Essentials of Music

ONLINE GLOSSARY

Click on a letter above to look up terms in the online glossary

vamp Short passage with simple rhythm and harmony that introduces a soloist in a jazz performance.

variation A formal principle in which some aspects of the music are altered but the original is still recognizable; it falls between repetition and contrast.

Example: Haydn, Symphony No.94, "Surprise", second movement
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Here, a familiar melody is varied by a change of harmony (from major to minor) and by altering the rhythm, yet it is still recognizable.

verismo Operatic "realism", a style popular in Italy in the 1890s, which tried to bring naturalism into the lyric theater.

verse In poetry, a group of lines constituting a unit. In liturgical music for the Catholic Church, a phrase from the Scriptures that alternates with the response.

Vespers One of the Divine Offices of the Roman Catholic Church, held at twilight.

vibraphone A percussion instrument with metal bars and electrically driven rotating propellers under each bar that produces a vibrato sound, much used in jazz.

vibrato Small fluctuation of pitch used as an expressive device to intensify a sound.

vielle Medieval bowed-string instrument; the ancestor of the violin.

viola Bowed-string instrument of middle range; the second-highest member of the violin family.

viola da gamba Family of Renaissance bowed-string instruments that had six or more strings, was fretted like a guitar, and was held between the legs like a modern cello.

violin The violin's four strings are set in vibration (usually one at a time) by drawing a bow across them with the right hand while the fingers of the left hand stop the strings, changing its vibrate length and thus the pitch.

Example: Haydn, String Quartet, Op.76, No.2, fourth movement
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violoncello Bowed-string instrument with a middle-to-low range and dark, rich sonority; lower than a viola. See cello.

virelai Medieval and Renaissance fixed poetic form and chanson type with French courtly texts.

virtuoso Performer of extraordinary technical ability.

vivace Lively.

Example: Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker, "Trepak"
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The pace of this Russian dance is very lively.

vocable Nonlexical syllables, lacking literal meaning.

vocalise A textless vocal melody, as in an exercise or concert piece.

voices The standard voice types, from highest to lowest, are: (female) soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto; (male) tenor, baritone and bass.

Example: Handel, Messiah, "Hallelujah" Chorus
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In this excerpt, the standard choral voice parts enter from lowest to highest (basses, tenors, altos, sopranos).

volume Degree of loudness or softness of a sound. See also dynamics.

Click on a letter above to look up terms in the online glossary