Glossary

ballet:  a stage performance where the story is told through dance set to music usually featuring costumes and scenery

blues:  a genre of American music originating in African American communities which typically feature a twelve-bar structure, flatted pitches, and improvisation

chamber music, chamber works:  pieces written for a small number of performers which would have originally been performed in a small room or chamber

chamber orchestra:  a smaller orchestra, typically less than twenty-five musicians

choreographer:  someone who arranges movements in a dance

concert suite:  selections of music often from a staged performance, such as a ballet, play, or film score, that are arranged for performance by an orchestra alone

concerto:  a composition featuring a soloist accompanied by a larger group, usually an orchestra

conservatory:  an advanced school for music or art

danzón:  a slow, formal partner dance, typically in 2/4 time, that uses a precise set of footwork, featuring syncopated beats, and moments of silence. The danzón originated in Cuba and is popular in Mexico and Puerto Rico

flamenco:  an art form associated with the music and dance traditions of southern Spain featuring various styles, known as palos, that follow specific rhythmic patterns, chord structures, and dance steps

folk music, folk tunes:  traditional, often anonymous tunes, that are handed down throughout a culture, often featuring a simple melodic line

footwork:  sequences of dance steps that may be in a set style for a specific dance

genre:  a category of art or music that share content, style, or technique

habanera:  a Spanish version of the English contradanse, or country dance, especially popular in Cuba beginning in the 19th century which utilizes an African rhythmic pattern. The habanera is the ancestor of the danzón, mambo, and cha-cha-cha.

harpsichord:  an early keyboard instrument and predecessor of the piano. A harpsichord makes a sound by plucking strings using a quill or plectrum to make a sound. Harpsichords were the most common keyboard instruments in the 16th-18th centuries.

hymns:  a song or ode in praise of someone, usually in honor of God and used in a religious setting

impresario:  the organizer of public entertainment, often ballet, opera, or concert

improvisation:  to perform on the spot a solo musical line within a jazz composition by adding to and embellishing the original melody

jazz:  an American music genre originating in New Orleans among African American communities with influences of blues and ragtime. Jazz features improvisation, swing, flatted notes, and call and response patterns. Jazz has grown and evolved to encompass a wide variety of styles including Bebop, Big Band, Cool, and Free.

musical:  a play or movie which features interspersed songs and dances to help tell the story

opera:  a composed and completely sung staged art form featuring sets and costumes, can be funny or tragic

orchestration:  the process of adapting a musical composition for an orchestra and assigning parts to different instruments, sometimes called instrumentation

playwright:  a person who writes plays

rhapsody:  a one-movement instrumental work that is often free-flowing and features changes in style, somewhat improvisatory in nature, allowing the composer to have more freedom

seguidilla:  a Castilian folk song and dance which features a quick triple meter, generally in a major key, and often starts on an offbeat

song cycle:  a composition featuring a group of individual songs that are related in some manner and performed as a complete unit

Tin Pan Alley:  an area of New York City where numerous music publishers had offices and where musicians wrote a majority of the popular songs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries 

zarzuela: a dramatic musical form alternating spoken and sung scenes, featuring operatic and popular songs, and dance. A popular form of staged performance in Spain