles are often described as melody and drone, while contemporary traditional fusions may encounter polyphony, heterophony, or homophony.AQA
Traditional West African music: Griot music of West Africa that Diabaté blends with modern and cross-cultural styles.AQA
Trans-diegetic music: A blurring of the lines where a diegetic sound seamlessly transitions into a non-diegetic orchestral score.AQA
Tremolo: The rapid reiteration of a single note or alternation between two notes, used to build tension, simulate trembling, or add a shimmering texture.AQA
Tremulant: A device that mechanically fluctuates the wind supply, producing a vibrato effect that alters both pitch and volume, adding warmth or tension to the sound.AQA
trill: A rapid alternation between a principal note and the note above it.AQA
Trio sonata texture: A defining characteristic of Baroque music consisting of three independent melodic lines: two upper parts and a basso continuo part.AQA
Tritone substitution: Replacing a dominant seventh chord with another dominant seventh chord whose root is a tritone away, sharing the same tritone interval between their 3rd and…AQA
turn: Wraps around the principal note, typically playing the note above, the principal note, the note below, and the principal note again.AQA
Turn-around: A passage at the end of a section which leads to the next section, often returning to the tonic.AQA
Tutti: The full orchestra, which typically plays the ritornello and establishes the main thematic material.AQA

U

Una corda: Shifts the piano action so the hammers strike fewer strings, producing a softer, muted, and distinctively veiled timbre.AQA
Unaccented passing note: Occurs on a weak beat or off-beat, creating a brief dissonance that passes unnoticed.AQA
Unconventional instrumentation: The use of everyday objects as percussion and new sound sources, exemplified by John Cage's prepared piano, which places objects between the strings.AQA
Unconventional instrumentation and timbre: A unique palette incorporates marimba, tuned percussion, piano, various plucked strings and electronic pads, blending acoustic instruments with electronic…AQA
Underscore: Background music in a film, television programme, or video game that is played under dialogue or action.AQA
Unequal phrases: Phrases that differ in length, like a three-bar phrase followed by a five-bar phrase, often used to build tension in Romantic works.AQA
Unison: When multiple voices or instruments play exactly the same notes at the same pitch.AQA
Unison playing: Requires exact rhythmic and melodic alignment, which heterophony lacks due to ornamentation.AQA
Unresolved dissonances: Dissonances left unresolved, contributing to a feeling of tonal instability.AQA
Upper auxiliary: Steps up to the adjacent diatonic pitch before resolving down to the original note.AQA

V

Verse: A fundamental structural component of a song that establishes the narrative and character in musical theatre, featuring changing lyrics over a repeated or…AQA
Verse-chorus form: A song structure that alternates two distinct musical sections, unlike strophic form which repeats the same music for all verses.AQA
Verse-chorus structures: A structure that alternates between two distinct musical sections.AQA
Vibrato: A continuous, rapid fluctuation in pitch, distinct from a pitch-bend, which is a deliberate, often single alteration of pitch.AQA
Virtuosic Improvisation: His improvisational language includes passing notes, enclosures, and the blues scale, alongside rhythmic dexterity.AQA
Virtuosity and contrast: The contrast between the virtuosity of the soloist and the weight of the ensemble.AQA
Virtuosity and expressive technique: The piano became an instrument of immense expressive range, with Chopin's rubato and ornamented bel canto-style melodies showing expressive technique.AQA
virtuosity and instrumental technique: Extreme technical demands placed on the soloist, such as double stopping, extreme ranges, or rapid passagework.AQA
Visual analysis: Identifying musical elements from the visual symbols on the page and linking them to the theoretical concepts they represent.AQA
Vocal and instrumental interplay: Polyphony may occur when multiple independent vocal lines overlap, such as in a complex backing vocal arrangement with independent counter-melodies.AQA
Vocal classification: Standard vocal types include soprano, alto, tenor and bass, which form the core of choral writing, with solo vocal types further categorised by range and…AQA
Vocal embellishment: A decorative effect achieved through melisma, used by pop and R&B vocalists to add emotional intensity or embellish a melody, often at the end of a phrase.AQA
Vocal expression and ornamentation: Authentic Fado tradition includes rubato, ornamentation, and emotional delivery, with expressive use of rubato, dynamic contrast, and intricate ornamentation.AQA
Vocal interaction: Along with rhythmic energy, this intensifies the argument as the characters' tempers rise.AQA
Vocal percussion: A technique such as beatboxing used in a cappella arrangements to replicate the rhythmic functions typically provided by a backing band.AQA
Vocal Production and Arrangement: Complex vocal arrangements featuring wide vocal ranges, multi-tracked choirs, extreme pitch-shifting and a wide tessitura.AQA
Vocal techniques: Techniques such as falsetto, belting, or vibrato that contribute to vocal sonority.AQA
Vocal timbre: A quality of the voice that students should pay close attention to when analysing a cappella passages.AQA
Vocal timbres: Specific vocal qualities that composers and performers utilise to convey character, emotion, and genre within Music for theatre.AQA
Vocal Virtuosity and Arrangement: Powerful, melismatic vocal delivery with complex, multi-layered backing vocals and close harmonies that form a fundamental part of her texture and harmonic…AQA
Vocalisation of instruments: The plunger mute is opened and closed to mimic the vowel sounds of human speech, often notated as 'wa-wa', giving the instrument human-like qualities.AQA
Voice leading: The sixth above the bass resolves down to the fifth and the fourth resolves down to the third of the dominant chord, with the bass note doubled and remaining…AQA

W

Wah-wah mute: A brass mute fixed in the bell and manipulated by the player's hand via its stem to alter the sound dynamically.AQA
Western classical tradition (1650-1910): The compulsory area of study in which period-specific vocabulary is applied to describe harmony, melody, rhythm and structure.AQA
Whole tone scale: A scale consisting entirely of major seconds, so it can only be transposed once before repeating the same pitches.AQA
whole-half diminished scale: A primary form of the diminished scale typically played over diminished seventh chords.AQA
Whole-tone or octatonic scales: Symmetrical scales which lack a strong leading note.AQA
Word painting: Glissandi are frequently used for this purpose in the context of Music for theatre.AQA
Word painting and emotional delivery: Using a pitch bend on a crucial word to emphasise longing or despair, enhancing the emotional impact and theatrical delivery of the performance.AQA
Word setting and text-melody relationship: How the melody interacts with the lyrics, which is crucial for evaluating its dramatic impact.AQA
World music influences: Ethnic instruments are used as an auditory shorthand to establish a strong sense of location, instantly transporting the audience to a specific setting.AQA

Other terms

11th chord: A chord that often functions as a suspended chord in pop, frequently voiced as a slash chord.AQA
12-bar blues: Another fundamental progression used in jazz alongside Rhythm changes.AQA
13th chord: A chord that provides maximum jazz-funk colour, typically omitting the eleventh to avoid clashing with the major third.AQA
2/4 time: The metre in which the habanera rhythm is typically written, consisting of a dotted quaver followed by a semiquaver and two quavers.AQA
20th-century chord structures: Extended chords are often treated as independent sonorities rather than requiring traditional preparation and resolution.AQA
20th-century compositional techniques: Approaches including atonality, serialism, polytonality, modal harmony, quartal and quintal harmony, tone clusters, and extended chords used non-functionally.AQA
20th-century rhythmic innovation: The use of metrical displacement by composers to create rhythmic tension and ambiguity, disrupting the predictable flow of traditional phrasing.AQA
4/4 metre: Crucial as it mimics a courtly dance, ironically contrasting with the insults being exchanged.AQA
7th chord: Formed by adding a seventh above the triad, for example Cmaj⁷ or Cm⁷.AQA
9th chord: A chord that adds a major ninth to a dominant seventh, creating a richer texture, with the seventh also present.AQA
9th, 11th and 13th: Extensions that stack further thirds above the seventh of a chord.AQA
9th, 11th, and 13th chords: Continuing the pattern of stacked thirds yields these chords, each additional third introducing new dissonances and harmonic complexity.AQA

Where these terms come from

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