New answers tagged terminology
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This is no flattened root. You’re playing d#, the #7 of the harmonic or melodic minor scale.
In harmony this is the third of the dominant chord b d# f#. If d# is the bass tone you play the first inversion: d# f# b.
Look here:
Understanding minor key harmony
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There are two minor scales which have that note you ask about. The harmonic and melodic minors. In key Em, the note is D♯. In the natural minor scale, the D is left a tone below the tonic (E), so there isn't a really convincing leading note. To be a convincing leading note, it needs to be a semitone under the tonic, as it would be in the major scale/key.
So, ...
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Instead of looking at it as a flat root note, you can think of it as a ♯7, which is present in the harmonic minor scale. In your first example, that would be
E F♯ G A B C D♯ E
You can see that notes of both the B major and E minor chords are present.
With a sharp 6th, it can also be a melodic minor scale:
E F♯ G A B C♯ D♯ E
Both scales do miss the D (...
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The general term for instruments and voices playing the same melody (rhythm and pitch) is unison, but it covers more than your cases: also when two instruments play the same melody or a choir singing the same melody. I'm not sure if there is a more specific (well-known) term which excludes those cases.
If only the rhythm is identical but not the pitch, it ...
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"Major pentatonic" is often used to describe this collection. The adjective "major" not only suggests that the collection is based off of the Western major scale, but it also differentiates it from the minor pentatonic, 1 ♭3 4 5 ♭7 (e. g., A C D E G, a rotation of the major pentatonic).
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Since nobody has come up with anything better, my suggestion is: "A singer accompanying themself".
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The guy in the Hotel California is playing a 3 guitar song on one guitar. Try to play it, it's not easy reading. Jeff Beck does a solo guitar cover of the Beatles' entire Sergeant Pepper album. So maybe "Beck style solo guitar cover arrangement."
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Pitch Spelling is a term used in computers and music. It seems to have developed over a 50-year timeframe. It's applications are varied from music analysis, use in music notation software and I'd assume there's still research going on about it.
It's as much about music perception
(Is it an A-flat or G-sharp? [this seems the most cited enharmonic example])
as ...
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Why do some people not recognise Gilbert & Sullivan as part of classical music?
Because there are no objective criteria to define whether some music is classical and other music is not. And because such „down-voters“ are often criticizers and experts that aren’t able to write a short piece of music in the style of) the composer they disqualify - (or ...
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Like Laurence says: searching for the title is sufficient!
Google chrome shows you automatically the option Piano (sheet and videos) and if you look up title and the choose pictures you have a big selection of sheet music.
And yes, the term is piano/vocal if you are looking e.g. in a shop for a book. There are rarely piano editions without lyrics in a ...
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Most commonly, "spelling" refers to the identification of an enharmonic equivalent name for a given pitch. For example, if you are writing a piece for a keyboard instrument, and you want the player to play the middle black key from the group of three black keys, do you write it as G♯ or A♭? The answer depends on the context. If the person ...
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Piano/Vocal. Maybe Piano/Vocal/Guitar (doubtless chord symbols, maybe chord shapes too will be included). Sometimes abbreviated to 'PV' or 'PVG'.
But you don't need to search for any of these. Just search the song title. Piano and voice is the default arrangement.
'Cover' is a term far more commonly attached to a recording than to a printed arrangement. ...
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Because the classical era ended around 1820-ish, depends on where you want to make the cut off. He was part of the Romantic era and his instrumental works - outside of the musicals - are in that style.
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You mean that they consider Sullivan's work for the commercial theatre less respectable than Mozart's, Verdi's etc? (We're not talking about Baroque/Classical/Romantic etc. categorisation I imagine?) I don't know. You'll have to ask them.
Perhaps because they were English. The music hall song in which the protagonist 'changed his name from Bloggs to ...
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A very good question... G&S certainly deserve credit for bringing orchestration and original composition to the variety hall and hence musical theatre. However, classical and romantic music are specific forms that have their own generally accepted 'rules' of musical composition, style, performance and instrumentation.
Purists will point out that G&S ...
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I think variation is the term to use. Ground bass is a specific kind of variation where the bass part repeats as the melody on top changes. While that description seems apt for the track you linked, ground bass suggests Baroque music, like Bach or Handel. Some may think it an inappropriate term for that reason, this isn't 18th century music.
In the track the ...
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I noted the passage below, because I think it's easier to read chord tones/non-chord tones from notation rather than tab...
...I put middle voice F#4 and G4 in tied quarter notes to help demark the metrical points of the melody against the chords of the accompaniment.
The D in question first enters as a non-chord tone relative to the E minor chord of the ...
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That's called a suspension, when a note is released later than expected over a chord change.
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Fusion combines the characteristics of two or more styles.
Free-form does whatever you want it to do. It very likely makes an effort NOT to have characteristics borrowed from any particular style.
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The first I've learnt here was the difference of cadenza and cadence. Cadenza is the passage of the soloist in a concerto after the reprise in the pause of the orchestra. What you mean is cadence. Look up in wikipedia the perfect and authentic cadence (etc.)
The cadence is nothing else than the chord progression of tonic, subdominant, dominant, tonic. (...
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Fusion is the fusing of jazz and another genre usually rock or funk. So that may mean jazz played with the timbres/tones of rock/pop like distortion or synthesizers. Or it might mean jazz with a funk rhythm section, etc.
Free form jazz or "free jazz" is jazz that is free from the typical rules like song forms, progression, or anything else that ...
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Tongeschlecht is one of those words that doesn't get translated very well (or easily) into English sources. Depending on context, it might refer to English language concepts of genus (e.g., referencing ancient Greek tetrachord tunings) or mode (whether major/minor or church modes) or (chord) quality.
In any case, none of these concepts are particularly ...
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I would say the best single English word is catalogue.
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Output. Oeuvre. Works/Body of work. I think that's about it.
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Before computers were widespread, I heard the word "output" used. I prefer oeuvre instead of just "work" (as Richard mentioned.) English likes (to anthropomorphize) to borrow words from other languages with similar meanings to get Anglicized words with similar but separate meanings. (Done by filing the serial number off of the word and ...
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We typically refer to a composer's oeuvre. Since it's borrowed from the French, its usage in English is often italicized.
If you're looking for an English phrase, we can otherwise talk about someone's "compositional output." I've occasionally heard "body of work," but that strikes me as something used more in other arts and less common ...
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First, the term pitch class already has a well-defined meaning in music theory, and this isn't it. Basically, pitch class refers to the set of pitches under an octave equivalence relation, generally represented by the integers modulo 12. Typically all enharmonic notations for the same pitch class are regarded as mathematically equivalent, as the general ...
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“Mode 1” is comparison by sound (where Dbb4 == C4, they are enharmonic equivalent), “Mode 2” is comparison by notation (where they are two different things).
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You are trying to establish an order in the mathematical sense on notes, which is of questionable benefit.
There is already a well-established concept called interval so one would say, it is a Wikipedia: diminished second between your example notes and that covers all information of both of your modes (misunderstable, since mode is already a musical term).
...
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It would be surprising to me that so much of European theory (e.g. Hugo Riemann, Arnold Schoenberg, Willi Apel) has been translated to English and is well known in American music literature - but this terminology of a male and female principle of tonality and harmony shouldn't have been translated ...
If I look up for the translation of "das Tongeschlecht" ...
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In my studies I have not come across a gender designation concerning the quality of the Major/Minor keys. Instead, the quality is generally described as "Bright and Happy" for the Major keys and "Somber or Sad" in describing the Minor keys. However, since you posted this idea, it has started me thinking about trying to notice any gender specific aspects of ...
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The English 'concerto' comes from the Italian 'concerto' which can mean both concert and concerto. There are other languages that use the same word for both e.g. German 'Konzert'.
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Motif has a pretty clear meaning. It's a short melodic unit, one or two beats, or a bar.
This labels some motifs in Bach's Invention No. 1...
A motif gets transformed in various ways...
...those are passages from the invention, you can see the motifs inverted, rhythmically augmented, fragmented, concatenated, etc.
I think a related concept that you may ...
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@JamesMartin, I fully agree with you, damper pedal doesn't seem like the correct terminology. I'll readily admit I'm not expert and only looked this up because it sounded interesting. In the literature there is a difference between damper (raising the dampers and suspending the sound) and dampening (interposition of cloth or leather between hammers and ...
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Motif or motive:
In German we have only one spelling: motiv. The term comes from movere and is also related with motor and motivation. It keeps the music processing.
I try my own definition (psychologically analyzing):
Pattern and motif can be used identically. Motif is the smallest melodic identity. A set of motifs is a theme.
I think with motif we ...
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In my experience they're basically the same idea, but they're used in different environments.
Ultimately motives (or motifs) and themes are types of patterns, but typically motive/theme are used for "actual" compositions. But when we have a technical study (=etude) with a one-measure unit moved up and down chromatically, my experience is that we don't give ...
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While not a term for this genre as a whole, this thread would be incomplete unless someone mentioned the practice of sampling.
Hip-hop and electronic musicians (as well as those in other genres) often sample sounds from other music, lines from TV shows and viral videos, and environmental sounds like rain and car horns. Sometimes the sounds are autotuned and/...
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In the RPM community we refer to this as Spoon Dropping.
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Apparently in the early to mid 19th century some pianos came equipped with una corda pedals that operated on only the treble notes, only on the bass notes, or both. Broadwood pianos had this feature; I was not able to find if other makers offered it.
Beethoven references this split una corda in the 4th Piano Concerto and at least one of his piano sonatas....
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As to why they are doing it, per the title of your question: compare your example to a very straightforward performance (e.g.,
) - there is very little rubato here, and almost no asynchrony. I wouldn't say it sounds bad, but it seems to be much less complex and interesting than the recordings you brought up.
Especially for ...
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Harmony consist of 4 voices, the upper voice (soprano) should prevail over the others in order to project the melody, in piano technique this is accomplished by deliver extra pressure to the finger that carry the upper note. When we hear Triffonov performance it is played correctly,(together), however, in the Cortot recording you hear Rubato in the right ...
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In many genres of music, it is common to have a soloist perform rhythms rather loosely while the backing musicians follow the noted rhythms rather closely. Because the piano is a polyphonic instrument, it is common for one performer to combine the roles of both a soloist and a backing musician, and thus play some notes with freer rhythms than others.
An ...
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I agree with the toponym argument: since these are named after regions/tribes in Greece, they are proper nouns and should be capitalized.
As further logic in support of this argument, consider the Neapolitan chord. I have never seen "neapolitan" written lowercase in serious scholarly work, but instead I have only ever seen it capitalized. As such, if we use ...
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Aha, I've found the answer:
Asynchrony!
Asynchrony is a general term which is used to describe playing notes in a separated or not-quite-together fashion where they are written as if they should normally be played at the same time in the score, for example a chord to which an arpeggiation is applied, or a left-hand bass note and right-hand melody note ...
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I agree with Laurence "rubato" but I would even go further and say "arpeggio rubato". One typical feature of preludes is - if not a toccato style - the arpeggio triads.
We know the piano reduction of Bachs preludes notated in block chords.
So I could imagine that these performers are applying to the block chords of eighth notes a certain kind of arpeggio ...
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A form of rubato. More specifically 'playing behind the beat'. Jazz pianist Errol Gardner did something rather similar when he '...developed a signature style that involved his right hand playing behind the beat while his left strummed a steady rhythm and punctuation'. Though in the Chopin there's flexibility of rhythms in both hands, the LH 'beat-...
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Actually, since you ask for a specific song (and mention that there are "many others which feel the same"), then the other answers are wrong :) There's neither lydian scale nor modal harmony, nor bitonality in the intro of "Beauty and the Beast".
What you ask for is the "pedal note" or the "pedal point", a very common device (both in archaic music, where ...
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Phrases or melodies in two different keys are bitonal, as in Charles Ives' Three Places in New England in which two marching bands pass each other while playing two different marches in different keys. Some composers use an bitonal approach consistently as their style (Copeland, for example).
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I think your example of toponyms makes the best case.
If the adjective really refers to the place or culture, then it's capitalized. If the word has taken on a meaning with no real connection to the place, don't capitalize. Mosaics are an important part of Byzantine art. The path to tenure is byzantine and slow.
From my understanding of music history no ...
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I've looked at a few books, only in the text, not lists, and found a few things. One problem is that mode names often occur in lists where every label is capitalized. Likewise, mode names are not consistent through history. The terms protus, deuterus, tritus, and tetradus are not capitalized in the "Cambridge History of Western Music Theory." In the same ...
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