da capo aria ARIA FORM with two sections. The first section is repeated after the second section's close, which carries the instruction da capo (Italian, "from the head"), creating an ABA FORM.
dances Pieces in stylized dance rhythms, whether independent, paired, or linked together in a SUITE.
descriptive music See CHARACTERISTIC MUSIC.
developing variation Term coined by Arnold Schoenberg for the process of deriving new THEMES, accompaniments, and other ideas throughout a piece through variations of a germinal idea.
development (1) The process of reworking, recombining, fragmenting, and varying given THEMES or other material. (2) In SONATA FORM, the section after the EXPOSITION, which MODULATES through a variety of KEYS and in which THEMES from the exposition are presented in new ways.
diastematic Having to do with INTERVALS. In diastematic motion, the voice moves between sustained pitches separated by discrete intervals; in diastematic NOTATION, the approximate intervals are indicated by relative height (see HEIGHTED NEUMES).
diatonic (1) In ancient Greek music, adjective describing a TETRACHORD with two whole tones and one semitone. (2) Name for a SCALE that includes five WHOLE TONES and two SEMITONES, where the semitones are separated by two or three whole tones. (3) Adjective describing a MELODY, CHORD, or passage based exclusively on a single diatonic scale.
diegetic music or source music In film, music that is heard or performed by the characters themselves.
digital Relating to methods for producing or recording musical sounds by translating them into a coded series of on-off pulses, or 1s and 0s, in the same way that computers store and transmit data.
diminution (1) Uniform reduction of NOTE values in a MELODY or PHRASE. (2) Type of IMPROVISED ORNAMENTATION in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in which relatively long notes are replaced with SCALES or other FIGURES composed of short notes.
direct Pertaining to a manner of performing CHANT without alternation between groups (see ANTIPHONAL) or between soloist and group (see RESPONSORIAL).
discant (Latin, "singing apart") (1) Twelfth-century style of POLYPHONY in which the upper voice or voices have about one to three NOTES for each note of the lower voice. (2) TREBLE part.
disjunct (1) In ancient Greek music, adjective used to describe the relationship between two TETRACHORDS when the bottom NOTE of one is a whole tone above the top note of the other. (2) Of a MELODY, consisting mostly of skips (thirds) and leaps (larger INTERVALS) rather than STEPS.
dissonance (1) Two or more NOTES sounding together to produce a discord, or a sound that needs to be resolved to a CONSONANCE. (2) A NOTE that does not belong to the CHORD that sounds simultaneously with it; a nonchord TONE.
diva A leading and successful female OPERA singer. See also PRIMA DONNA.
divertissement In TRAGéDIE EN MUSIQUE, a long interlude of BALLET, solo AIRS, choral singing, and spectacle, intended as entertainment.
division See DIMINUTION (2).
dominant In TONAL music, the NOTE and CHORD a perfect fifth above the TONIC.
double leading-tone cadence CADENCE popular in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in which the bottom voice moves down a WHOLE TONE and the upper voices move up a SEMITONE, forming a major third and major sixth expanding to an open fifth and octave.
double motet Thirteenth-century MOTET in three voices, with different texts in the DUPLUM and TRIPLUM.
Doxology A formula of praise to the Trinity. Two FORMS are used in GREGORIAN CHANT: the Greater Doxology, or GLORIA, and the Lesser Doxology, used with PSALMS, INTROITS, and other chants.
dramatic opera Seventeenth-century English mixed GENRE of musical theater, a spoken play with an OVERTURE and four or more MASQUES or long musical interludes. Today often called SEMI-OPERA.
drone NOTE or notes sustained throughout an entire piece or section.
duplum (from Latin duplus, "double") In POLYPHONY of the late twelfth through fourteenth centuries, second voice from the bottom in a four-voice TEXTURE, above the TENOR.
dynamics Level of loudness or softness, or intensity.
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