| B |
the seventh note in the scale of C major which in
'fixed do' solfeggio is called ti; however, in
German, B is the note 'B flat' - what the German's call
B flat (Bes) is actually our B double flat; the second
section of a piece in binary form |
| B |
indicating Homolya & Benko's catalogue of the music
of lutenist Balent Valentini Bakfark (1506-1576); after
Jarmil Burghauser the cataloguer of music by Antonin
Dvorák (1841-1904); refering to Berend Baeselt's
catalogue of music by Georg Frideric Handel (1685-1759);
after Badley the cataloguer of music by Leopold Hofmann
(1738-1793); after Bertil H. van Boer jr. the cataloguer
of music by Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-1792) |
| Baby grand |
a piano with a horizontal frame, strung
horizontally, that is smaller than a concert grand |
| Bacchanal, Bacchanalia |
riotous song or dance pertaining to Bacchus, the
Roman god of wine |
| Bacchetta (It.), Bacchette (It. plural form) |
drumstick, conductor's baton |
| Bachata |
a genre from the Dominican Republic that is played
with guitars and percussion, usually with lyrics that
focus on love, treachery, jealousy and desperation |
| Bachi |
general term for drum sticks in Japanese music |
| Backbeat |
a continuous heavy accent on beats 2 and 4 in jazz
and rock and roll music |
| Backfall |
a descending appoggiatura
(seventeenth-century England) as opposed to a 'forefall'
or an ascending appoggiatura |
| Bada |
gourd drum from the Ivory Coast made from a large
gourd with the top third cut off, a goatskin is fastened
to the gourd with rope and tuned using Mali weave |
| Badinage, Badinerie |
(French, meaning 'jest') playfulness; a quick
eighteenth-century piece in 2/4 time, for example, a
movement from Bach's Suite in B minor for flute and
strings |
| Bafoko |
West African calabash drum, covered by a goat skin |
| Bagatelle |
(French, German) trifle, unpretentious; a short,
light instrumental piece of music of no specified form,
usually for piano |
| Bagana |
a large eight to ten-string Ethiopian plucked lyre
with a trapezoidal wooden frame |
| Bägänna |
see bagana |
| Baglama |
a long-necked Turkish lute, with a pear shaped body,
about 1 metre long, that is also found in Greece |
| Bagpipe |
very old musical instrument with a reed chanter,
with fingerholes and/or keys operated by the player's
fingers, one or more tunable drone pipes playing pre-set
notes, powered by air generated either by a bag squeezed
under the arm and refilled by the player's breath, or a
mechanical bellows |
| Baguette |
(French) a drumstick or a conductor's baton |
| Bai |
clappers from Ghana |
| Bailaor (masc.), Bailaora (femin.) |
(Spanish) a flamenco dancer |
| Baile, Bayle |
(Spanish) dance or ballet; flamenco dance |
| Bailecito |
typical festive Bolivian handkerchief dance |
| Baion |
a slow samba rhythm from Brazil |
| Baisser |
(French) to lower, as 'to tune down a violin string' |
| Bajflöjt |
(Swedish) drone flute |
| Bajo, el Bajo |
(Spanish) low, deep; bass; as in cantado el bajo
meaning bass singing |
| Bajo sexto |
a Mexican twelve-string guitar |
| Bak |
formed of up to six pieces of wood bound together at
one end by a strip of leather, sound is produced by
spreading and closing the bundle
more... |
| Baksimba |
a royal dance of the Baganda people from Uganda |
| Bala |
a West African xylophone made with strips of wood,
increasing in length, connected together with thread,
and with hollow gourd resonators of varying sizes
attached to the bottom to achieve a greater tonal range |
| Balaban |
a short Persian cylindrical oboe |
| Balafon |
see bala |
| Balalaika |
a triangular guitar-like instrument with a fretted
finger-board normally bearing three strings of Russian
origin
more... |
| Balaman |
Azerbaijani short cylindrical oboe |
| Balance |
the adjustment of volume and timbre between
instruments or voices so that, when required, each is
clearly heard through the general texture |
| Ballabile |
(Italian) in a dance style, to be danced |
| Ballad |
a narrative song, often sentimental, with verses
alternating with a refrain, originally to be danced, but
now generally without dance associations |
| Ballad meter, Ballad metre |
the metre of a four-line stanza with eight, six,
eight and six syllables per line, commonly found in
four-line hymn verse, and also known as common metre |
| Ballad opera |
eighteenth-century English comic play with songs,
based on popular tunes but set to new words, and spoken
dialogue |
| Ballade |
thirteenth-, fourteenth- and fifteenth-century
formes fixes, a strophic piece, each stanza having
an initial repeated section followed by a second section
played only once, and a final refrain; a dramatic heroic
piano piece often inspired by poetry; a setting of a
poem to music |
| Balladenmässig |
(German) in the style of a ballad |
| Ballata |
a fourteenth-century Italian secular piece related
to the French virelai |
| Ballatte |
originally a song to accompany dancing, the
thirteenth century Italian ballata were monophonic dance
songs with choral refrains |
| Ballerino, Ballerina |
(Italian) male dancer, female dancer |
| Ballet |
a dance form, originally Italian, established at the
French court in the sixteenth century, formal and
courtly, originally danced both by professionals and
guests but now danced by professionals |
| Ballo |
(Italian) a ball (dancing), dance |
| Balo |
West African xylophone made with wooden bars, also
known as bala or balafon |
| Bamba |
an old Mexican air from the province of Veracruz,
Mexico |
| Bambera |
a flamenco singing style known as 'swing
songs', the name coming from bamba (swing) |
| Bamboula |
a tambourine of African descent from the West
Indies, a dance accompanied by instrument |
| Bambuca |
the national dance of Colombia, South America. It is
characterized by cross accents in the music. It was
formerly danced only by the natives but became a
ballroom dance to be added to the gentle pasillo,
a favorite with Colombian society |
| Banatanka |
a Serbian dance |
| Band |
(English) a group of instrumental players, for
example, big band, dance band, jazz band, brass band,
windband, marching band |
| Band, Bände |
(German) volume (a book), volumes |
| Bandari |
dancelike instrumental music from Iran, bandari
means 'from the harbours' and it is thought to represent
Bushehrs' oldest instrumental musical form |
| Bandola, Bandora, Bandore, Bandurria |
of the cittern family, Spanish with six pairs of
strings
more... |
| Bandolín |
small South American Creole lute, pear shaped, and
with a fretted neck, that comes in various sizes and
ranges and has from 8 to 15 steel strings |
| Bandolim |
Portuguese mandolin |
| Bandoneon |
a variant of the concertina developed by Heinrich
Band in the 1840's, it became synonymous with the
Argentine tango. In 1924, the number and positions of
the buttons were standardized to include 72 buttons that
cover a five octave range |
| Bandora |
a plucked string instrument of the lute family,
popular both as a solo and as an accompanying instrument
to songs of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries,
the bandora is a bass register instrument with six or
seven metal strings, a long, fretted neck, and a
scalloped body |
| Bandura |
a fretless plucked dulcimer found in the Ukraine,
with a short neck, an oval flat body and which is held
vertically |
| Bandurria |
small 12-string mandolin-type instrument, played
with a pick, with a very short wide neck and 14 metal
frets, popular in Spain and Spanish America |
| Bandurria sonora |
a bandurria with 6 metal strings instead of
guts strings |
| Bang'gu |
Chinese small drum |
| Banjo |
a plucked, four to nine wire- (occasionally gut-)
strung instrument with a circular body to which is
attached an generally un-fretted neck, the strings lying
on a low bridge over a resonator made of a metal hoop
over which parchment is tensioned, popular in early jazz
and country music |
| Banjolele |
a ukulele-banjo |
| Banjolin |
a mandolin-banjo |
| Bansango |
a Mandinka (West African) dance rhythm for young
women |
| Bansuri |
bansuri and venu are common Indian
flutes, typically made of bamboo or reed, that come in
two forms, 'transverse' and 'fipple. The transverse
variety is nothing more than a length of bamboo with
holes cut into it. This is the preferred flute for
classical music because the embouchure gives
added flexibility and control. The fipple variety is
found in the folk and filmi styles, but seldom
used for serious music, being usually considered to be
no more than a toy because the absence of any
embouchure limits the flexibility of the instrument.
The bansuri is used in the North Indian system.
It typically has six holes; however there has been a
tendency in recent years to use seven holes for added
flexibility and correctness of pitch in the higher
registers. It was previously associated only with folk
music, but today it is found in Hindustani classical,
filmi and numerous other genre. Venu is the
south Indian flute and is used in the Carnatic system.
It typically has eight holes. The venu is very
popular in all south Indian styles |
| Banya |
the bass Indian tabla drum played by the left hand |
| Bapó |
Brazilian maracas |
| Bar, Bar-line |
a vertical line used to metrically divide music into
groups of beats
more... |
| Bara |
gourd drum from the Ivory Coast |
| Baraban |
Klezmer bass drum |
| Barbat |
Persian ud |
| Barber-shop harmony |
a popular, banal style of close harmony singing,
originally all male, begun in the US in the late
nineteenth-century. When using four male voices, the
disposition is generally bass, baritone, lead (who has
the melody) and tenor (who is pitched higher than the
lead) |
| Barbitos |
considered an invention of Terpander and described
in the archaic lyric poetry of Alcaeus, Simonides and
Sappho, it is a lyre characterized by longer strings
and, therefore, a lower pitch. Aristotle says that it is
used for pleasure and not for educational purposes.
Sappho is shown often playing the barbitos in
Lesbos where it was called the barmos |
| Barcarolle (Fr.), Barkarole (Ger.) |
a song or instrumental piece associated with boats
and boating generally (although often associated by the
songs of boatmen in Venice, Italy) in compound duple
(6/8) or compound quadruple (12/8) time |
| Bar form |
a two part form used in German Minnelieder and
chorales, in which the first section, called the
Stollen is repeated and the second section is called
the Abgesang |
| Bariolage |
(French) rapid alternation of open and stopped
strings on the violin |
| Bariton |
(German) baritone horn |
| Baritone |
male voice lying between tenor and bass with a range
of two octaves from G on the bottom line of the bass
clef to G above middle C; also applied to an instrument
with a similar in-between range, for example, baritone
saxophone |
| Baritone clef |
see
baritone clef |
| Baritone horn |
see ''euphonium' |
| Baritono |
(Italian, Spanish) baritone horn |
| Barline |
 |
a vertical line drawn across the staff to
mark off measures (or bars) of a particular
length, i.e. containing a number of notes whose
total time value is set by the time signature |
|
| Barmos |
see barbitos |
| Barn dances |
barn dances are the product of the colonial United
States of America. Early Americans recreated them from
England's country dances. They were performed in halls
and barns as get-togethers among North America's first
social gatherings |
| Barocco (It.), Barok (Ger.), Baroque (Fr.) |
the word baroque is derived from the Italian
barocco, meaning bizarre, though probably exuberant
would be a better translation more accurately reflecting
the sense. The usage of this term originated in the
1860s to describe the highly decorated style of 17th and
18th century religious and public buildings in Germany
and Austria, as typified by the very baroque angelic
organist adorning the Gottfried Silbermann organ
completed in 1714 for the Cathedral in Freiberg, Saxony.
Later, during the early-to-mid 1900s, the term baroque
was applied by association to music of the 17th and
early 18th century, and today the term baroque has come
to refer to a very clearly definable type or genre of
European music from the period c. 1580 to c. 1730 |
| Baroque dance |
the baroque style of dance evolved during the middle
of the seventeenth-century, although our knowledge of it
comes primarily from texts published in the last decade
of the century and in the first thirty-five years of the
eighteenth-century. This is the first time that dance
steps are accompanied by highly codified use of the
hands and arms. Dance notation is no longer verbal, and
it is necessary to study contemporary dance manuals in
order to understand the relevant diagrams
[taken from
The Early Dance Circle] |
| Baroque organ |
a form of organ associated with the baroque period
more... |
| Barre (Fr.) |
a device that clamps to the neck of a plucked string
instrument (e.g. a guitar) and which change its tuning
by shortening the sounding length of every string |
| Barrel drum |
a large two-headed drum that is laid horizontally |
| Barrel organ |
automatic organ |
| Barriles |
drums made of wood and covered with goatskin,
similar to the Cuban conga drums |
| Baryton |
type of bass viol popular in the eighteenth-century
that has both bowed and sympathetic strings; (French)
baritone horn; (German) euphonium |
| Basese |
popular Malagasy dance rhythm from Diego Suárez, in
the north-east |
| Bas instruments |
soft instruments suitable for chamber music, for
example, vielles, rebecs, lutes, recorders, and the like |
| Baskiche Tänze |
(German) Basque dance |
| Baskische Trommel |
(German, literally 'Basque drum') tambourine |
| Basques |
a term applied to rhythmically complex dance music
of Basque origin |
| Bass |
lowest part; lowest male voice; often the lowest in
a family of instruments, for example, bass saxophone,
bass clarinet, bass trombone, etc. |
| Bassa, Basso, Bassi (plural form) |
(Italian) low, deep, bass; 8va bassa tells
the performer to play the notes an octave lower |
| Basse à pistons |
(French) euphonium |
| Bass bar |
a strip of wood glued under the belly of a sound
board to support one foot of the bridge and to improve
the instrument's bass frequency resonant response |
| Basse |
(French) bass |
| Basse chiffrée (Fr.), Basse continue (Fr.), Basso
continuo (Italian) |
figured bass from which seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century keyboard players realised
accompaniments |
| Bass clarinet |
the lowest member of the clarinet family
more... |
| Bass clef |
see
bass clef |
| Bass drum |
a large membranophone of indefinite pitch that is
played with a soft-headed stick, for example, in
military marching bands |
| Basse dance |
a very early dance type, in which the feet are kept
close to the ground) remembered for the way in which
Basse Dance tunes continued to inspire composers long
after the dances themselves had become extinct, probably
sometime in the sixteenth-century; the dance may be in
duple or triple time, or a mixture of the two, often
improvised over a tenor cantus firmus |
| Basse d'harmonie |
(French) ophicleide |
| Basset horn |
a now rarely-used tenor clarinet in F, similar in
shape and tone to the modern bass clarinet |
| Bassettflöte |
(German) old name for the bass recorder |
| Bass fiddle |
double bass |
| Basso cantate |
lyrical singing voice |
| Basso contanto |
'singing' part of the bass voice |
| Basso continuo |
figured bass; see
figured bass |
| Basson |
(French) bassoon |
| Bassoon |
bass double reed wind-instrument providing some of
the orchestra's lowest notes
more... |
| Bassoon à serpentine |
(French) racket |
| Basso ostinato |
ground bass, a pattern repeated several times over
in the bass line to accompany one or more ever-varying
upper parts |
| Basso profundo |
lowest notes in the bass singer's vocal range |
| Bassposaune |
(German) bass trombone |
| Bass-saite |
(German) the bottom string on a bowed or plucked
instrument |
| Bassus |
the lowest part in a polyphonic composition |
| Bass viol |
see viola da gamba |
| Bataclán |
Argentine dance derived from the Parisian
ba-ta-clan |
| Bataclana |
cabaret dancer (Argentina) |
| Batar |
Somalian drum |
| Bate-bate |
Angolan percussion |
| Batería |
(Spanish) percussion instruments |
| Baton |
(French) light tapered stick used as a visual aid by
a conductor; in eighteenth-century France, the baton was
a large heavy pole held vertically and raised up and
down to give the beat; using such a device, Lully struck
his foot which injury led ultimately to his death from
septicaemia (blood poisoning) |
| Battaglia |
(Italian, meaning 'battle') a piece suggesting a
battle |
| Batteria |
(Italian) percussion instruments |
| Batterie |
(French) percussion instruments; a rhythmic sequence
using in military drumming |
| Battre |
(French) to beat time |
| Battuta |
(Italian) a beat; a bar or measure |
| Battuta, A |
(Italian) a tempo, return to the original speed |
| Batucada, Batuque |
Afro-Brazilian jam sessions. In the batuque
the dancers form a circle around one performer. This
solo dancer chooses his successor for the exhibition
spot while shouting the word sama |
| Bauernleier |
(German) hurdy-gurdy |
| Bawu |
a flute-like pipe from China with a free reed in the
mouthpiece
more... |
| Bayan |
(Russian) chromatic accordion from Russia and
Belarus, with a button keyboard; (India) see tabla |
| BB |
indicating Lazslo Somfai's catalogue of the music of
Béla Bartók (1881-1945) |
| Be |
(German) the flat sign |
| Beam |
see 'note' |
| Bearbeit, Bearbitung |
(German) arranged, arrangement |
| Beat |
rhythmic pulse in a piece of music |
| Beaucoup |
(French) much |
| Bebend |
(German) trembling, tremulo |
| Bebop |
also bop, a complex 1940's jazz style, characterized
by very fast or very slow tempos with improvised lines
of quavers (eighth notes), irregular accents, and
extended harmony, the patterns often ending with an
abrupt two-note figure that sounded like be-bop |
| Bebop scales |
see
bebop scales |
| Bebung |
a tremulo effect achieved by rocking the finger on
the key of a clavichord while the tangent is in contact
with a sounding string |
| Bécarre |
(French) the natural sign |
| Becken, Beck (abbreviation) |
(German) cymbals |
| Beckflöte |
(German) recorder |
| Becuadro |
(Spanish) natural sign |
| Bedächtig |
(German) careful |
| Bedarfsfall, Im |
(German) in case of need |
| Bedautend |
(German) considerable |
| Bedug |
(Javanese) a very big drum used in gamelan
orchestras |
| Begeistert |
(German) inspired, enthused |
| Begeisterung |
(German) inspiration, exaltation |
| Begleiten |
(German) to accompany |
| Begleitung |
(German) accompaniment |
| Begleitend |
(German) accompanying |
| Behaglich |
(German) agreeably |
| Behend, Behendigkeit |
(German) nimbly, nimbleness |
| Beherzt |
(German) courageous |
| Behind the beat |
when a performer deliberately sounds the notes
slightly after the beat set by the ensemble, seldom
required in any classical idiom |
| Beide |
(German) both |
| Beinahe |
(German) almost |
| Beispiel |
(German) example |
| Beisser |
(German) mordant (ornament) |
| Beklemmt, Beklommen |
(German) oppressed |
| Belamentengo |
the smallest of the Mandinka drums |
| Bel canto |
(Italian, beautiful singing voice) a lyrical, smooth
vocal style associated with eighteenth- and early
nineteenth-century Italian professional singers and
designed to show off the singer's voice |
| Belebend, Belebt, Belebter |
(German) animating, animated, more animated |
| Beleiben, Nach |
(German) at will, at your pleasure, ad libitum |
| Beleibig |
(German) optional |
| Belengo |
the second smallest of the Mandinka drums |
| Bell |
made from a wide variety of natural and synthetic
materials, including clay, wood, metals of all kinds,
and animal hooves, bells are classified as percussive
instruments of which there are two basic kinds: (i) the
body may be closed at one end and open at the other
(these are called cup bells), or (ii) it may be entirely
closed and hollow, with a metal pellet inside (these are
termed crotals). Some have clappers, or internal
attachments which strike the body when the bell is
shaken. Clapperless wooden bells such as the Chinese
temple block are struck on the outside surface with a
mallet or rod
more... |
| Bell |
the flared end of a musical instrument, for example,
the end of a trumpet |
| Bellicoso, Bellicosamente (adverb form) |
(Italian) warlike |
| Bell lyra, Bell lyre |
the marching version of a glockenspiel made in the
shape of a lyre, which when used in a marching band is
held upright and supported by a strap around the
performer's waist |
| Bellow shake |
the rapid in and out movement of the bellows on an
accordion or concertina, an effect similar to the
tremolo on other instruments |
| Bellows |
a pneumatic device that pumps air into a pipe organ;
the pleated centre section of instruments in the
accordion family that collects air when expanded and
pushes the air across reeds to produce the musical
pitch(es) when squeezed |
| Bellows normal |
see 'B.N.' |
| Bell tree |
long stick with bells suspended from it |
| Belly |
the upper surface of a stringed instrument on which
the bridge rests, also called 'the table' |
| Belly dance |
see raks sharki |
| Belustigend |
(German) amusing, gay |
| Bembe |
sacred Afro-Cuban ceremony in which saints are
praised; a popular Afro-Cuban 6/8 beat |
| Bembé |
a set of three drums made from hollowed palm tree
logs, with nailed-on skins which are tuned with heat |
| Bemol (Sp.), Bémol (Fr.), Bemolle (It.) |
 |
a sign which lowers the pitch of a note by
one semitone
|
|
| Bena |
Sardinian cane clarinet |
| Bend |
a change in the pitch of a note for expressive
purposes, so named because on the guitar the effect is
produced, literally, by bending the string, although on
synthesizers specialized potentiometer-oscillators, or
'benders' are used and on brass instruments the effect
is produced using half-valving |
| Bene, Ben (abbrev.) |
(Italian) well, much |
| Benedictus |
the second part of the Sanctus of the Mass |
| Beneplacito, Beneplacimento |
(Italian) when preceded by 'A suo' the phrase means
'ad libitum' |
| Beneventian rite |
early liturgical music of southern Italy, perhaps
predating Gregorian chant, containing texts and melodies
from the seventh-century Roman rite, but which was in
use between the tenth- and thirteenth-centuries. |
| Benga |
Kenyan Luo pop music |
| Ben marcato |
(Italian) well marked, accented |
| Ben tenuto |
(Italian) well held |
| Bent note, Bent pitch |
see 'blue note' |
| Beopgo, Beopgu |
(Korean) a Korean drum which is slightly bigger than
the sogo |
| Bequadro |
 |
(Italian) the sign placed before a note that
is neither sharpened or flattened |
|
| Bequem |
(German) comfortable |
| Bercement |
(French) rocking, lulling, swaying |
| Berceuse |
(French from bercer, to rock) a lullaby or
instrumental piece in compound duple, 6/8 time |
| Berda |
Croatian fretted bass |
| Bereite vor |
(German) prepare, make ready |
| Bereits |
(German) already, previously |
| Bergamasque (Fr.), Bergamasca (It.), Bergomask
(Ger.) |
a sixteenth- and seventeenth-century dance
originally from Bergamo, then in simple duple time, but
now associated with a wider range of time signatures |
| Bergerette |
(French) a shepherd's song |
| BeRI |
after Ingmar Bengtsson the cataloguer of music by
Johann Helmich Roman (1694-1758) |
| Berimbau |
a Brazilian form of the musical bow (q.v.) |
| Beruhigen, Beruhigt, Beruhigter, Beruhigend,
Beruhigung (noun) |
(German) to make restful, become restful, more
restful, becoming restful, calming (noun) |
| Bes |
(German) the note 'B double flat' |
| Beschleunigen, Beschleunigt |
(German) to speed up |
| Beseelt |
(German) animated |
| Bestimmt |
(German) prominent, in a decided style |
| Betend |
(German) praying |
| Betont |
(German) stressed, emphasized, accentuated |
| Betonung |
(German) accentuation |
| Betrübnis, Betrübt |
(German) sadness, saddened |
| Beweglich, Beweglichkeit, Bewegt, Bewegter,
Bewegung |
(German) agile, agility, speeded (or moved
emotionally), quicker, speed (or emotion) |
| Bhajan |
Indian devotional song |
| Bhangra |
Bhangra originated in the state of Punjab (today
split between India and Pakistan) sometime between the
fourteenth- and fifteenth-centuries and is regarded as
being one of the oldest folk dances in the world |
| Bhangra beat |
a popular hybrid of traditional Indian music fused
with late twentieth-century 'pop' |
| BI |
after Maurice J.E. Brown the cataloguer of music by
Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849) |
| Bianca |
 |
(Italian) a minim (half note), a note half
the value of a semibreve (whole note) |
|
| Bianqing |
stone chimes from China in the shape of scythes |
| Bianzhong |
a set of tuned bronze bells from China that produce
several notes each at different intervals |
| Bicinium |
a song for two voices |
| Biedermeier |
a derogatory term used to describe conservative,
middle-class taste in art and music for the undemanding
and sentimental as found in Germany and other European
countries of about 1815 to 1848 |
| Bien |
(French) well, very |
| Bikutsi |
a rhythmic style which originated with the Beti
people of present day Cameroon, meaning, literally, 'to
thump the earth'. Originally these rhythms were
associated with war, the shedding of blood and calls for
vengeance against other groups |
| Bilbil |
Kosovar Albanian duct flute with a mouthpiece that
is usually cut diagonally and stopped with a plug |
| Bili |
ancient Chinese flute |
| Bin |
Indian plucked lute |
| Binary form |
a musical form made up of two sections sometimes
termed A and B |
| Binary measure |
two beats in a bar or measure |
| Bind |
alternative word for 'tie' |
| Biniou |
a Breton instrument that resembles a set of bagpipes
with a small seven-holed chanter with a single drone,
pitched an octave higher than usual |
| Bin-sasara |
a strung clapper made of many small slats of wood
connected by a spine of string with handles at each end.
By flicking the handles back and forth, the slats strike
each other |
| Binyege |
seed rattles used by the Bunyoro people from Uganda.
Young male dancers tie the rattles around the lower legs
and compete for the attention of young women |
| Bin zasara |
see bin-sazara |
| Bird's eye |
see 'fermata' |
| Birimbao |
a horseshoe shaped Jew's harp from Galicia (Spain),
made of wood or iron |
| Bis |
(French, meaning twice) repeat, encore, play again |
| Bis |
(German) until |
| Bisbigliato |
(Italian) whispered |
| Biscroma |
 |
(Italian) a demisemiquaver (thirty-second
note), a note one thirty-second the time value
of a whole note or semibreve |
|
| Bishur |
Mongolian shawm |
| Bitonal, Bitonality |
where two keys are used simultaneously, originating
from the use of modes, common in pre-baroque, folk-style
and more modern works |
| Bittend |
(German) entreating |
| Biwa |
a short-necked Japanese lute, used in the
seventh-century in gagaku, with a cranked neck.
It developed from the Chinese pipa and is played
with an oversized plectrum called a bachi. The
number of frets varies from 4 to 6 and the number of
strings vary in number from 3 to 5 but there are usually
4 |
| Biwagaku |
(Japanese) music played on the biwa |
| Biwa hoshi |
(Japanese, literally 'lute priests') travelling
performers of the biwa, one of the most famous,
the legendary Hoichi, the subject of 'The Story of
Earless Hoichi' |
| Bizzarro |
(Italian) bizarre, whimsical |
| Black Bottom |
a quick-tempo dance, characterized by a shaking or
wiggling of the body, introduced to jazz by Eubie Blake
and Noble Sissle in 1921 |
| Bladder pipe |
very distinctive loud instrument which has a reed
that is enclosed by an animal bladder
more... |
| Blanche |
 |
(French) a minim (half note), a note half
the value of a semibreve (whole note) |
|
| Blasinstrumente |
(German) wind instruments |
| Blasmusik |
(German) music for wind instruments |
| Bleiben |
(German) to remain |
| Bleibt |
(German) remains |
| Blekete |
a big double-skinned bass drum from Ghana played
with a stick like a talking drum |
| Bloc de bois |
(French) wood block |
| Blochetto |
(Italian) wood block |
| Block chords |
block chords, where the notes of the entire chord
are played simultaneously and structured accordingly in
succession, are used in church music, classical idioms
as well as jazz accompaniments |
| Blockflöjt |
(Swedish) recorder |
| Blockflöte |
(German) recorder, 2ft pitch metal organ pipe |
| Bloco |
a group of Brazilian people who parade together in
samba costumes to samba music. They can
include instrument or not. They are many times the
progenitors of samba schools and can be quite
large in size. Normally, the block follows a costume
theme |
| Bloss |
(German) mere, merely |
| Blue grass |
form of country & western music that developed
during the mid 1940's, played by groups that include a
double bass, two or more guitars, mandolins, fiddles,
steel or Hawaiian guitars, dobros and five-string
banjo |
| Blue notes |
flattened third, seventh and occasionally fifth
degrees of the major scale |
| Blues |
standard twelve-bar chord progression, an
African-American vocal genre
see
blues |
| Blues scale |
diatonic major scale incorporating the blue notes
(q.v.) to approximate melodic notes that originated in
African work songs although since the actual pitch is
unavailable on a piano, the flatted note is often played
with or 'crushed' against the natural pitch to
approximate the blue note
more... |
| Blul |
a Kurdish shepherd flute made of ebony |
| Blur |
see blul |
| B.N. |
abbreviation for 'bellows normal' signifying the end
of a bellow shake, typically on the accordion |
| Bo |
a pair of large Chinese cymbals |
| Bobo |
Chinese double reed pipe; pegged drum with antelope
skin from Ghana played with hands or hand and stick |
| Bocal |
also called a crook, a curved metal tube that
connects the double reed to the body of the bassoon (if
which case the bocal forms part of the acoustic length
of the instrument) or the mouthpiece of a large recorder
to the head section, for example on bass and greater
recorders (in which case the bocal does not form part of
the acounstic length of the instrument) |
| Bocca chiusa (It.), Bouche fermée (Fr.) |
wordless humming |
| Boceto |
(Spanish) sketch |
| Bodhran, Bodhrán |
Irish frame drum made out of goat skin, generally
played with a double-ended beater or tipper,
approximately 45 cms. (18 inches) in diameter and 7.5-
10 cms. deep, with a circular rim |
| Body |
the resonance box of a stringed instrument or some
percussion instruments; that part of a wind instrument
that remains after the removal of the mouth piece,
crooks, and bell; the tube of an organ-pipe above its
mouth |
| Boethian notation |
although it is not known whether or not Anicius
Manlius Severinus Boethius (480-524 or 525) invented
this system, the term refers to the use of the first
fifteen letters of the alphabet to signify the notes in
a two octave range |
| Bogen, Bog (abbreviation) |
(German) bow (for stringed instrument), 'tie' or
'bind' |
| Bogenstrich |
(German) bow stroke |
| Bois |
(French) wood |
| Bois, Les |
(French) the wood-wind |
| Boîte |
(French) swell box of an organ |
| Bolerito |
a diminutive of bolero, the bolerito is a
triple meter dance but includes only one or two sections
or movements as compared with the standard three in a
bolero |
| Bolero |
Spanish dance in 3/4 time; Cuban dance derived from
the Spanish bolero, initially into 2/4 time then
eventually into 4/4, but always slow. The music is
frequently arranged with Spanish vocals and a subtle
percussion effect, usually implemented with maracas,
conga or bongos |
| Bolero viejo o parado |
a style derived from the seguidilla. The
Valldemosa (Majorca, Spain) bolero is the most
popular in the alearic Islands. The name parado
(stopped) comes from the abrupt end of the dance.
Violins, guitars, castanets and triangle normally
accompany it |
| Bolombatto |
harp from West Africa with four gut strings over a
gourd resonator and an attached tin rattle |
| Bolon |
a three string bass harp with a resonating gourd
that can be used as a drum |
| Boloye |
one-string bass from the Ivory Coast |
| Bols |
Asian vocal percussion |
| Bomb |
in jazz and particularly in bop, an unexpectedly
loud beat from the drummer on a 'backbeat', 'upbeat' or
irregular quaver (eighth note) beat |
| Bomba |
a barrel-shaped drum of Afro-Puerto Rican origin
covered with goatskin; Afro-Puerto Rican dance and songs
traditionally associated with plantation workers on
Puerto Rico. A large wooden drum covered with goatskin
called the bomba, which accompanied this music,
inspired the name. The songs are improvised and have
call and response style |
| Bombai |
(Japanese) Buddhist chant style involving a complete
sutra reading in Sanskrit |
| Bombard |
a large member (tenor or bass) of the shawm
(oboe-like) family; a brilliant sounding reed stop on
the pipe organ |
| Bombarda |
(Italian) euphonium (a member of the tuba family) |
| Bombarde |
a small Breton clarinet-like reed instrument with
its own distinctive sound |
| Bombardino |
(Spanish) baritone horn; euphonium |
| Bombardon |
early ninteenth-century ophicleide;
nineteenth-century valved tuba; low reed stop for the
pedals of nineteenth-century Walcker pipe organs |
| Bombo |
a large sheepskin bass drum used in Spain and
Spanish America; Afro-Uuruguayan comparsa drum |
| Bombo criollo |
an adaptation of the Spanish military bass drum,
used in Cuba for carnival |
| Bombo huilliche |
Chilean bass drum |
| Bonang barung |
(Javanese) a double row of bronze kettles resting on
a horizontal frame, played with two long sticks bound
with red cord at the striking end |
| Bones |
pieces of rib bone played like castanets |
| Bongos |
a pair of small Cuban drums, fixed together with a
metal bar, played with the thumb and fingers |
| Bongyi |
large Burmese drum |
| Bonshe |
long Burmese drum |
| Bontoe |
small Burmese drum |
| Boobam |
modern percussion instrument of bamboo |
| Boogh |
ram’s horn trumpet (Iran) |
| Boogie woogie |
a blues style of music which evolved in the
Mississippi basin of the Deep South of the U.S.A.; a
strong bass is formed on a sequence of I-IV-I-V-I chords
while the upper line is an ostinato (continuous) melodic
figure. |
| Booglin |
shaman Jew's harp from Mongolia |
| Book of hours |
a prayer book used by laymen for private devotion,
containing prayers or meditations appropriate to certain
hours of the day, days of the week, months or seasons.
They became so popular in the fifteenth-century that the
Book of Hours outnumbers all other categories of
illuminated manuscripts; from the late fifteenth-century
there were also printed versions illustrated by
woodcuts. The most famous Book of Hours and one of the
most beautiful of all illuminated manuscripts is the
Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (Musée Condé,
Chantilly), illuminated by the Limburg Brothers for Jean
de Berry
Les très riches heures du Duc de Berry |
| Boo-sasara |
a long, notched stick that is scraped with a smaller
stick |
| Bop |
see 'bebop' |
| Bore |
the diameter of the tube of a woodwind or brass
instrument the shape of which in part dictitates the
timbre or tone color of the instrument; thus, a conical
bore instrument, in which the bore grows larger
throughout, such as the cornet, produces a mellow timbre
while a cylindrical bore instrument, such as the
trumpet, which has a constant bore until the flare of
the bell, produces a brighter, more brilliant timbre |
| Borre (Eng.), Borree (Eng.), Borry (Eng.),
Bourrée (Fr.) |
a French dance similar to the gavotte but beginning
on the fourth beat (of four) rather than the third (of
four) as in the gavotte |
| Borrowed chord |
use of a chord in a key in which it is not diatonic,
or the substitution of a chord from a different key into
a work |
| Borrowed division |
a term used to describe when a note is divided into
an unusual number of smaller notes, for example, when
three crotchets (quarter notes) are to be played in the
time of a minim (a half note), i.e. as a triplet |
| Bossa nova |
a Brazilian popular music style developed in the
late 1950s and early 1960s, based on the samba
and combining Brazilian rhythms and American jazz |
| Botija |
a ceramic jug originally used to transport Spanish
olive oil, used to provide a bass accompaniment in the
Cuban son |
| Botijuela |
see botija |
| Bouché |
a direction usually reserved for players of the
French horn, to stop the sound of or mute their
instrument with a hand placed into the bell |
| Bouffe |
(French, meaning 'comic') as in opèra bouffe,
meaning comic opera |
| Bouffons |
old sword dance performed by men in cardboard
armour, also called Mattachins or Matassins |
| Bougarobou, Bugarabu |
a rhythm adopted by the Mandinka from the Jola (West
Africa) |
| Bourdon |
a low sounding organ pipe, the lowest string on a
lute or violin, a large deep-sounding bell, the drone
string of a hurdy-gurdy, a drone pipe of a bagpipe |
| Bourrée |
see 'borre' |
| Bout |
(French) end (of a bow) |
| Boutade |
(French) an improvisation |
| Bouts |
in the violin and guitar families, the curves in the
sides of the instrument, especially the C-shaped inward
curves that form the waist |
| Bouzouki |
a twentieth-century long-necked Greek lute, derived
from the Turkish saz with a fretted neck and a
pear shaped body containing two courses of strings which
are tuned like the upper strings of a guitar |
| Bow |
 |
a stick with horsehair stretches across it
used to play stringed instruments such as the
violin, cello, etc.; an instruction to use a bow
when playing such an instrument; to incline the
head or body in greeting or acknowledgement
|
|
| Boyau |
(French) catgut, actually made from the intestines
of sheep, lambs or goat |
| Braccio |
(Italian) of the arm, i.e. stringed instrument held
under the chin or against the upper arm, as opposed to
gamba, those held down between the legs or on the
lap |
| Brace, Bracket |
 |
a perpendicular line with bracket joining
multiple staves, for example, in piano music |
|
| Braceos |
arm movements made by the flamenco dancers |
| Braguinha |
a cavaquinho from Madeira (Portugal) |
| Branle (Fr.), Bransle (Fr.), Brawl (Eng.), Brawle
(Eng.), Brantle (Eng.) |
a rustic dance in duple time, similar to the
gavotte, originating in France |
| Bras |
(French) arm |
| Brass |
a term applied to wind instruments made of metal,
for example, trumpet, trombone, tuba, etc. |
| Bratsche, Bratschen (plural), Br. (abbreviation) |
(German) viola |
| Brautlied |
(German) bridal song |
| Bravoure |
(Fr.) bravery, gallantry |
| Bravoure (Fr.), Bravura (It.) |
skill, spirit, as in aria di bravura, an
eighteenth-century aria requiring great technical skill |
| Break |
the point where the quality of tenor, alto and
soprano voices changes (a genuine bass has no break),
between the lower range called voce di petto or
chest voice (q.v.) and the upper, voce di testa
or head voice (q.v.) although in a properly trained
voice, the break should be practically imperceptible; in
the clarinet, flute, recorder or other wind instrument,
the place between the lower register of the instrument
and the higher, for example, the break on the clarinet
is between B flat and B natural in the treble clef; an
imperfectly formed note on the horn, trumpet or
clarinet; a break provides a solo instrumentalist,
usually the leader of a jazz or Blue Grass group, to
play without the rest of the ensemble |
| Breakdance |
originating from the hip-hop movement, it consists
of jerky rhythmic patterns, smooth linear robot-like
movements, syncopation and so called 'helicopter spins'
with the dancer on the floor on his or her back |
| Breathing |
a term applied to the performance of music on all
instruments, including the voice, indicating all
silences between sounds, as in the phrase 'let the music
breath' |
| Breath mark |
where, by use of a mark like a large comma or
apostrophe placed above the stave, the composer requests
that the performer break the musical line and breathe,
so producing the desired phrase shape |
| Breit |
(German) largo, broad (as in bowing) |
| Brekete |
a two-headed round bass drum from Ghana with thin
goatskin, which has a thin shell and thin head and is
played with sticks |
| Brelka |
a double reed Russian instrument |
| Breve |
 |
(Latin, meaning 'short') a double whole note
equal to two semibreves (whole notes) |
|
| Breve rest |
 |
(Latin, meaning 'short') a double whole rest
equal to two semibreves (whole notes) |
|
| Brevis |
 |
(Latin, literally 'short') in
thirteenth-century mensural notation, the
brevis (or breve) indicated the short
note value while the longa indicated a
long note value |
|
| Bridge |
the device, normally made of wood, that transfers
energy from a vibrating string (on a stringed instrument
or a 'string-bearing' keyboard instrument) to the belly,
table or soundboard; see 'release' |
| Brillant (Fr.), Brillante (Fr.), Brillante (It.) |
brilliant, bright, sparkling, with verve and
vivacity |
| Brindisi |
(Italian) a toast |
| Brio |
(Italian) free, spirit, vigour |
| Brioso |
(Italian) spirited |
| Brisé |
(French) broken, as in 'arpeggiation' |
| Brokel dantza |
Basque combat dance |
| Broken chord |
an arpeggiated chord where the notes are played one
after the other, not simultaneously |
| Broken consort |
an ensemble consisting of several different kinds of
instruments, as opposed to a consort in which all the
members were of a single family of instruments, for
example, descant, treble, tenor and bass recorders |
| Broken octaves |
where alternate notes are played an octave apart, a
feature of some piano music |
| Broken time |
the interposition of short sections (general only a
bar or two) in a contrasting time signature; unusual
time signatures that can be unsettling to a less
experienced player, for example 7/8 or 13/16 |
| Bronteion |
(ancient Greece) instrument used in theatres to
produce the noise of thunder |
| Brown |
after Maurice J.E. Brown the cataloguer of music by
Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849) |
| Brume, Buée |
(French) mist |
| Brummeisen |
(German) Jew's harp |
| Bruscamente |
(Italian) brusquely, short and abruptly |
| Brushes |
a drum stick with metal wires at the beating end
that produce a softer more diffuse effect than a
standard wooden drum stick |
| Bubani |
a Kosovar Albanian short wooden cylinder covered at
each open end with leather stretched with rope, played
with two wooden drumsticks |
| Buccolico, Bucolico |
(Italian) rustic, bucolic |
| Buchi |
see bachi |
| Buffa, Buffo |
(Italian) comic, humorous, as in opera buffa,
meaning comic opera |
| Buffonesco, Buffonescamente (adverb) |
(Italian) buffoon-like, droll |
| Bugaku |
(Japanese) Japanese court dance |
| Bugle |
brass wind-instrument with military associations,
see also ophicleide, the 'keyed' bugle |
| Buisine |
medieval herald's trumpet, usually between 1 - 2
metres in length, made of brass or silver, and having a
cylindrical or slightly conical bore |
| Buita |
Angolan percussion |
| Buk |
Tibetan cymbals used by Buddhist monks; Korean drum |
| Buk drum |
Chinese suspended drum, played vertically by one or
two drummers, who also dance as they play the drum |
| Bulbul tarang |
also known as the 'banjo', is a common instrument in
India. The name bulbul tarang literally
translates to 'waves of nightingales'. It is made of a
number of strings passing over what resembles a finger
board. However, instead of directly fingering the keys,
they are pressed with a series of keys rather like a
piano. Sometimes the keys are similar to a piano
keyboard, but more often they resemble typewriter keys
|
| Bulerías |
a festive type of Gypsy flamenco song and
dance that originated in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.
It's usually danced by a whole group and provides
enormous scope for improvisation on the part of dancers,
singers and guitarists. It is wild, frenzied and lively,
but nevertheless contains the germ of sorrow that is
almost always present in flamenco |
| Bullerengue |
an Afro-Colombian song and dance from the Bolívar
and Córdoba departments in both of which, women play an
important role |
| Bull fiddle |
double bass |
| Bull roarer |
made up of slabs of wood, rhomboid, and sometimes
carved and pierced with a small hole at one end for
attaching to a length of cord, it is twirled around in
the air, the performer holding one end of the piece of
cord in his or her hand |
| Bumb |
huge drum from the Braj area in Uttar Pradesh
(India) |
| Bungkau, Bungkao |
the Jew's harp of the Kadazan and Dusun people of
Northern Sabah, Malaysia, made from palm stem
more... |
| Bunraku |
(Jpanese) traditional Japanese puppet theatre that
has its origin in the Edo period. Bunraku and
kabuki are closely related with respect to their
subjects. Bunraku plays are accompanied by the
music of traditional Japanese music instruments |
| Bup |
a large Tibetan cymbal |
| Burden |
a refrain based on nonsense syllables, like 'fa la
la la la' |
| Burgundian chanson |
a fifteenth-century French composition usually for
three voices, where some or all of the parts may be
played on instruments |
| Burla, Burlando, Burletta |
(Italian, from burla meaning joke) jest,
jestingly, a musical farce from the late eighteenth- and
early nineteenth- centuries, in a jocular manner |
| Burlesco, Burlesca, Burlesque |
(Italian) burlesque, jocular |
| Bushehr, Busher |
a unique blend of Persian, Arabic, African and
Indian traditions from the southern provinces of Iran |
| Busk |
to improvise on preset harmonies |
| Busker |
a street performer; in music, a person who plays
music on the street |
| BuxWV |
(WV is the abbreviation for Werke-Verzeichnis)
indicating the catalogue by Georg Karstadt of the music
of Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) |
| Buyoo |
classical Japanese dance |
| BWV |
abbreviation for Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, the
thematic-systematic listing of the Works of Johann
Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) by Wolfgang Schmieder
(sometimes designated by 'S') |
| Byat saung |
Burmese harp |
| Byaw |
Burmese drum |
| Byoo-daiko |
Japanese nailed-head drums |
| Byzaanchy |
four-stringed fiddle with interlocking bow, from
Tuva |
| Byzantine music |
liturgical music from the Eastern Orthodox rite,
named after the ancient city of Byzantium, which is now
Istanbul in Turkey |
