Applied English for Music Fall 2005: Reading Comprehension, "Prelude"

Rhythm and Meter, xxi - top xxiii

1. What is the most basic element of music? _________________

2. We use n_____s to write musical sounds.

3. Rhythmic (rhythm + ic = the adjective for "rhythm") notation such as half notes (2 beats), quarter notes (1 beat), etc., shows the _________________ duration (length) or relative duration of a note. This means that, for example, a half note is longer in slow music than in fast music.

4. More musical terms come from this language than from other languages: ________________ .

5. Tempo markings show the rate of ______________ at which a music piece should be played or sung.

6. The Italian music word for "fast, cheerful" is _______________ .

7. "Andante" means ______________________ .

8. In Italian, does "piano" mean "practice hard" OR does it mean "soft"? ___________

9. What does "meter" organize? _________________ Meter is organized into m________________ , which each have a specific number of beats.

10. Are the rhythmic patterns of music more similar to poetry or to prose? ____________________ (What is prose? Look in your dictionary.)

11. In Western music, which beat in the measure is usually accented or stressed most strongly? the __________ beat

Melody and Scales, xxiii - middle xxv

12. How high or low a tone or musical sound is depends on how fast the string or air vibrates. We call this speed the fr_______________ of a sound.

13. The pitch of a sound refers to how __________ or __________ the sound is.

14. The opposite of linear is _________________ . (Look in your dictionary.)

15. Is melody a linear concept? ______ Why or why not? _________________________________________________

16. The distance between tones is called an ___________________ , and the smallest interval on a piano keyboard is a _______________ .

17. An octave is the interval between how many tones? _____

18. We call a pattern of pitches that go up or down like steps a ____________ , which comes from the Italian word for ______________ .

19. Do major and minor scales each have the same number of half steps? __________ How many? ________ Are the half and whole steps in major and minor scales in the same places? ________

20. A scale with five notes is called a ________________ scale.

21. If there are large leaps or steps between the tones of a melody, is the melody smooth OR angular? _____________

22. Sometimes in music a short melody "idea" repeats itself often in the music and is called a ____________ .

Harmony and Timbre, middle xxv - middle xxvii

23. The system of harmony that provides rules of Western music is called __________________ or the ____________ system.

24. What does a vertical combination of sounds mean? _________________________________________ What is this vertical combination of sounds called when played as accompaniment? _________________ Is it usual OR unusual in Western music? ____________

25. When we play three or more tones at the same time, we're playing a ______________ .

26. The tone (for example A, C, G, etc.) on which a piece of music usually begins and is the scale most of the tones of the piece come from is called the ________________ . This is the same tone as the k_________ of the piece.

27. _________________ level means how loud or ________ music is.

28. The quality of a musical sound is called ________________ and is affected by the size of the instrument, the ___________ of the instrument, and the _________________ level at which the instrument is played.

Texture and Form, middle xxvii - xxix, and Musical Notation and the American Sound, and Listening Skills, xxix - xxx

29. If all voices or instruments are singing or playing in unison, we say the music is ___________________ in texture.

30. Polyphony occurs when different voices or instrument are playing different _____________ies.

31. When chords accompany the melody we call this _________________ .

32. If an accent is on a beat that is normally not accented (for example on the second beat in a four-beat measure), we call this ____________________ .

33. The five lines that music is written on is called a ______________ .