Go to: A-D / E-L / M-O / P-S / T-Z
This is a glossary of musical terms that appear in The Rest Is Noise and Listen To This. The explanations are as concise as possible and are accompanied by audio examples. The list is in no way intended to be comprehensive; Paul Griffiths's Penguin Companion to Classical Music is recommended as a reference.
A - D: accent, added sixth, arpeggio, atonality, augmented chord, "Augurs" chord, bar [see measure], Baroque, beat, black keys, blues scale, C major, cadence, canon, chorale, chord, chord of resonance, chromatic scale, classical / Classical, cluster, counterpoint, crescendo, cross-rhythm, diatonic, diminished seventh, dominant / tonic, dominant seventh, dynamics
E - L: eighth note, equal-tempered tuning [see natural harmonic series], fifth, first inversion, flutter tonguing, fortissimo or ff, fourth, fugue, gamelan, glissando, grace note, ground bass, half-step [see semitone], interval, inversion, just intonation [see natural harmonic series], key / key signature, legato, leitmotif, Lydian mode
M - O: major scale / third / triad, major seventh [see seventh], major second [see whole tone], measure, meter, micropolyphony, microtonal, minor scale / third / triad, minor second [see semitone], minor seventh [see seventh], mode, modes of limited transpositions, modulation, monodic, natural harmonic series, neoclassicism, octatonic, octave, open fifth, ostinato, overtones [see natural harmonic series]
P - S: parallel fifths, passacaglia, pentatonic, perfect fifth, phasing music, pianissimo or pp, polyphony, polyrhythm, polytonality, quarter note, register, resolve, retrograde, Rite chord, Romanticism, row [see twelve-tone music], Salome chord, Salome scale, scale, second [see semitone, whole tone], Second Viennese School, semitone, seventh [see major seventh, minor seventh], Sprechstimme, syncopation
T - Z: third, thirty-second note, tonality, tone row [see twelve-tone music], tonic, total serialism, trichord, trill, triple-forte (fff), triplet, tritone, tuning note, twelve-tone music, unresolved, white-key music, whole tone, whole-tone scale
