A

A: 1) The musical pitch relating to 440 oscillations per second of vibration (A above middle C), or any octave transposition of that pitch. 2) The key of A Major.

Absolute Music: Music without associations outside of itself, in contrast to program music

Absolute Pitch: see perfect pitch

A Cappella: "In the manner of the chapel". Sung music without instrumental accompaniment.

Accent: Emphasis placed on certain notes giving them a regular or irregular rhythmic pattern. The form of emphasis is typically an increase of dynamic level. Accents can be placed in the category known as articulations.

Accidentals:The sharps, flats, natural, double-sharp, and double-flat signs that raise or lower a given diatonic pitch to deviate from its key signature.

Accompaniment: A vocal or instrumental part that supports the primary part, or provides background for a soloist.

Achromatic: See diatonic.

Acoustic: Any instrument that can provide sound without the use of electronic amplification.

Acoustics: 1. The science relating to the creation and dissipation of sound waves. 2. The way in which sound production is affected by the physical properties of the room or chamber in which they are produced.

Advent: Christian religious observance which takes place in the four weeks immediately preceding Christmas.

Aeolian Mode: A medieval mode whose scale pattern is the same as the natural minor scale. (whole step, half step,whole step,whole step,half step,whole step,whole step)

Agnus Dei: "Lamb of God". In the Mass, the fifth part of the ordinary.

Air: A song or melody.

Alberti Bass: A pattern of bass notes that outlines the chord being sounded in the pattern low-high-middle-high.

Albumblatt: (Ger.) A page or leaf from a book, or a short, easy piece.

Allemande: (Fr.) "German." A stately 16th-century German dance, initially in a duple meter. During the 17th and 18th centuries, it was used as the first movement of the suite.

Alteration: The use of a sharps or flats to raise or lower a pitch from its natural state.

Altered Chord: A chord in which a note has been changed from its normal position, usually chromatically.

Alto: 1. In most choirs, the lowest female vocal part. Occasionally, extremely high tenor may be said to sing this part. 2. An instrument in the alto range. 3. A viola.

Alto Clef: The C clef falling on third line of the staff, in modern practice, is usually only used by the viola.

Analysis: The study of the form and structure of music.

Answer: In a fugue, the second entry of the subject.

Antecedent: The first phrase of a musical period. In a fugue, the subject.

Anthem: A choral or vocal composition, often with a religious or political lyric, with or without accompaniment, written either for performance in a church, or another place with significance to the song itself.

Antithesis: In the fugue, the answer.

Aria: A musical work usually found in an opera or oratorio, which generally dwells on a single emotional theme of one of the characters.

Arietta: A short aria.

Arpeggio: The notes of a chord played in succession to one another, rather than simultaneously. A broken chord.

Arrangement: An adaptation of a given composition into a form other than as originally composed.

Ars Antiqua: "Old Art". Refers to the old musical practices of Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries.

Ars Nova: "New Art". A term invented by Philippe De Vitry to describe the music of his era, the 14th century, as opposed to the music of earlier generations.

Art Song: A serious vocal composition, generally for voice and piano. Denotes a self-contained work, as opposed to an aria.

Articulation: A category of stylistic approaches to playing notes notated by a variety of symbols placed above or below the written note. Articulation is most commonly applied as a descriptor for the attack of a note.

Atonal: Music that lacks a tonal center, or in which all pitches carry equal importance.

Audiate Audiation is the foundation of musicianship and it takes place when we hear and comprehend music for which the sound is no longer or may never have been present. One may audiate when listening to music, performing from notation, playing "by ear," improvising, composing, or notating music.

Augmentation: The lengthening of note values used in a theme to alter the melody without changing the pitches.

Augment, Augmented: Generally mean to enlarge or raise. In relation to music theory refers to the raising of a major interval or perfect interval chromatically by one half step.

Augmented Chord: A chord which contains a root, a major third, and an augmented fifth.

Augmented Sixth Chord: A chord which contains an augmented sixth above the bass, in addition to various other tones, which determine weather the chord is a German Sixth Chord, French Sixth Chord, Italian Sixth Chord, Neopolitan Sixth, or Doubly Augmented Sixth Chord.

Authentic Cadence: A cadence that starts of the fifth of the key, and resolves to the tonic.