| p, pp or ppp |
(Italian) piano, pianissimo, pianississimo - soft,
very soft, extremely soft |
| P |
after Mark Pincherle the cataloguer of music by
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741); after Pedarra the
cataloguer of music by Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936);
after Perger the cataloguer of the music of Johann
Michael Haydn (1737-1806); after Postolka the cataloguer
of the music of Leopold Jan Antonin Kozeluh (1747-1818) |
| Paar |
(German) pair, few |
| Pacato, Pacatamente |
(Italian) placid, placidly |
| Padiglione |
(Italian) the bell of a wind instrument |
| Padovana |
(Italian) pavan |
| Paean |
a song of praise |
| Pahleta |
Portuguese double reed instrument has five holes and
the end section is bell shaped |
| Pahu |
Tahitian double-headed bass drum made out of
hollowed out coconut trunks, covered by either shark
skin or calf skin |
| Pahu rupa'l rima |
Tahitian single membrane drum |
| Paigu |
a Chinese set of seven small tuned drums |
| Pai-hsiao |
Chinese pan-flute, is one of the most ancient of
Chinese musical instruments |
| Pailas |
a term for a smaller version of the Cuban
timbales |
| Pair |
(French) even |
| Pakawaj |
a North Indian double-ended barrel drum made out of
light wood |
| Pakhawraj |
see pakawaj |
| Palabra |
(Spanish) word |
| Palcoscenico |
(Italian) stage |
| Palindrome, Palindromic |
a word, verse or piece of music that reads the same
forward and backwards |
| Palito |
small Cuban stick |
| Palmas |
handclap percussion used in flamenco music
(Spain) and in some Spanish American countries |
| Palm wine |
a music style from Sierra Leone based on the sound
of acoustic guitar riffs accompanied by traditional
percussion |
| Palo de lluvia |
(Spanish) rain stick |
| Palos |
a drum from the Dominican Republic |
| Palotache |
an instrumental piece in duple time from Hungary |
| Palwei |
Burmese flute |
| Pambiche |
a slower type of merengue that is easier to
dance |
| Pan |
a tuned percussion instrument made from an oil drum
which is played in Caribbean steel bands |
| Pandeirada |
lively Galician tambourine-based tunes |
| Pandeireta |
Galician tambourine (Spain) |
| Pandereta |
Spanish and Spanish-American tambourine |
| Pandeiro |
frame drum or tambourine from Portugal, Brazil and
Galicia (Spain) |
| Pandero |
large Spanish and Spanish American frame drum |
| Pandero cuadrado |
Spanish square frame drum |
| Panderoa |
Basque frame drum |
| Pandiatonicism |
a passage of music that uses only the tones of a
single diatonic scale but does not rely on traditional
harmonic progressions and dissonance treatment to
establish the tonal centre |
| Pandora |
bandora |
| Pandoura |
a lute of the ancient Greek and Roman cultures with
a long neck and small soundbox |
| Pandouri |
see panduri |
| Panduri |
fretted three-string lute from Georgia |
| Pandurina |
a small lute-like instrument strung with wire |
| Pan-hu |
Chinese bowed lute with the sound box covered by a
thin slice of wood |
| Pan-isorhythmic |
a work is pan-isorhythmic if all its voices are
isorhythmic in at least one section |
| Panjitar |
Afghan five-string lute derived from the tar |
| Panjtar |
a Uighur tar with a long neck |
| Pan-ku |
Chinese drum |
| Panpipes |
a wind-instrument, originating from before the sixth
century BC, made up of a number of small pipes, across
which the player blows, of steadily increasing size set
in a frame |
| Pantalon or Pantaleon stop |
a device for prolonging the sound after the key has
been released of which there are several surviving
examples on unfretted clavichords from the second half
of the eighteenth century.
A set of tangents is fixed into a rail running
laterally below the keys; these extra tangents stick up
between the keylevers, which are cut away to allow them
to be positioned just a little to the right of each
ordinary tangent. Pulling a drawstop raises these extra
tangents so that they are permanently in contact with
the strings. (You can see, incidentally, that it will
only work on an unfretted instrument).
There seem to be two possible ways of playing when
the pantalon stop is drawn:
1. You can play normally with the usual clavichord
touch: in this case your keylever tangent raises the
string from the 'pantalon' tangent so that it sounds
quite normally while the key is depressed. When the key
is released, the string rests on the 'pantalon' tangent
and continues to sound. Theoretically it will be
slightly raised in pitch, but I suspect this is only
really noticeable in the top octave or so of the
compass.
2. You can merely 'flick' the keys, which will cause
the strings to sound quite loudly while not losing
contact with the 'pantalon' tangents. I suspect that
this is closer to the sound of Hebenstreit's pantalon
than the other method.
In both cases all the unplayed notes vibrate
sympathetically, just like the piano with the right
pedal down.
The interesting point is the 18th century desire for
undamped sounds, which gave rise not only to pantalon
clavichords but also to countless small hammer-action
instruments in which the strings were quite undamped, or
perhaps were only damped when a stop was specially drawn
or a pedal depressed. Burney protested when one of his
French hosts played her English square with the dampers
disengaged: to his mind it compromised the harmony, but
the lady said that with the dampers 'c'est trop sec'.
Remember, too, Beethoven's instruction for the first
movement of the 'Moonlight' Sonata: senza sordini.
SOURCE: Peter Bavington
The stop is named after Pantaleon
Hebenstreit who was born in Eisleben in 1667 and first
heard of in Leipzig where he played violin and taught
dancing and various keyboard instruments. He fled
Leipzig due to the threat of arrest for debts and
entered the service of a pastor in Merseburg as a tutor
to his children. It was here in 1697 that he invented,
and with the assistance of the pastor produced, a
dulcimer-like instrument with double strings of metal
and gut. This instrument played its part in the early
development of the fortepiano, as acknowledged by C.G
Schröter, the instrument maker. Indeed a courtier
travelling through the village was so impressed with the
possibilities of the instrument and Hebenstreit's
performance on it that he arranged for a demonstration
at the Dresden court.
Hebenstreit returned to Leipzig where he was
apparently able to repay his debts and Johann Kuhnau
reported in Mattheson's Critica Musica that
Hebenstreit acted as a maitre de danse. Kuhnau
emphasized the technical difficulty and skill of
Hebenstreit's performances. In 1698 he was appointed
dancing master by Duke Johann Georg of Weissenfels.
In 1705 Hebenstreit visited Paris and created a
sensation: Louis XIV was so impressed he ordered the
instrument to be called the "pantaleon". Hebenstreit was
the impetus for Abbe de Chateauneuf's Dialogue sur la
musique des anciens a Monsieur.
In 1706 Hebenstreit entered the service of Duke
Johann Wilhelm of Eisenach as dancing master to his
children. G.P.Telemann who was engaged as director in
1708 praised Hebenstreit's work, mastery of the French
style and his virtuosity on the pantaleon and violin. On
11th May 1714 he entered the service of Augustus the
Strong as chamber musician and pantaleonist and
received, for a musician, an unusually high salary of
1200 thalers. Additionally he received 200 thalers for
the upkeep of his instrument. In 1727 he took out a
royal writ against Gottfried Silbermann for building a
large number of pantaleons not commissioned by the
inventor.
By 1729 he was placed in charge of music for the
Protestant court church: the musical provision for which
was minimal, including cantor, vice cantor, organist and
six choir boys. In 1733, due to his failing eyesight, he
retired from pantaleon performance. By 1734 he was made
director of Protestant church music and in 1740 was
appointed a privy counsellor. Both these positions were
sinecures for an elderly, long serving musician.
Hebenstreit composed ten orchestral suites with
French overtures which were lost in the Allied bombing
of 1944 and La chasse for 9 instruments found in
Fasch's inventory in Zerbst. He died in 1750. |
| Pantomine |
a musical comedy often associated with the Christmas
period |
| Pantonal, Pantonality |
synonymous respectively with atonal and atonality |
| Panxoliñas |
one of the names given to Christmas songs in Galicia
(Spain) |
| Paraguayan harp |
a 36 string harp usually built by Guaraní Indians |
| Parallel chords |
a sequence of chords where the intervals remain
unchanged as the notes of the chord changes, for
example, a major chord of C, E, and G would be parallel
to a following chord of F, A, and C, which, in turn,
would be parallel to a chord consisting of G, B, D |
| Parallel intervals |
the movement in two or more parts of the same
intervals in the same direction |
| Parallel keys |
two keys, one major and one minor, having the same
tonic, for example, F major and F minor |
| Parallel motion |
when two parts move the same interval in the same
direction at the same time their motion is parallel
|
| Parallel organum |
a polyphonic work based on plainchant in which the
new voice is added below the original voice and the two
voices move in parallel or oblique motion, emphasizing
fourths and fifths, but where they may cadence on a
unison; an early form of organum, first discussed c. 900 |
| Paranku |
a small one headed Okinawan frame drum (Japan) |
| Parap |
a song style from Malaysia |
| Paraphrase |
in the nineteenth-century, a virtuoso elaborated
composition based on popular melodies, usually from
operas, for example the Carmen Fantasy by Pablo
de Sarasate (1844-1908); in the fourteenth- to
sixteenth-centuries, a melody borrowed from another
source (usually chant) and then elaborated freely such
as Missa l' hom arme by Guillaume de Machaut
(c.1300-1377); in the eighteenth-century, a rhythmic
version of scripture or psalms in the native language of
the composer such as Estro poetico-armonico:
Parafrasi sopra li primi (secondi) venticinque salami
by Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739) |
| Parchment |
(Latin, from Pergamum where parchment is
said, by Pliny, to have been invented) skin had been
used as a writing material before this, but the refined
methods of cleaning and stretching involved in making
parchment enabled both sides of a leaf to be used,
leading eventually to the supplanting of the manuscript
roll by the bound book |
| Pardessus |
(French) an instrument that plays a high descant
part such as the pardess de viole from the
seventeenth- and eighteenth-centuries |
| Pareados |
two-line stanzas |
| Parlando, Parlante |
(Italian) speaking, accented; in the style of
recitative |
| Parlato |
(Italian) spoken |
| Parody |
humorous or satirical composition which exaggerates
the features of some other composition; composition
where a new text has been substituted for the original;
a Renaissance style of composition, especially prominent
in the composition of Masses, in which older material
was used in the creation of new music; a composition is
a parody only if the entire substance of the original
material had been incorporated into the new, not merely
an excerpt |
| Part |
one voice from a multi-voice work; in medieval
music, a short section of a work roughly equivalent to
the modern term 'movement' |
| Part book |
a single vocal or instrumental part of a
composition, partbooks came into use at the end of the
fifteenth-century |
| Part crossing |
part crossing occurs when two voices cross over each
other, for example, if the bass were to cross above the
tenor for a few notes |
| Parte, Parti |
(Italian) part, parts |
| Partial (sing.), Partials (pl.) |
a note produced by a musical instrument is made up
of a fundamental frequency together with its harmonics
(first, second, third, etc.) - the fundamental is the
'first partial', the 'first harmonic' is the 'second
partial', and so on; the partials above the fundamental
are also called 'upper partials' |
| Partimento |
(Italian) an pedogogical excercise in figured bass,
often with melodic implications, in use during the
Classical era |
| Partita |
(Italian) a suite (from c. 1700 onwards); an 'air
with variations' (seventeenth-century); a suite
(seventtenth- and eighteenth-centuries); multi-movement
composition consisting of dances and non-dance movements
or entirely of non-dance movements (eighteenth- and
nineteenth-centuries) |
| Partition (Fr.), Partitura or Partizione (It.),
Partitur (Ger.) |
a musical score |
| Partito |
(Italian) divided |
| Part song |
a song, accompanied or less often accompanied by
instruments, written for two or more voices |
| Part-writing |
the essense of polyphonic music |
| Pas |
(French) not, not any, step |
| Pasacorredoiras |
traditional Galician songs (Spain) |
| Pas d'action |
a ballet with a dramatic style |
| Pas de basque |
alternating steps where one foot is on the ground
all the time |
| Pas d'echarps |
(French) scarf dance |
| Pas de deux |
a dance for two performers |
| Pas de quatre |
a dance for four performers |
| Pas glissé |
a single gliding step |
| Pasichigare |
traditional Shona (Zimbabwe) music |
| Pasillo colombiano |
a Colombian dance that is very similar to the Cuban
bolero except that it is danced to a time of 6/8
against 3/4 meter |
| Pasodoble |
(Spanish, literally 'double step') a lively dance in
simple duple time |
| Passacaglia |
an instrumental dance form similar to the chaconne
in which there is continuing repetition of a theme
usually played in the bass; originated in Spain and
became popular in France and Italy during the Baroque
period |
| Passage |
a section of a musical work |
| Passagio |
(Italian) a written or improvised melodic passage; a
transition or modulation |
| Passamezzo, Passemezzo |
(Italian) a old dance in 2 beats in a bar |
| Passecaille |
(French) passacaglia |
| Passend |
(German) fitting, the same meaning as 'commodo' |
| Passepied |
a rapid dance in simple triple time |
| Pas seul |
(French) a solo dance |
| Passing note |
a note that is not part of the prevailing harmony
but which, as the harmony changes, arrives at another
note consonant with the new harmony |
| Passion, Passion music |
a religious work commemmorating the suffering and
death of Christ
more...
|
| Passionato, Passionatamente |
(Italian) passionate, passionately, impassioned |
| Passione |
(Italian) passion |
| Passista |
a young female Brazilian solo dancer who is chosen
to for her excellent skills in dancing to the samba
beat of the bateria (rhythm section). The
passistas dance in front of the bateria and
they are accompanied by talented male dancers playing
their pandeiros (frame drums) and courting the
passistas |
| Pasticcio |
(Italian, literally 'pie') a medley, an opera in
which each act is written by a different composer, an
instrumental work in which each section is written by a
different composer |
| Pastiche |
(French) pasticcio |
| Pastoral |
a stage work incorporating music and ballet, an
instrumental piece with rural connotations; an
alternative name for a madrigal |
| Pastorale |
(French) pastoral; an instrumental piece, often
written over long drone-like bass notes, with rustic
overtones; (Italian) ancient term for a stage
entertainment based on characters from mythology or
employing rustic subjects, for example, nymphs and
shepherds |
| Pastoso |
(Italian) soft, mellow |
| Pastourelles |
a slow musical composition with more than one group
of simple time units in each bar, composed in Latin or
vernacular, the pastourelle relates an encounter between
a knight on horseback and a shepherdess. |
| Pas trop |
(French) not too much |
| Pasucais |
(Spanish) traditional Asturian march |
| Pata |
corrugated iron plate that is struck percussively
(Mozambique) |
| Pa'tala |
(Burmese) xylophone with bamboo keys, also used to
accompany the voice |
| Pate |
slit log drums from the Cook Islands |
| Patenge |
Congolese frame drum held between the legs, the
pitch can be changed by the pressure of the heel on the
skin |
| Patetico, Patetica |
(Italian) pathetic |
| Pateticamente |
(Italian) pathetically |
| Pathétique (Fr.), Pathetisch (Ger.) |
pathetic |
| Pathétiquement |
(French) pathetically |
| Patimento |
(Italian) suffering |
| Pattalar |
see pa'tala |
| Patter song |
a polyphonic work, in which one or more voices sings
the syllabic text as fast as possible; the texture
adopted in the medieval Petronian motet |
| Patting juba |
an improvised dance of African origin that involves
rhythmically intricate hand-clapping |
| Patt waing |
(Burmese) a set of 21 drums hanging inside a
circular and ornately decorated frame, each drum
carefully tuned by the application of tuning paste to
the centre of the drum. The tuning is frequently altered
during a performance according to the requirements of
the particular composition being played. The player
evokes a variety of sounds from the patt waing by
the use of several types of strokes with the bare
fingers on the head of the drum |
| Pauke (sing.), Pauken (pl.) |
(German, literally 'to pound') kettledrums |
| Pausa |
(Italian) rest; (Latin) in mensural notation, a
vertical line drawn through the staff, that indicates
the absence of a sounding note or notes |
| Pausa di biscroma |
 |
(Italian) (Italian) demisemiquaver rest
(thirty-second rest), of which thirty two equal
a breve rest (whole rest) |
|
| Pausa di breve |
 |
(Italian) a breve rest (double whole rest)
equal to two semibreves (whole notes) |
|
| Pausa di centoventottavo |
(Italian) one hundred and twenty-eighth rest,
semihemidemisemiquaver rest |
| Pausa di croma |
 |
(Italian) a quaver rest (eight rest) of
which eight equal a semibreve rest (whole rest)
|
|
| Pausa di minima |
 |
(Italian) minim rest (half rest), a rest
half the value of a semibreve rest (whole rest)
|
|
| Pausa di semibiscroma |
 |
(Italian) hemidemisemiquaver rest
(sixty-fourth rest), a rest one sixty-fourth the
time value of a whole note rest or semibreve
rest
|
|
| Pausa di semibreve |
 |
(Italian) a semibreve rest (whole rest)
|
|
| Pausa di semicroma |
 |
(Italian) a semiquaver rest (sixteenth
rest), a rest one sixteenth the time value of a
whole note rest or semibreve rest
|
|
| Pausa di semiminima |
 |
or |
 |
(Italian) a crotchet rest (quarter rest) of
which four equal the time value of a whole rest
or semibreve rest |
|
| Pause |
(English) the fermata sign |
| Pause |
(French) pause, rest (in particular the semibreve or
whole note rest) |
| Pause |
(German) pause, rest |
| Pavana |
(Italian) pavan |
| Pavan (Eng.), Pavana (It.) |
a stately court dance of the sixteenth- and
seventeenth-centuries, probably of Italian origin,
comprising a pattern of five steps, hence its
alternative name cinque pas |
| Pavane |
(French) pavan |
| Paven |
pavan |
| Paventato, Paventoso |
(Italian) timid, fearful |
| Pavillon |
(French) the bell of a wind instrument |
| Pavyn |
pavan |
| Pa yin |
(Chinese) the eight categories of sound found in
Chinese and Japanese musical theory: metal (bells),
stone (stone chimes), earth (ocarina), leather (drums),
silk (stringed instruments), wood (double-reed wind
instruments), gourd (sho, or mouth organ), and
bamboo (flute) |
| Peau |
(French) skin, a drum head |
| Pedal, Pedal note, Pedal point, Pedal tone |
a long held note above which other parts move; the
lowest note on an instrument |
| Pedal-board |
a keyboard designed to be played with the feet,
commonly found on organs, but more rarely on other
instruments like the pedal piano and the pedal
clavichord |
| Pedale |
(Italian) pedal |
| Pedalier (Eng.), Pedaliera (It.) |
pedal board of an organ |
| Pedalpauken |
(German) a mechanically tuned kettledrum with pedals |
| Pedal piano |
a piano with a keyboard for the hands and a
pedal-board for the feet |
| Pegbox, Pegdisc |
where on stringed instruments the tuning pegs or, in
the case of instrument fitted with a worm gear system,
machine heads used to adjust the tension of the strings
are fitted |
| Peine, À |
(French) scarcely, hardly at all |
| Pellet bells |
small spherical bells with slits that surround a
loose pebble or bit of metal that rattles when the bell
is shaken, for example, sleigh bells |
| Pelog |
see laras |
| Pendant |
(French) during |
| Pénétrant |
(French) penetrating |
| Penillion |
traditional form of Welsh singing in which
alternating verses are accompanied by an air on the harp |
| Penny whistle |
a wind instrument with six holes, originally made
from tin; tin whistle |
| Pensol |
name attributed by some to the 'Negrito nose flute' |
| Pentatonic |
see
pentatonic scales |
| Per |
(Italian) by, in order to, for, from |
| Perceptive listening |
the ability to discern musical characteristics |
| Percossa |
(Italian) percussion |
| Percusíon (Sp.), Percussion (Eng.), Percussione
(It.) |
percussion instruments |
| Percussion instruments |
see
percussion instruments |
| Perdendo, Perdendosi |
(Italian) gradually dying away and becoming slower |
| Perfect, Perfectus (Latin) |
intervals of a unison, octave, fourth, and fifth
when they are exactly in tune and neither augmented nor
diminished; a concept from Medieval music defining the
relationship of 3:1 |
| Perfect pitch |
see absolute pitch: for more information
go here ... |
| Perfect cadence |
see
perfect cadence |
| Perfect interval |
intervals of an octave, a fifth and a fourth |
| Perfect prime |
alternative name for 'unison' |
| Perfect time |
in medieval theory, triple time |
| Perfect unison |
alternative name for 'unison' |
| Performance art |
multimedia art form involving visual as well as
dramatic and musical elements |
| Performance marks |
signs in the score that indicate the composer's
wishes as regards tempo and dynamics, articulation and
phrase marks, expression, fingering, whether or not to
use the mute, and so on |
| Performance practice |
the study of the conventions, as discernable from
contemporaneous evidence, that guided the early
performances of early works particularly in matters of
instrumentation (where this is not clear), ornamentation
(where this is not explicit), timbre and pitch, the
appropriate forces and the appropriate techniques |
| Perger |
after Lother Perger the cataloguer of music by
Johann Adolph Hasse (1699-1783) and Johann Michael Haydn
(1737-1806) |
| Periconas |
Chilean dance from the Quellón region that combines
Spanish music and dance forms with aboriginal Chilean
music and dance |
| Périgourdine |
an ancient French singing-dance in compound duple
time |
| Period |
a complete musical thought, concluded by a cadence,
having two phrases, each usually two to eight bars
(measures) in length, called the 'antecedent' and the
'consequent' |
| Periodicities |
musical phenomena with the quality or state of being
periodic, that is they recur at regular intervals |
| Permutation |
where a subject recurs with a change in the order of
the notes |
| Però |
(Italian) however, therefore |
| Perpetual canon |
a round, an infinite canon |
| Perpetuum mobile |
a piece that is rapid, filled with notes of the same
value rather like a toccata |
| Pes |
see 'neumatic notation' |
| Pes (s.), Pedes (pl.) |
(Latin, literally 'foot') the first section of a
canso, the section itself made up of two phrases, the
first which ends inconclusively on an 'ouvert' cadence,
on the note above the final, the second of which ends
conclusively on a 'clos' cadence, on the final - there
are usually two pedes at the start of a canso |
| Pesant (Fr.), Pesante (It.) |
heavy, heavily |
| Pesamment (Fr.), Pesantemente (It.) |
heavily |
| Pesinden |
(Javanese) male and female singers who perform with
gamelan orchestras |
| Pes flexus |
see 'neumatic notation' |
| Petenera |
a traditional Spanish song in brisk triple time |
| Petit, Petite |
(French) small, little |
| Petto |
(Italian) chest as in 'voce di petto', 'chest voice' |
| Petronian motet |
a motet that divides the breve into three shorter
notes, following the inovations proposed by Petrus de
Cruce (fl. c. 1290) which results in a patter song in
which the top voice sings as fast as is possible, the
motetus moves somewhat more slowly and the tenor moves
the slowest of the three |
| Peu |
(French) little |
| Peu à peu |
(French) little by little |
| Pezzo |
(Italian) piece |
| Pfeife |
(German) pipe |
| Pfiffig |
(German) artful |
| Phach |
(Vietnam) a feature of ca tru or 'tally card
singing', the phach is an instrument, played by
the singer, made of wood or bamboo that is beaten with
two wooden sticks
|
| Phantasie |
(German) fancy, imagination, reverie |
| Phantasy |
(German) fantasia |
| Phasing |
a compositional technique in which a musical pattern
is repeated and manipulated so that it separates and
overlaps itself, and then rejoins the original pattern,
i.e. getting 'out of phase' and then back 'in sync' |
| Philharmonic |
a symphony orchestra |
| Phon |
a unit of apparent loudness, equal in number to the
intensity in decibels of a 1,000 Hz tone judged to be as
loud as the sound being measured |
| Phonetic notation |
representing speech sounds by means of symbols that
have one value only; employing for speech sounds more
than the minimum number of symbols necessary to
represent the significant differences in a musical
notation; representing music using symbols that
represent the sound based on each symbols visual
representation of that sound rather than its symbolic
meaning |
| Phorminx |
similar to the ancient Greek kithara but the
arms are straighter and more parallel, and were often
elaborately carved, the wooden soundbox of the
phorminx has a softer, rounder curve to it and
almost always displays unique circle or 'eye' designs on
its face |
| Phrase, Phrasing |
a short musical idea similar to a sentence in spoken
language, a style of performance that gives shape to the
musical phrases |
| Phrygian cadence |
a chord progression where the subdominant chord (in
first inversion) is followed by the dominant chord, i.e.
IV6-V. The root of the final chord is
approached from the semitone (half step) above. The
IV6 represents the chord based on the fourth degree
of the scale (in first inversion) and the V
represents the chord based on the fifth degree of the
scale. In the tonality of E minor, a phrygian
cadence would be the subdominant IV6 E minor
chord C-E-A moving to the dominant
I C major chord B-D sharp-F
sharp. The Phrygian cadence is a special type of
half cadence. |
| Phrygian mode |
see
modes |
| Phthongos |
(ancient Greek) a note |
| Piacere |
(Italian) pleasure, fancy |
| Piacevole |
(Italian) agreeable, pleasing |
| Pianamente |
(Italian) softly |
| Piangendo, Piangente |
(Italian) weeping |
| Piangevole, Piangevolmente |
(Italian) plaintive, mournful, plaintively,
mournfully |
| Pianino |
a small upright piano |
| Piano, Pianissimo, Pianississimo,
Pianissississimo, Pianississississimo |
(Italian) from soft to extremely soft |
| Piano à queue |
(French) grand piano |
| Pianoforte, Piano (abbr.) |
a musical instruments where, by depressing keys,
felt-covered wooden hammers are 'thrown' against
strings, stretched over a soundboard, from which dampers
have been lifted, producing sounds individually or in
groups (or chords), for as long as the dampers remain
lifted (that is until the keys are released) or until
such time as the vibrational energy has dissipated and
the sound has died away; essentially a mechanised zither |
| Pianola |
a mechanical piano, controlled by information stored
on paper rolls, which may record or play-back a musical
performance |
| Pianto |
(Italian) plaint, lamentation |
| Piatti |
(Italian) cymbals |
| Pibgorn |
Welsh folk instrument of the hornpipe family with a
single reed chanter and a mouthpiece and bell made from
cow's horn popular in the Middle Ages |
| Pibroch |
a type of Scottish Highland music for bagpipes
taking the form of a theme with variations |
| Picado |
similar to pizzicato, the striking of a
guitar string while playing flamenco music,
alternating between the index finger and the middle
fingers |
| Picardy third |
(from the French, tierce de picardie) the use
of the major third in the last chord of a piece in a
minor key, commonly used up to the mid-eighteenth
century |
| Picchettato, Picchiettato, Picchiettando |
(Italian) spiccato |
| Piccola, Piccolo |
(Italian) little |
| Piccolo |
a prefix that denotes an instrument playing one
octave above that of the standard member of the same
family, as for example, piccolo flute (usually called
'piccolo'), piccolo trumpet and piccolo clarinet |
| Piccolo trumpet |
small trumpet that sounds an octave above the
regular trumpet and an octave above its written music,
now commonly pitched in 'B flat' but can be found also
in the keys of 'A', 'F' and 'G'. The range of the 'C'
piccolo trumpet is d'' to b'''' |
| Pick |
small piece of plastic (or other material including
metal, bone or shell) that is used to strum or pluck
stringed instruments of the guitar family; the action in
plucking a string with pick or finger on a stringed
instrument typically of the guitar family in bluegrass
music |
| Pick-up |
a single or group of notes that come before the
first strong metrical beat, usually the first beat of
the bar (measure); an electromagnetic device fitted on
string instruments such as electric guitar and electric
bass in rock or jazz bands or in concert settings where
amplification is required |
| Piece |
any composition that is a complete in itself |
| Pied |
(French) foot (a term used to describe the pitch of
organ pipes) |
| Pied en l'air |
(French) a particular step in the Galliard |
| Pieno, Piena |
(Italian) full |
| Pietà, Pietoso, Pietosamente |
(Italian) pity, piteous, piteously, tenderly |
| Pífano |
small high pitched flute used in Spanish military
bands and also found in the Andes region |
| Piffaro, Piffero |
Italian shawm |
| Pi joom |
also called the pi so and pi chum; a
single free reed pipe with finger holes similar to the
Chinese bawu
more... |
| Pikieren |
(German) to play spiccato |
| Pincé |
(French) pinched, pizzicato |
| Pingullo |
small six hole wooden flute resembling a whistle,
found throughout Andean region and originating in
Ecuador |
| Pink noise |
pink noise is a random noise source characterized by
a flat amplitude response per octave band of frequency
(or any constant percentage bandwidth), i.e., it has
equal energy, or constant power, per octave. Pink noise
is created by passing white noise through a filter
having a 3 dB/octave roll-off rate. See white noise
discussion for details. Due to this roll-off, pink noise
sounds less bright and richer in low frequencies than
white noise. Since pink noise has the same energy in
each 1/3-octave band, it is the preferred sound source
for many acoustical measurements due to the critical
band concept of human hearing
[from the
Electronic Music Dictionary] |
| Pinquillo |
see pingullo |
| Piobaireachd |
pibroch |
| Piobmhor |
great Highland Bagpipe of Scotland with a conical
chanter and 3 drones |
| Pipa |
a Chinese lute-like instrument dating back to the
Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) bearing four strings, (normally
tuned to A, D, E, A), with a pear-shaped body made of
hard wood (often mahogany), its surface is covered with
paulownia. The pipa measures almost four
feet long and a foot across the belly. The neck normally
has six ledges made of wood, horn, or ivory, and the
belly has twenty-six bamboo frets. The strings are
typically plucked, with picks attached to each of the
player's five fingers, with the instrument held
vertically in the lap. The pipa is considered the
most expressive of the Chinese plucked string
instruments and is often called the king of Chinese
instruments
more... |
| Pipe |
a hollow tube or cylinder that forms part of a
musical instrument, for example, an organ pipe, a
pan-pipe, a three-holed pipe, a pitch-pipe, etc. |
| Pipe and tabor |
the combination of a three holed pipe played with
one hand and a small drum slung round the neck and
struck with a small drum-stick held in the other hand
more... |
| Pipiolu |
Italian whistle |
| Piqué |
(French) spiccato |
| Piquiren |
(German) to play spiccato |
| Pirekuas |
Purepecha Indian love songs from Michoacan (Mexico) |
| Piston |
preset buttons on a pipe organ used to change
individual or sets of stops |
| Piston valve, Pistone (It.), Pistoni (It. pl.) |
valves used on brass instruments to redirect air
through different lengths of tubing fall into two types,
rotary in which the moving piece turns clockwise and
anti-clockwise, or piston in which the moving piece
moves up and down, in each case against a spring |
| Pistoñ |
bass bombarde |
| Pitch |
the relative height or depth of a musical sound;
today the international standard pitch is a' = 440 Hz
(or cycles per second) but in the middle ages pitches
were not set absolutely and could be moved up or down at
will |
| Pitch pipe |
a device that is used to set any pitch of the
chromatic scale, especially by a cappella vocal
groups just before they start a piece |
| Pito |
(Spanish) whistle |
| Pito herreño |
traverse flute from the island of El Hierro (Canary
Islands, Spain) |
| Pitos de paragüeiros |
a wooden triangular whistle in the shape of a horse
used in Galicia by traveling knife and blade sharpeners
who would announce their trade by playing the whistle
(Spain) |
| Più |
(Italian) more; for example, più mosso or
più moto, meaning 'more motion' |
| Piuttosto |
(Italian) rather, somewhat |
| Pivot, Pivot chord |
a chord that is placed in a transition between two
keys, serving a different function in each key |
| Pizzica |
a popular dance from Salento, Italy, the precursor
of the tarantella. The name pizzica comes
from the pizzicato, a farm worker that has been
bitten by a tarantula spider. The pizzicato fell
ill and in order to heal, he or she would enter into a
trance and dance for hours until recovered. The typical
instruments used were tamburello, guitar,
fisarmonica and violin |
| Pizzicato, Pizz. (abbrev.) |
(Italian) plucked |
| Placabile, Placabilmente |
(Italian) peaceful, calm, tranquil, peacefully |
| Placido, Placidezza, Placidamente |
(Italian) placid, placidly, peacefully |
| Placito |
(Italian) pleasure |
| Plagal cadence |
see
plagal cadence |
| Plagal mode |
a plagal mode has its notes on either side of the
final
more... |
| Plainchant, Plainsong |
(from the Latin, cantus planus) unaccompanied
church music sung in unison and in free rhythm according
to the accentuation of the words; see 'Gregorian chant'
more... |
| Plainte |
a slow song or instrumental composition of the
seventeenth- and eighteenth-centuries |
| Plaisant |
(French) merry |
| Plaqué |
(French) chords played together rather than spread
or arpeggiated |
| Planctus |
(Latin) a popular Medieval lament, sung in Latin or
in the vernacular, and that used religious and secular
subjects |
| Platagh, Platagwgion |
(ancient Greece) an invention of Archytas, a child's
rattle |
| Plateau, Plateaux |
plate (plates) of cymbals |
| Plaudernd |
(German) chattering, babbling |
| Playera |
a Gypsy seguidilla |
| Player piano |
a piano that plays music without the intervention of
a live performer; the instrument is under the control of
a rotating paper roll through which pressurized air
passes to operate the mechanism |
| Plectrum |
a small piece of wood, bone, leather, quill, or
whatever, used to pluck a string |
| Plein, Pleine |
(French) full |
| Plena |
an Afro Puerto Rican folk song and dance style |
| Pleno |
(Italian) full |
| Pletia |
small support drum from Ghana played with sticks |
| Plica |
(Latin, literally 'fold') the name used for
liquescent neumes; in Parisian polyphony of early
thirteenth century also used in melismatic music |
| Plin |
Breton dance tune (France) |
| Plop |
a rapidly descending glissando at the start of a
note, normally sounded just prior to the beat |
| Plötzlich |
(German) suddenly |
| Pluck |
by picking or pulling them with fingers or a pick,
cause the strings on a stringed instrument to vibrate,
an effect found on members of the harpsichord family
where, attached to each jack, a leather or quill
plectrum plucks the strings |
| Plunger |
a round mute used with brass instruments that is
held in front of the bell of the instrument to dampen
the sound, the plunger can be moved back and forth, as
required, in front of the bell to provide a wide range
of sounds; a movable device that changes the length of
the tube in which vibrations are set up, so changing the
pitch |
| Plus |
(German) more |
| Pneuma |
(Greek, literally 'breath') florid passages sung on
a single vowel, neuma |
| Po |
Chinese cymbals |
| Pochetto, Pochettino |
(Italian) very little, very little indeed |
| Pochissimo |
(Italian) the least possible, the bare minimum |
| Pocket bassoon |
racket |
| Poco |
(Italian) a little, rather; for example poco
lento meaning 'rather slow' |
| Poco a poco |
(Italian) little by little, gradually; for example,
poco a poco animando meaning 'becoming steadily
more lively' |
| Podatus |
see 'neumatic notation' |
| Poggiato |
(Italian) dwelt upon, leant upon |
| Poi |
(Italian) then, afterwards |
| Poi a poi |
(Italian) by degrees |
| Poids |
(French) weight |
| Pointe, Pointe d'archet |
(French) tip of the bow |
| Polka |
a round dance, of Bohemian peasant origin, in quick
duple time |
| Polnisch |
(German) Polish |
| Polo |
a Spanish folk song syncopated and in simple triple
time |
| Polo, El |
a popular Venezuelan style where singers improvise
and sing verses from well known traditional songs
usually accompanied by bandolina, guitarra,
cuatro, charrasca, maracas and
furruco |
| Polonaise (Fr.), Polonäse (Ger.), Polacca (It.) |
a stately simple triple time Polish dance from the
sixteenth-century |
| Pols |
Swedish and Norwegian country dance |
| Polska |
a simple triple time dance of Scandinavian origin
derived from the mazurka |
| Polskor |
(Swedish) polska; Swedish country dance |
| Polstertanz |
(German) pillow or cushion dance |
| Polychoral |
a term used to describe the writing of music in
which in a single work distinct choirs of voices and/or
instruments are set variously in opposition and in
combination, for example, canzoni by Giovanni Gabrielli
(c.1554-1612), and others, in seventeenth-century Venice |
| Polychord |
the simultaneous use of two or more simple chords
(such as triads), a technique used in twentieth-century
compositions |
| Polyharmony |
two or more complete sets of harmony played against
each other, used in twentieth-century compositions |
| Polymetric |
music using different time signatures simultaneously |
| Polyphony, Polyphonic |
contrapuntal writing |
| Polyrhythmic |
music that uses several different rhythms at the
same time |
| Polytextual |
two or more texts set simultaneously in a
composition |
| Polytonal, Polytonality |
music that uses many keys simultaneously |
| Pommer |
(German) see 'bombard' |
| Pompeux, Pompeuse |
(French) pompous |
| Pomposo |
(Italian) pompous, arrogant |
| Ponderoso |
(Italian) ponderous, heavily, massively |
| Ponticello |
(Italian) the bridge of a stringed instrument |
| Pop music |
shortened form of 'popular music' |
| Pordon danza |
(Spanish) a men's dance employing lances |
| Porrectus |
see 'neumatic notation' |
| Porrectus flexus |
see 'neumatic notation' |
| Porro |
a tropical Colombian dance, similar to the Cuban
rumbas in that it is narrative, set to a very
syncopated 2/4 meter |
| Port |
(Scottish) an instrumental composition usually
performed on the harp |
| Port a beul |
(Gaelic) mouth music |
| Portamento |
(Italian) very legato, carrying a vocal or
instrumental line without gaps |
| Portando, Portato |
(Italian) portamento |
| Portative organ |
a small medieval organ, operated by only one person,
small enough to be carried or set on a table, and
usually having only one set of pipes. Strapped over the
performer's shoulder when in use, the organ was played
with the right hand operating the keys while the left
hand operated the bellows
more... |
| Port de voix |
(French) a vocal portamento |
| Porté, Portée |
(French) portamento, stave or staff |
| Porter de voix |
(French) to use the portamento |
| Posadas, las |
traditional Mexican Christmas songs and reenactments
of the trek that the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph made
before the birth of Christ |
| Posaune |
(German) trombone |
| Posément |
(French) steadily, sedately |
| Position |
on a stringed instrument, where the left hand is
placed to play particular notes; in trombone playing,
where the slide is placed to produce certain notes; in
harmony, the disposition of the notes of a chord, for
example, if the tonic is in the bass, the chord is in
root position |
| Positive organ |
small, single manual organ used in the Renaissance
and Baroque eras |
| Posizione |
(Italian) position |
| Possible |
(Italian) possible |
| Post. |
after Milan Postolka the cataloguer of music by
Leopold Jan Antonin Kozeluh (1747-1818) |
| Postlude |
anything played after another generally larger piece |
| Pote |
Brazilian clay drum derived from the Nigerian udu
drum |
| Pot-pourri |
a musical work made up of popular tunes |
| Pou. |
after Arthur Pougin the cataloguer of music by
Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755-1824) |
| Pouce |
(French) thumb |
| Pour |
(French) for |
| Poussé |
(French) up-bow |
| Prächtig, Prachtvoll |
(German) grand, grandly |
| Präcis |
(German) rhythmically precise |
| Praeludium |
(Latin) prelude |
| Pralltriller |
upper mordent |
| Präludium |
(German) prelude |
| Préamble |
(French) prelude |
| Précédemment |
(French) previously |
| Precentor |
the person who, in church, leads the choir or the
singing |
| Precipitato, Precipitoso, Precipitosamente,
Precipitando, Precipitandosi |
(Italian) impetuously, hurriedly |
| Précipité |
(French) impetuously, hurriedly |
| Preciso, Precisione |
(Italian) rhythmically precise |
| Pre-classical music |
music predating the classical period |
| Pregando |
(Italian) praying |
| Preghiera |
(Italian) prayer |
| Prelude |
a piece that is played before another piece or group
of pieces |
| Préluder |
to tune up, to prelude |
| Preludio |
(Italian) prelude |
| Premier, Première |
first |
| Prendre |
(French) to take |
| Prenez |
(French) take! |
| Preparation |
a harmonic device in which a note which causes a
chord to be discordant is used in the previous chord
within which it is concordant |
| Prepared piano |
a term coined by John Cage (1912–92), describing a
piano into which items have been inserted between the
strings to change the sound during performance |
| Près |
(French) near |
| Presque |
(French) almost |
| Pressando, Pressante |
(Italian) accelerando |
| Pressant |
(French) accelerando |
| Pressez (Fr.), Pressieren (Ger.) |
accelerando |
| Presto, Prestissimo |
(Italian) quick, as quick as possible |
| Pretia |
small high tone drum from Ghana |
| Prière |
(French) prayer |
| Priestman |
after Brian Priestman the cataloguer of music by
Jean-Baptiste Loeillet (1680-1730) and John Loeillet [of
London] (1680-1730) |
| Prim |
a small Croatian tamburitza which normally
carries the melody |
| Prima |
(Italian) first |
| Prima donna |
(Italian, literally 'first lady') the female singer
with the most important part in an opera |
| Prima prattica |
a term used in early seventeenth-century Italy to
distinguish Renaissance polyphony, prima prattica,
from the newer Baroque style, seconda prattica |
| Prima volta |
(Italian) first time |
| Prime |
a unison; original form of a row in twelve-tone
music; the third service of the Divine Office, usually
performed at 6:00 a.m., consisting of several
responsories and psalms which are sung |
| Primitivism |
twentieth-century compositions that imitate rhythms,
melodies, modes, and techniques of music of indigenous
people, or music created or produced naturally in a
particular region (typically non-Western) with its
complex rhythms, harmonies, melodies and forms |
| Primo |
(Italian) first |
| Principal |
the leader of the section of an orchestra, for
example, principal cellist who leads the cello section;
the characteristic sound of an open organ flue pipe |
| Principale |
the lowest register of the natural trumpet as
opposed to the highest, or clarino register |
| Proemio |
preface, prelude |
| Programme music |
music that interprets an object of contemplation or
an emotional experience
more... |
| Progression |
movement from note to note (i.e. melodic
progression) or chord to chord (i.e. harmonic
progression) |
| Progressive tonality |
a sequence that moves a piece of music from one key
to another |
| Progressivo, Progressivamente |
(Italy) progressive, progressively |
| Prolatio |
see
mensuration |
| Prolatio major |
the ternary division of semibreves into minims (i.e.
a ratio of 3) |
| Prolatio minor |
the binary division of semibreves into minims (i.e.
a ratio of 2) |
| Prologue |
an introduction or preface to a dramatic work that
was used to set the background to a story about to be
presented, most common in the Renaissance and Baroque
eras, although some are still to be found today |
| Promptement |
(French) promptly |
| Pronto |
(Italian) ready, promptly |
| Proper |
a liturgical genre with text that changes from day
to day; in the mass the musical items of the proper are
introit, gradual, alleluia,
offertory and communion |
| Properties of sound |
those aspects of a sound, such as pitch, timbre,
volume and duration, that give it a recognizable and
definable tonal character |
| Proportion |
the relationship of one note's duration to one
another |
| Prosa |
typically, text added to the sequence of a Mass,
originally those that were written in prose rather than
poetic meter |
| Prosody |
all features of a language, including duration,
pitch and stress |
| Prosula |
a text created to fit an existing melisma of
Gregorian chant; additional words to a preexisting
composition |
| Provençale |
a dance from Provence |
| Psalm |
one of 150 songs attributed to King David in the
Book of Psalms
more...
|
| Psalmody |
the study of and arrangement for voices of psalms |
| Psalter |
a vernacular translation of the Book of Psalms
sometimes including music |
| Psalterion |
similar to the trigonon, a general name for
harps commonly used later in Byzantium |
| Psaltery, Psaltry |
a stringed instrument played with a plectrum; other
names include saltere, sauterie,
psalterium, psalter and salterio
more... |
| Psaume |
(French) psalm |
| Psychoacoustics |
the scientific study of the perception of sound |
| Pu'ili |
double bamboo sticks, 35-60 cms long (18-26 inches),
from Hawaii (USA) |
| Puirt a beul |
Scottish rhythmic form of unaccompanied singing that
can be danced to |
| Puk |
Klezmer bass drum |
| Pulgar |
a technique for playing the guitar using the thumb,
most often a feature of flamenco |
| Pult |
(German) orchestral music stand for two players |
| Puncta |
sections three to seven in the estampie dance form,
each section being repeated immediately with first and
second endings |
| Punctum, Punctus, Puncta (pl.) |
see 'neumatic notation' |
| Punctus |
a note, as in counterpoint; a dot after a note that
adds one half the original duration to the note,
specificially dots found in Medieval mensural notation,
although the dot serves the same function in modern
notation |
| Pung |
Indian barrel drum |
| Pung cholak |
an Indian dance from the state of Manipur in which
the dancers execute sequences of slow and quick
movements of the body while playing intricate rhythms on
the pung (classical barrel drum) |
| Pungi |
an Indian reed instrument used by snake charmers in
India |
| Pustua |
drum from Mozambique |
| Punta |
(Italian) point |
| Punta d'arco |
(Italian) tip of the bow |
| Puntaires |
Catalan Easter songs (Spain) |
| Puntato |
(Italian) an indication that notes are to be played
staccato, signified by dots above or below the note
heads; dotted notes |
| Punteado |
(Spanish) a style of guitar playing in which the
strings are plucked |
| Punto coronato, Punto d'organo |
the fermata sign |
| Pupitre |
(French) orchestral stand for two players |
| Pure music |
see 'absolute music'
|
| Purfling |
an inlay of wood placed along or just inside the
border of the belly and back of instruments of the
violin family, both to protect the edges of the
instrument and decorates it |
| Pyonjong |
(Korean) a fixed pitch percussion instrument formed
of sixteen brass bells which are suspended on a wooden
frame
more... |
| Pyonkyung |
(Korean) formed of two layers of resonant stones,
called kyong-sok set on a frame, it is played by
striking the stones with a beater called a kakt'oe
more... |
| Pythagoras |
the father of music theory who discovered the link
between numbers and music by analyzing the vibrations of
strings of various lengths. According to legend he
discovered the mathematical rationale of musical
consonance from the weights of hammers used by smiths.
He found that the interval of an octave is rooted in the
ratio 2:1, that of the fifth in 3:2, that of the fourth
in 4:3, and that of the whole tone in 9:8. The
Pythagoreans applied these ratios to lengths of a string
on an instrument called a canon, or monochord,
and thereby were able to determine mathematically the
intonation of an entire musical system |
| Pythagorean comma |
the difference between twelve justly tuned perfect
fifths and seven octaves. It is expressed by the
frequency ratio 531441:524288, and is equal to 23.46
cents |
