sackbut Early brass instrument, ancestor of the trombone.

sacred music Religious or spiritual music, for church or devotional use.

salsa "Spicy"; collective term for Latin-American dance music, especially forms of Afro-Cuban origin.

saltarello Italian "jumping dance," often characterized by triplets in a rapid 4/4 time.

samba Afro-Brazilian dance, characterized by duple meter, responsorial singing, and polyrhythmic accompaniments.

sampler Electronic device that digitizes, stores, and plays back sounds.

Sanctus A section of the Mass; the fourth musical movement of the Ordinary.

sarabande Stately Spanish Baroque dance type in triple meter, a standard movement of the Baroque suite.

sarangi Bowed chordophone from north India with three main strings and a large number of metal strings that vibrate sympathetically.

saxophone A woodwind instrument made of metal and sounded with a single reed, the saxophone is a more recent instrument addition to the orchestra.
Tenor Saxophone Photo Icon Alto Saxophone Photo IconSoprano SaxophonePhoto Icon

scale A series of tones or pitches in ascending or descending order. Scale tones are often assigned numbers (1–8) or syllables (do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do).

scat singing A jazz style that sets syllables without meaning (vocables) to an improvised vocal line.

scherzo Composition in A-B-A form, usually in triple meter; replaced the minuet and trio in the nineteenth century.

secco Operatic recitative that features a sparse accompaniment and moves with great freedom.

Second Viennese School Name given to composer Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils Alban Berg and Anton Webern; represents the first efforts in twelve-tone composition.

secular music Nonreligious music; when texted, usually in the vernacular.

semitone Also known as a half step, the smallest interval commonly used in the Western musical system.

sequence Restatement of an idea or motive at a different pitch level.

serenade Classical instrumental genre that combines elements of chamber music and symphony, often performed in the evening or at social functions. Related to divertimento and cassation.

serialism Method of composition in which various musical elements (pitch, rhythm, dynamics, tone color) may be ordered in a fixed series. See also total serialism.

seventh chord Four-note combination consisting of a triad with another third added on top; spans a seventh between its lowest and highest tones.

sextuple meter Compound metrical pattern of six beats to a measure.

sforzando A sudden stress or accent on a single note or chord, indicated in the musical score by the marking "sf" or "sfz."

shakuhachi A Japanese end-blown flute.

shamisen Long-necked Japanese chordophone with three strings.

shape note Music notation system originating in nineteenth-century American church music in which the shape of the note heads determines the pitch; created to aid music reading.

sharp sign Musical symbol (#) that indicates raising a pitch by a semitone.

shawm Medieval wind instrument, the ancestor of the oboe.

sheng A reed mouth organ from China.

side drum See snare drum.

simple meter Grouping of rhythms in which the beat is subdivided into two, as in duple, triple, and quadruple meters.

sinfonia Short instrumental work, found in Baroque opera, to facilitate scene changes.

Singspiel Comic German drama with spoken dialogue; the immediate predecessor of Romantic German opera.

sitar Long-necked plucked chordophone of northern India, with movable frets and a rounded gourd body; used as solo instrument and with tabla.

ska Jamaican urban dance form popular in the 1960s, influential in reggae.

slide trumpet Medieval brass instrument of the trumpet family.

snare drum Small cylindrical drum with two heads stretched over a metal shell, the lower head having strings across it; played with two drumsticks. Also side drum. Photo Icon

soft rock Lyrical, gentle rock style that evolved around 1960 in response to hard-driving rock and roll.

sonata Instrumental genre in several movements for soloist or small ensemble.

sonata-allegro form The opening movement of the sonata cycle, consisting of themes that are stated in the first section (exposition), developed in the second section (development), and restated in the third section (recapitulation). Also sonata form or first-movement form.

sonata cycle General term describing the multimovement structure found in sonatas, string quartets, symphonies, concertos, and largescale works of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

sonata da camera Baroque chamber sonata, usually a suite of stylized dances. Also chamber sonata.

sonata da chiesa Baroque instrumental work intended for performance in church; in four movements, frequently arranged slow-fast-slow-fast. Also church sonata.

sonata form See sonata-allegro form.

song cycle Group of songs, usually Lieder, that are unified musically or through their texts.

soprano Highest-ranged voice, normally possessed by women or boys.

sousaphone Brass instrument adapted from the tuba with a forward bell that is coiled to rest over the player’s shoulder for ease of carrying while marching.

spiritual Folklike devotional genre of the United States, sung by African Americans and whites.

spiritual minimalism Contemporary musical style related to minimalism, characterized by a weak pulse and long chains of lush progressions—either tonal or modal.

Sprechstimme A vocal style in which the melody is spoken at approximate pitches rather than sung on exact pitches; developed by Arnold Schoenberg.

staccato Short, detached notes, marked with a dot above them.

statement See exposition.

stile concitato Baroque style developed by Monteverdi, which introduced novel effects such as rapid repeated notes as symbols of passion.

stile rappresentativo A dramatic recitative style of the Baroque period in which melodies moved freely over a foundation of simple chords.

stopping On a string instrument, altering the string length by pressing it on the fingerboard. On a horn, playing with the bell closed by the hand or a mute.

strain A series of contrasting sections found in rags and marches; in duple meter with sixteen-measure themes or sections.

string family The members of the string family include two types of instruments: bowed and plucked. The standard bowed string instruments, from highest to lowest, are: violin, viola, cello, and double bass. The harp and guitar are common plucked string instruments. String instruments often play special effects, including: trill, pizzicato, harmonic, and arpeggio. Also chordophone.

string quartet The string quartet was one of the most common chamber ensembles. Its makeup is two violins, viola, and cello. Here, the first violin has the melody and the other three instruments provide accompaniment.

string quintet Standard chamber ensemble made up of either two violins, two violas, and cello or two violins, viola, and two cellos.

string trio Standard chamber ensemble of two violins and cello or violin, viola, and cello.

strophic form Song structure in which the same music is repeated with every stanza (strophe) of the poem.

Sturm und Drang "Storm and stress"; late-eighteenth-century movement in Germany toward more emotional expression in the arts.

style Characteristic manner of presentation of musical elements (melody, rhythm, harmony, dynamics, form, etc.).

subdominant Fourth scale step, fa.

subdominant chord Chord built on the fourth scale step, the IV chord.

subject Main idea or theme of a work, as in a fugue.

suite Multimovement work made up of a series of contrasting dance movements, generally all in the same key. Also partita and ordre.

swing Jazz term coined to described Louis Armstrong’s style; more commonly refers to big-band jazz.

syllabic Melodic style with one note to each syllable of text.

symphonic poem One-movement orchestral form that develops a poetic idea, suggests a scene, or creates a mood, generally associated with the Romantic era. Also tone poem.

symphony Large work for orchestra, generally in three or four movements.

syncopation Deliberate upsetting of the meter or pulse through a temporary shifting of the accent to a weak beat or an offbeat.

synthesizer Electronic instrument that produces a wide variety of sounds by combining sound generators and sound modifiers in one package with a unified control system.