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Fioritura
In music, fioritura ( , , meaning "flourish" or "flowering"; plural ) is the florid embellishment of melodic lines, either notated by a composer or improvised during a performance. It usually involves lengthy, complex embellishments, as opposed to standardized local ornamental figures such as trills, mordents, or appoggiaturas, and its use is documented as early as the thirteenth century. The alternative term ''coloratura Coloratura ( , , ; , from ''colorata'', the past participle of the verb ''colorare'', 'to color') is a passage of music holding elaboration to a melody. The elaboration usually takes the form of runs, trills, wide leaps or other virtuoso ma ...'' is less accurate. It is closely related to the sixteenth-century practice of diminution or division. References Sources * * * * External links Virginia Opera glossary Italian opera terminology {{opera-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ornament (music)
In music, ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes—typically, added notes—that are not essential to carry the overall line of the melody (or harmony), but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line (or harmony), provide added interest and variety, and give the performer the opportunity to add expressiveness to a song or piece. Many ornaments are performed as "fast notes" around a central, main note. There are many types of ornaments, ranging from the addition of a single, short grace note before a main note to the performance of a virtuosic and flamboyant trill. The amount of ornamentation in a piece of music can vary from quite extensive (it was often extensive in the Baroque period, from 1600 to 1750) to relatively little or even none. The word ''agrément'' is used specifically to indicate the French Baroque style of ornamentation. Improvised vs. written In the Baroque period, it was common for performers to improvise ornamentation on a given melo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all human societies. Definitions of music vary widely in substance and approach. While scholars agree that music is defined by a small number of elements of music, specific elements, there is no consensus as to what these necessary elements are. Music is often characterized as a highly versatile medium for expressing human creativity. Diverse activities are involved in the creation of music, and are often divided into categories of musical composition, composition, musical improvisation, improvisation, and performance. Music may be performed using a wide variety of musical instruments, including the human voice. It can also be composed, sequenced, or otherwise produced to be indirectly played mechanically or electronically, such as via a music box ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melodic Line
A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm, while more figuratively, the term can include other musical elements such as tonal color. It is the foreground to the background accompaniment. A line or part need not be a foreground melody. Melodies often consist of one or more musical phrases or motifs, and are usually repeated throughout a composition in various forms. Melodies may also be described by their melodic motion or the pitches or the intervals between pitches (predominantly conjunct or disjunct or with further restrictions), pitch range, tension and release, continuity and coherence, cadence, and shape. Function and elements Johann Philipp Kirnberger argued: The Norwegian composer Marcus Paus has argued: Given the many and varied elements and styles of melody "many extant explanations f melodyco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and definition The term is descended from Latin, ''compōnō''; literally "one who puts together". The earliest use of the term in a musical context given by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is from Thomas Morley's 1597 ''A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music'', where he says "Some wil be good descanters ..and yet wil be but bad composers". "Composer" is a loose term that generally refers to any person who writes music. More specifically, it is often used to denote people who are composers by occupation, or those who work in the tradition of Western classical music. Writers of exclusively or primarily songs may be called composers, but since the 20th century the terms ' songwriter' or ' singer-songwriter' are more often used, p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musical Improvisation
Musical improvisation (also known as musical extemporization) is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of Emotion, emotions and Musical technique, instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians. Sometimes musical ideas in improvisation are spontaneous, but may be based on Chord (music), chord changes in classical music and many other kinds of music. One definition is a "performance given extempore without planning or preparation". Another definition is to "play or sing (music) extemporaneously, by inventing Variation (music), variations on a melody or creating new melodies, rhythms and harmonies". ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' defines it as "the extemporaneous composition or free performance of a musical passage, usually in a manner conforming to certain stylistic norms but unfettered by the prescriptive features of a specific musical text." Improvisation is often done within ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trill (music)
The trill (or shake, as it was known from the 16th until the early 20th century) is a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be identified with the context of the trillTaylor, Eric. ''The AB Guide to Music Theory: Part I'', p. 92. (compare mordent and tremolo). It is sometimes referred to by the German Triller, the Italian trillo, the French trille or the Spanish trino. A cadential trill is a trill associated with each cadence. A groppo or gruppo is a specific type of cadential trill which alternates with the auxiliary note directly above it and ends with a musical turn as additional ornamentation. A trill provides rhythmic interest, melodic interest, and—through dissonance—harmonic interest. Sometimes it is expected that the trill will end with a turn (by sounding the note below rather than the note above the principal note, immediately before the last sounding of the principa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mordent
In music, a mordent is an ornament indicating that the note is to be played with ''a single'' rapid alternation with the note above or below. Like trills, they can be chromatically modified by a small flat, sharp or natural accidental. The term entered English musical terminology at the beginning of the 19th century, from the German and its Italian etymon, , both used in the 18th century to describe this musical figure. The word ultimately is derived . The ''mordent'' is thought of as a rapid single alternation between an indicated note, the note above (the ''upper mordent'') or below (the ''lower mordent'') and the indicated note again. In musical notation, the upper mordent is indicated by a short squiggle; the lower mordent is the same with a short vertical line through it: : As with the trill, the exact speed with which the mordent is performed will vary according to the tempo of the piece, but at a moderate tempo the above might be executed as follows: : T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Appoggiatura
An appoggiatura ( , ; or ; ) is a musical ornament that consists of an added non-chord note in a melody that is resolved to the regular note of the chord. By putting the non-chord tone on a strong beat, (typically the first or third beats of the measure, in 4/4 time) this accents the appoggiatura note, which also delays the appearance of the principal, expected chord note. The added non-chord note, or auxiliary note, is typically one degree higher or lower than the principal note, and may be chromatically altered. An appoggiatura may be added to a melody in a vocal song or in an instrumental work. The term comes from the Italian verb , "to lean upon". The appoggiatura is often used to express emotional "yearning". It is also called a long appoggiatura to distinguish it from the short appoggiatura, the acciaccatura. An ascending appoggiatura was previously known as a forefall, while a descending appoggiatura was known as a backfall. Notation The appoggiatura is often writ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coloratura
Coloratura ( , , ; , from ''colorata'', the past participle of the verb ''colorare'', 'to color') is a passage of music holding elaboration to a melody. The elaboration usually takes the form of runs, trills, wide leaps or other virtuoso material,''Oxford American Dictionaries''.Apel (1969), p. 184. and the melody is obscured during the passage. The term is mostly applied to vocal music; in instrumental music such passages are called ornamentation. Coloratura is often found in operatic music of the 18th and 19th centuries. Operatic roles in which coloratura plays a large part, and their singers, are also called coloratura.Steane, J. B.; Jander, Owen, "Coloratura" in Sadie (1992) 1: 907. History The term ''coloratura'' was first defined in several early non-Italian music dictionaries: Michael Praetorius's ''Syntagma musicum'' (1618); Sébastien de Brossard's ''Dictionaire de musique'' (1703); and Johann Gottfried Walther's ''Musicalisches Lexicon'' (1732). In these ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Division (music)
In music, division (also called Diminution#Diminution as embellishmen, diminution or coloration) refers to a type of Ornament (music), ornamentation or Variation (music)#History of variations, variation common in 16th- and 17th-century music in which each Musical note, note of a melody, melodic line is "divided" into several shorter, faster-moving notes, often by a rhythmic repetition (music), repetition of a simple musical device such as the trill (music), trill, turn (music), turn or cambiata on each note in turn, or by the introduction of nonchord tones or arpeggio figures. The English term 'division' broadly corresponds to the contemporary usage of in Italian, or in Spanish, and in French. The word was used in this sense to describe improvised coloratura ornamentation as used by opera singers of the day, but it made a ready way of devising variations upon a theme (music), theme, and was particularly cultivated in the form of the "division on a ground (music), ground" – ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Sadie
Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was a British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was published as the first edition of ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. Along with Thurston Dart, Nigel Fortune and Oliver Neighbour he was one of Britain's leading musicologists of the post-World War II generation. Career Born in Wembley, Sadie was educated at St Paul's School, London, and studied music privately for three years with Bernard Stevens. At Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge he read music under Thurston Dart. Sadie earned Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees in 1953, a Master of Arts degree in 1957, and a PhD in 1958. His doctoral dissertation was on mid-eighteenth-century British chamber music. After Cambridge, he taught at Trinity College of Music, London (1957–1965). Sadie then turned to music journalism, beco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
