Week 1
Playlist
If you're interested in hearing full-length versions of some of the songs or albums I mention in my course this week, check out the playlist below.
Week 1: Melodic Forms and Simple Harmony (Spotify account required)
Glossary
Here is a list of some of the terms for your reference:
accidentals: Another term for chromatic notes.
antiphon: A musical device in which one group of singers sings a tune and another responds, usually with the same tune or a variant of it.
cadence: A stop or seeming point of arrival in music.
chord: A set of three or more notes played at once.
chromatic notes: Notes that are outside of the mode.
full cadence: A stop that seems final in the context of all other notes in the piece.
half cadence: A stop on a note that does not seem final, or seems to need to go on.
Interval: The distance between two notes.
leap: Any distance between two notes that is greater than a step.
mode: A limited collection of discrete pitches.
neighbor note: Notes that step up or down away from a note and then immediately return.
passing tone: A note that passes (by step) between two other notes which are slightly more structural than itself.
reciting tone: In Gregorian Chant, a single pitch that many words are sung on.
scale: All of the notes of a mode arranged in consecutive order.
step: When a note moves to another note directly next to it on the musical staff.
sequence: When one bit of music is repeated at a different pitch level.