WXY

Wagner, Richard: (b. Leipzig 1813, d. Venice 1883) German composer, conductor, poet, and author. One of the handful of composers that changed the course of music. Most famous for his work in opera. Characteristic style influenced practically every composer in the late 19th century. Implimented Leitmotif compositional technique. Composer of Der Ring Des Nebelungen, Lohengrin, Tannhauser, Gotterdammerung.

Wagner Tuba: A five-valved tuba designed by Richard Wagner, for use in his music.

Waist: A narrowing in the middle of the body of an instrument, resulting in a shape like an hourglass. Typically found in string instruments, and some drums.

Western Music: In Academic circles, this referres to Western European art music which gives us the 12 tone chromatic scale, tonality, and notation. In American popular terminology, this is a genre associated with cowboy and folk idioms.

Whole-Note: The semibreve.

Whole-Rest: A rest that is equivilent in time to four quarter-rests or two half-rests.

Whole Step: Less formal term for, and same as whole-tone.

Whole Tone: Also known as a whole step. In the 12 tone scale, the interval of two semitone, e.g., from C up to an adjacent D. Whole-tones always have just one half-step inbetween and in the previous example that note would be D flat