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Trivia: Musical Terms

Subject : trivia
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. In sheet music - a symbol at the beginning of the staff defining the pitch of the notes found in that particular staff.






2. A symbol indicating to play loud.






3. A harmonic given off by a note when it is played.






4. Often used in overtures - a composition that uses passages from other movements of the composition in its entirety.






5. A complex piece of music. Usually the first movement of the piece serving as the exposition - a development - or recapitulation.






6. A repeated phrase.






7. A direction to play expressively.






8. A song or hymn celebrating Christmas.






9. Written for 2 to 10 solo parts featuring one instrument to a part. Each part bears the same importance.






10. A quick 20th century dance written in double time.






11. A tempo having slow movement; restful at ease.






12. One or more vocalists performing without an accompaniment.






13. Unmusical - without tone.






14. A musical style characterized as excessive - ornamental - and trivial.






15. One of the two modes of the tonal system. The minor mode can be identified by the dark - melancholic mood.






16. A direction in sheet music indicating the tempo is to be very fast.






17. The keyboard of a stringed instrument.






18. Elaborate polyphonic composition of the Boroque and Renaissance periods.






19. A solo concert with or without accompaniment.






20. The unit of measure where the beats on the lines of the staff are divided up into two - three - four beats to a measure.






21. Unmusical - without tone.






22. Groups of tones that are harmonious when sounded together as in a chord.






23. The period of music history which dates from the mid 1800's and lasted about sixty years. There was a strong regard for order and balance.






24. A line in a contrapuntal work performed by an individual voice or instrument.






25. A symbol used in musical notation indicating to gradually quicken tempo.






26. The expression the performer brings when playing his instrument.






27. A period in history during the 18th and early 19th centuries where the focus shifted from the neoclassical style to an emotional - expressive - and imaginative style.






28. A set of seven musicians who perform a composition written for seven parts.






29. A set of four musicians who perform a composition written for four parts.






30. A canon where the melody is sung in two or more voices. After the first voice begins - the next voice starts singing after a couple of measures are played in the preceding voice. All parts repeat continuously.






31. Refers to any great composer - conductor - or teacher of music.






32. A direction in sheet music indicating the tempo is to be very fast.






33. Movement or passage that concludes the musical composition.






34. The study of forms - history - science - and methods of music.






35. Two notes that differ in name only. The notes occupy the same position.For example: C sharp and D flat.






36. A composition written for nine instruments.






37. Three to four movement orchestral piece - generally in sonata form.






38. A portion of the range of the instrument or voice.






39. 3 or 4 notes played simultaneously in harmony.






40. A contrapuntal song written for at least three voices - usually without accompaniment.






41. Successive notes of a key or mode either ascending or descending.






42. A short piece originally preceded by a more substantial work - also an orchestral introduction to opera - however not lengthy enough to be considered an overture.






43. Short detached notes - as opposed to legato.






44. Rapid alternation between notes that are a half tone or whole tone apart.






45. A symbol in sheet music that returns a note to its original pitch after it has been augmented or diminished.






46. A piece of music written in triple time. Also an old French dance.






47. The first tone of a scale also known as a keynote.






48. Where the musical themes and melodies are developed - written in sonata form.






49. The interval between two notes. Two whole tones and one semitone make up the distance between the two notes.






50. The movement of chords in succession.