Glossary · Algorithmic & Heuristic Composition

Describes a piece not written in any specific key or mode. Atonal music can be written by obscuring tonal structures or by altogether ignoring conventional harmonies.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

A steady pulse of music and contributes to the sense of musical time. It's what you would tap your toes to when listening to a piece of music.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

The use of complementing or contrasting elements in a piece. Also defined as one or more independent melodies added above or below a main melody.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

A combination of three or more pitches played at the same time.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

A texture in which the piece is concentrated into chords with little melodic activity.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

One of the notes in a scale. Degrees are typically numbered starting with the tonic.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

Any simultaneous and (subjectively) pleasing arrangement of tones.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

(of intervals) the lower tone forming the interval becomes the upper tone, and vice versa; (of a melody) an ascending interval in the melody becomes a descending interval of the same size.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

Music that is based on a major or minor scale is said to be "in a key". Keys are identified by their tonic. For example, a song in the "key of D minor" uses the notes of the D minor scale: D, E, F, G, A, Bb, and C.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

Any organized succession of pitches that the listener perceives as a single entity. It's usually the feature that makes musical pieces memorable.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

The process of reversing a sequence of pitches: what was the first pitch becomes the last, and vice versa.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

The first note in a scale which provides the keynote of a piece of music. Music often concludes on this note to give a feeling of completeness.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

Literally means "backward and upside down", see inversion and retrograde.

To rewrite a piece of music or scale so that it is higher or lower in pitch. This involves raising or lowering each pitch of the piece by the same interval.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

A triad is a three-tone chord. There are four types of triads: major, minor, diminished, and augmented.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

The technique is a means of ensuring that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are sounded as often as one another in a piece of music while preventing the emphasis of any one note through the use of tone rows, orderings of the 12 pitch classes.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

A simplified representation of something more complex; providing only the essential information to the outside world and hiding the background details or implementation

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

A feature of object-oriented programming languages which presents the same interface for several different underlying data types

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth

A technique designed for solving a problem more quickly when classic methods are either too slow or insufficient to find any exact solution.

suggested by Rebecca Ramnauth · defined by Rebecca Ramnauth