| O |
the letter, or a circle, used by Medieval scribes to
denote triple meter, used because the perfection of the
circle mirrored the perfection of the number 3. The
imperfect, or common time, was indicated by a
semi-circle, looking very much like the letter 'C' |
| O, Od |
(Italian) or |
| Obbligato (sometimes spelt incorrectly as
Obligato) (It.), Obligé (Fr.), Obligat (Ger.) |
literally 'necessary' or 'obligated', but frequently
used to mean the reverse, i.e. 'may be omitted' or
'optional' |
| Oben |
(German) above |
| Ober |
(German) above, higher |
| Oberek |
a Polish dance |
| Obertas, Obertass |
a quick (even wild), triple time, round dance from
Poland |
| Oberwerk, Obw. (abbreviated form) |
(German) Swell organ |
| Oblente |
standing drum, the master drum of the Ga people of
Ghana |
| Oblique motion |
a term used in counterpoint to describe when one
voice is stationary and a second moves up or down |
| Oboe |
a family of double-reed wind-instruments, that
produce a somewhat plantive tone
more... |
| Oboe da caccia |
the precursor of the cor anglais |
| Oboe d'amore |
lying between the standard oboe and the cor anglais,
the oboe d'amore is now obsolete |
| Obonu |
royal drums of Ghana |
| Obrenten |
Ga master drum (Ghana) |
| Ocarina |
an egg-shaped, metal, plastic or earthenware vessel
flute with fingerholes |
| Occasional piece |
a musical work written for a particular occasion,
for example, a banquet, a wedding, a funeral |
| Octave |
sometimes abbreviated to 8ve; to modern
ears two notes an octave apart seem to be 'at the same
pitch'. This arises from the fact that the upper note is
the first harmonic of the lower note and so could be
said to be already a part of it; to medieval listeners,
the unison and the octave were not equivalent and a
cadence on the upper octave could not be substituted for
one at the unison |
| Octave clef |
see
octave clefs |
| Octave designation |
a way to correctly identify every possible musical
note from the lowest to highest pitches, first devised
by Guido d'Arezzo (c.995-c.1050) in the eleventh-century
Why Middle C?
Helmhotz Pitch Notation
Scientific Pitch Notation |
| Octave displacement |
a melody with notes played in differing octave
registers; occurs frequently in the music of Anton
Webern (1883-1945), |
| Octave flute |
piccolo |
| Octet (Eng.), Octuor or Octette (Fr.), Ottetto
(It.), Oktett (Ger.) |
a work written for eight players, the group playing
such a piece of music |
| Octotonic |
a scale in which the intervals are alternately a
semitone (half-step) and a tone (whole step) |
| Octuple croche |
|
(French) hemidemisemiquaver (sixty-fourth
note), a note one sixty-fourth the time value of
a whole note or semibreve |
|
| Odaiko |
large Japanese drum |
| Ode |
originally a moderate length poem of praise, now a
cantata-like musical setting of lyric poetry fulfilling
a similar purpose |
| Oder |
(German) or |
| Odono |
small talking drum (Ghana) |
| Odori |
general term for Japanese dance |
| Oeuvre |
(French) work, opus |
| Off-beat |
a pulse that accentuates any part of the bar
(measure) other than the first beat |
| Öffen |
(German) open |
| Offertory |
a composition performed during the collection of the
offering in the Mass; the Offertory follows the Credo |
| Office |
a series of religious services spread throughout the
day
| Matins |
3:00 a.m. |
| Lauds |
daybreak |
| Prime |
6:00 a.m |
| Terce |
9:00 a.m |
| Sext |
noon |
| None |
3:00 p.m. |
| Vespers |
twilight |
| Compline |
before retiring to bed |
|
| Öffnen |
(German) to open |
| Oge |
Ghanaian royal drum |
| Oghene |
oval shaped iron gong (Nigeria) |
| Ogirigbo |
an Igede wooden slit-drum made from a hollowed log.
It is a talking instrument with two lips that are beaten
to reproduce the Igede language (Nigeria) |
| Ogni |
(Italian) all, every |
| Ogung |
set of four gongs from Sumatra |
| Ohe Hano Ihu |
a three-holed nose flute from Hawaii made from
bamboo
more... |
| Ohne |
(German) without |
| Oja |
Nigerian three holed wooden whistle |
| Ojamba |
tall, thin drum (Ghana) |
| Ojeh |
an Igede metal gong that is beaten rhythmically with
a stick (Nigeria) |
| Okarina |
Croatian ocarina |
| Oko |
a gourd trumpet from the Igede people (Nigeria) |
| Okónkolo |
the smallest of the Cuban batá drums, it
plays a rhythmic pattern that changes when indicated by
the iyá drum |
| Okpirih |
an Igede wooden drum with a tenor voice, forms a set
with egbong and ubah (Nigeria) |
| Old Roman chant |
old liturgical chants dating from the eleventh- to
the thirteenth-centuries, a tradition that may date back
to the eighth-century and includes what is known as
Gregorian Chant |
| Ole |
a Gypsy dance like a Spanish seguidilla |
| Oliphant |
a medieval ivory hunting horn
more... |
| Omele |
see batá drums |
| Omutibo |
Kenyan musical style developed in the 1960s and 70s,
based on the sounds of two guitars and a scraped glass
soft drink bottle playing the rhythm section |
| Ondeggioando, Ondeggiante, Ondeggiamento |
(Italian) tremolo, vibrato, undulating, a swaying
effect (rhythmic) |
| Ondes Martenot |
an electronic musical instrument introduced in the
1920's by Maurice Martenot (1898-1980), that produces a
single tone with a variable pitch, is classified as an
electrophone, and has been used often in music written
by Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
more... |
| Ondulè |
(French) tremolo, vibrato, undulating, a swaying
effect (rhythmic) |
| One hundred and twenty-eight note |
semihemidemisemiquaver |
| One hundred and twenty-eight rest |
semihemidemisemiquaver rest |
| Ongarese |
(Italian) Hungarian |
| Ookawa |
See ootsuzumi |
| Ootsuzumi |
small Japanese hand drum |
| Op. |
abbreviation of opus |
| Open ending |
the first ending in a medieval secular piece,
usually cadencing on a pitch other than the final |
| Open-fifth chord |
a triad without a third |
| Open form |
a work in which the performer decides which order to
play the material, where to start and where to stop |
| Open string |
an unstopped string |
| Oper |
(German) opera |
| Opera |
(Italian) an abbreviation of opera in musica;
a drama sung to the accompaniment of instruments, which
may involve one or more singers, is generally performed
'in costume' and where sung musical numbers may be
separated by 'recitative' or spoken dialogue; a musical
form originating from the seventeenth-century
more... |
| Opera-ballet |
a form that originated in France where dance had
been an important ingredient of opera, since the early
ballet de cour; the first important opera-ballet
was Campra's L'Europe galant (1697) while one of
the most famous examples of the genre is Rameau's Les
Indes galantes (1735) |
| Opéra bouffe (Fr.), Opera buffa (It.) |
comic opera; derived from a short comic scene that
formed the conclusion of opera seria, which later became
the intermezzo; It's subject, everyday characters in
comic scenes, appeared first in Mazzocchi's Chi
soffre spere (1639) to a text written by the future
Pope Clement IX; in France, opéra bouffe tended
to be more satirical |
| Opéra comique |
(French) comic opera; the French concept of what
constituted opéra comique changes over time; in
the early 18th century it referred to farces and satires
using spoken dialoque with vaudevilles or popular
tunes; later the genre became the comédie mêlée
d'ariettes; by the early nineteenth-century it had
become more like serious opera only retaining spoken
dialogue which by then had been banned at the Opéra |
| Opéra-lyrique |
(French) lyric opera; a style of opera that
flourished in nineteenth-century France; lighter than
the more profound serious opera, less substantial than
grand opera but eschewing the spoken dialogue of
opera-comique |
| Opera oratorio |
a stage work combining elements from opera and
oratorio, for example, Oedipus Rex by Igor
Stravinsky (1882-1971) |
| Opera semiseria |
(Italian) semi-serious opera; this term originated
in the second half of the 18th century to describe a
work in which serious and comic elements are combined;
Piccinni's La buona figliuola (1760) established
the form which was later to influence Cimarosa,
Paisiello and Mozart (for example, Cosi fan tutti
and Le nozze di Figaro) |
| Opera seria |
(Italian, literally 'serious opera') eighteenth
century operas with libretti based on mythology or
ancient historical, with the role of the hero often
performed by a castrato |
| Operetta (It.), Operette (Fr.) |
a short opera, in its modern form (c. 1850's
onward), a light opera containing interludes of spoken
dialogue and dance
more...
|
| Ophicleide |
a large member of the bugle family
more... |
| Opikeh |
a side-blown Igede talking instrument made from
antelope horn, traditionally used as a battle-signaling
instrument, but now used as an ensemble instrument
(Nigeria) |
| Opus, Op. (abbreviated singular), Opp.
(abbreviated plural) |
(Latin, literally 'work') a number assigned by the
composer or publisher to identify the chronology of the
composition or publication of a musical work |
| Oral tradition |
music that is passed from person to person by
imitation and example rather than by written notations,
for example, most folk music |
| Orageux, Orageuse |
(French) stormy |
| Oratorio |
a musical work, performed without costume or stage
settings, using a religious text, employing an
orchestra, choir and solo singers, although from the
nineteenth-century nonreligious narrative might be used
more...
|
| Orchestra |
in ancient Greece, the orchestra was the space
between the auditorium and the proscenium (or stage), in
which were stationed the chorus and the
instrumentalists. This is how the modern orchestra got
its name. In some theatres, the orchestra is the area of
seats directly in front of the stage (called
primafila or platea); the term more properly
applies to the place in a theatre, or concert hall set
apart for the musicians; an ensemble of players of
musical instruments arranged in sections, namely, the
strings, the woodwind and brass and the percussion, plus
occasionally a harp or, for some twentieth century
repertoire, a piano |
| Orchestra bells |
glockenspiel |
| Orchestration |
the art of arranging a musical work for performance
by an orchestra |
| Ordinaire (Fr.), Ordinario (It.) |
ordinary, normal |
| Ordinary |
a liturgical genre is ordinary if its text is
repeated from day to day; in the mass, the musical items
of the ordinary are the Kyrie, Gloria,
Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei and, in
certain circumstances, the Ite missa est and the
Benedicamus Domino as well |
| Ordre |
a term used by certain French composers of the
baroque period to mean 'suite' |
| Orecchio assoluto |
(Italian, literally 'absolute ear') perfect pitch |
| Organ |
a keyboard instrument comprising one or more manuals
including, sometimes, a pedal-board, where the sound is
produced by air, under pressure, being blown through
valves operated via the keys into a set, or sets, of
wood and/or metal pipes |
| Organal style |
organum (the earliest style of polyphonic
music) in which the tenor sings the melody (the original
chant) in very long notes while the upper voices move
freely and rapidly above it |
| Organetto |
Italian accordion |
| Organetto |
a light portable precursor of the organ, from
Medieval Italy, it has a button keyboard and only one
note can be played at a time
more... |
| Organistrum |
a large size 12th century medieval instrument from
Europe that was usually played by two musicians. It is
known as the predecessor of the hurdy gurdy and there
are records of it found on the reliefs of European
cathedrals in France, Spain, Scotland, Germany and the
Czech Republic. Luthiers from Galicia (Spain) recreated
some in the 1980s |
| Organo |
(Italian) organ |
| Organology |
the science of musical instruments including their
classification and development throughout history and
cultures as well as the technical study of how they
produce sound |
| Organ point |
a drone (a low, sustained tone) that remains steady
in the bass of a composition while other voices move
about above it |
| Organum |
a polyphonic composition based on plainchant |
| Organum purum |
a style of organum in which all voices are
unmeasured |
| Organ verset |
a short organ composition that is usually improvised
and used in place of a verse that would have been sung
by the choir |
| Orgel |
(German) organ |
| Orgia |
(Italian) orgy |
| Orgue |
(French) organ |
| Orgue expressif |
(French) harmonium |
| Orgue plein |
(French) full organ |
| Oriscus |
it is hard to distinguish an oriscus note
from a regular one in the Vaticana print, but the
mediaeval manuscripts made a pretty clear distinction
between the two. The real meaning of the oriscus
has been heavily debated throughout this century, but
scholars generally agree that the oriscus
underlines the importance of the following note. Since
the new edition of the Liber hymnarius, the
oriscus note got its own graphic in the note print
as well |
| Ornament, Ornamentation |
additional elaboration added to a written melody, in
some circumstances according to marks placed in the
score by the composer, and, in other cases, in a style
considered appropriate to the period when the work was
composed allowing that ornamentation was left to the
taste and discretion of the performer
more... |
| Orpharion, Orphareon |
a member of the cittern family, with wire strings,
related to the bandora but of a smaller size and tuned
like a lute |
| Osana |
small support drum played with sticks (Ghana) |
| Oscillator |
an electronic sound source. In an analog
synthesizer, oscillators typically produce regularly
repeating fluctuations in voltage; that is, they
oscillate. In a digital synth, an oscillator more
typically plays back a complex waveform by reading the
numbers in a wavetable
[from the
Electronic Music Dictionary] |
| Osoide adaka |
box drum (Ghana) |
| Osservanza |
(Italian) observation |
| Ossia |
(Italian) an alternative (not necessarily easier) to
the original passage |
| Ostinato |
(Italian) persistent, as in basso ostinato
meaning 'ground bass' |
| Ota-ubah |
a clay pot with a narrow neck and a hole cut in its
side used, usually in sets of three, by the Igede people
(Nigeria). It is beaten with two hands |
| Ôter, Ôtez |
(French) to take off, as in Ôtez les sourdines
meaning' take off the mutes' |
| Otsuzumi |
Japanese drum |
| Ottava |
(Italian) octave; for example, all' ottava,
at the octave, or coll' ottava, play in octaves |
| Ottava alta, Ottava sopra, 8va (abbreviated form) |
(Italian) octave higher; when this mark appears in
music it can mean either 'play an octave higher' or
'play an octave lower'. Strictly speaking the sign for
'play an octave lower' should be 8vb (ottava basso).
In keyboard music the sign applies only to the part so
marked, that is either the right hand or left hand
unless the mark appears in both parts. |
| Ottava basso, Ottava sotto, 8vb (abbreviated
form) |
(Italian) octave lower; when this mark appears in
music it means 'play an octave lower' although some
publishers use the 8va mark (see above) to mean the same
thing. As with 8va the sign when used in keyboard music
should apply only to the part so marked, that is either
the right hand or left hand unless the mark appears in
both parts. |
| Otto |
(Italian) eight |
| Ottone (sing.), Ottoni (pl.) |
(Italian) brass; for example, stromenti d'ottoni
meaning 'brass instruments' |
| Ou, Où |
(French) or, where |
| Oud |
see ud |
| Outer voices |
voices in a polyphonic composition that are the
highest and lowest, as in a large mixed choir where
usually the outer voices will be the bass and the
soprano |
| Out chorus |
in jazz, the 'out chorus' is the last chorus, often
a reprise of the opening section, played in a piece of
music |
| Oúti |
Middle Eastern lute |
| Outside |
associated with free jazz and a style of playing in
which the performer improvised freely, breaking away
from strict adherence to the traditional approach that
followed standard patterns of chordal progressions,
these players were said to have stepped 'outside' |
| Ouvert |
(French) open; a term applied to troubadour and
trouvère music, namely a cadence in which the last note
sounds inconclusive and is on a pitch one note above the
final |
| Ouverture |
(French) overture |
| Ouvrir |
(French) to open |
| Ovcharska svirka |
Bulgarian shepherd's pipe, a smaller version of the
kaval |
| Overblowing |
blowing or tonguing more strongly (generally while
venting the thumbhole or opening a speaker key to the
purpose) to produce the higher notes oncertain
wind-instruments, e.g., on the recorder (which
over-blows at the octave) or on the clarinet (which
over-blows at the twelfth) |
| Overdubbing |
a recording technique that facilitates the
combination of separately recorded performances, for
example, distinct individual lines, or solo
improvisations over an earlier ensemble recording, or to
replace an unsatisfactory speaking voice with another, a
process which is carried out using a machine invented by
Les Paul called a multi-track tape recorder |
| Overstrung |
a term applied to pianos on which the strings are
set at two different levels |
| Overtone |
any note from the harmonic series except the
fundamental
more... |
| Overture |
a piece that acts as an introduction to an oratorio
or opera, a concerted work similar to a suite (i.e.
having a number of movements) of two main types - the
Italian (three movements, quick, slow, quick) - and the
French (three movements or sections, slow, quick, slow)
which, if sectional, might form the opening movement of
a larger concerto
more...
|
| Ovvero |
(Italian) or |
| Oyo |
a woven cane basket with gourd bottom filled with
pebbles (Nigeria) |
