sackbut RENAISSANCE brass instrument, an early form of the trombone.
sacred concerto In the seventeenth century, a COMPOSITION on a sacred text for one or more singers and instrumental accompaniment.
salsa A type of dance music that emerged in the 1960s combining elements of Cuban dance styles with JAZZ, ROCK, and Puerto Rican music.
sampling A process of creating new COMPOSITIONS by patching together snippets of previously recorded music.
Sanctus (Latin, "Holy") One of the five major musical items in the MASS ORDINARY, based in part on Isaiah 6:3.
sarabande (1) Originally a quick dance-song from Latin America. (2) In French BAROQUE music, a slow DANCE in BINARY FORM and in triple METER, often emphasizing the second beat; a standard MOVEMENT of a SUITE.
scale A series of three or more different pitches in ascending or descending order and arranged in a specific pattern.
scat singing Technique in JAZZ in which the performer sings nonsense syllables to an IMPROVISED or composed MELODY.
scherzo (Italian, "joke") A joking or particularly fast MOVEMENT in MINUET AND TRIO FORM.
score notation A type of NOTATION in which the different voices or parts are aligned vertically to show how they are coordinated with each other.
seconda pratica or second practice Monteverdi's term for a practice of COUNTERPOINT and COMPOSITION that allows the rules of sixteenth-century counterpoint (the PRIMA PRATICA) to be broken in order to express the feelings of a text. Also called stile moderno.
semibreve In medieval and RENAISSANCE systems of rhythmic NOTATION, a NOTE that is normally equal to half or a third of a BREVE.
semiminim In ARS NOVA and RENAISSANCE systems of rhythmic NOTATION, a NOTE that is equal to half of a MINIM.
semi-opera Modern term for DRAMATIC OPERA.
semitone (or half step) The smallest INTERVAL normally used in Western music; half of a TONE.
sequence (from Latin sequentia, "something that follows") (1) A category of Latin CHANT that follows the ALLELUIA in some MASSES. (2) Restatement of a pattern, either MELODIC or HARMONIC, on successive or different pitch levels.
serenata (Italian, "serenade") A semidramatic piece for several singers and small ORCHESTRA, usually written for a special occasion.
serial music Music that uses the TWELVE-TONE METHOD; used especially for music that extends the same general approach to SERIES in parameters other than pitch.
series (1) A ROW. (2) An ordering of specific durations, dynamic levels, or other non-pitch elements, used in SERIAL MUSIC.
Service A setting of Anglican service music, encompassing specific portions of Matins, Holy Communion, and Evensong. A Great Service is a MELISMATIC, CONTRAPUNTAL setting of these texts; a Short Service sets the same text in SYLLABIC, CHORDAL style.
set PITCH-CLASS SET.
shape-note singing A tradition of group singing that arose in nineteenth-century America, named after the NOTATION used in song collections in which the shape of the noteheads indicates the SOLMIZATION syllables, allowing for easy sight-reading in parts.
shawm Double reed instrument, similar to the oboe, used in the medieval, RENAISSANCE, and BAROQUE PERIODS.
sinfonia (1) Generic term used throughout the seventeenth century for an abstract ENSEMBLE piece, especially one that serves as an introduction to a vocal work. (2) Italian OPERA OVERTURE in the early eighteenth century. (3) Early SYMPHONY.
simple recitative Style of RECITATIVE scored for solo voice and BASSO CONTINUO, used for setting dialogue or monologue in as speechlike a fashion as possible, without dramatization.
Singspiel (German, "singing play") German GENRE of OPERA, featuring spoken dialogue interspersed with songs, CHORUSES, and instrumental music.
sketch General term for a compositional idea jotted down in a notebook, or an early draft of a work.
slow-movement sonata form Classic-era variant of SONATA FORM that omits the DEVELOPMENT.
small sacred concerto Seventeenth-century GENRE of sacred vocal music featuring one or more soloists accompanied by organ CONTINUO (or modest instrumental ENSEMBLE).
socialist realism A doctrine of the Soviet Union, begun in the 1930s, in which all the arts were required to use a realistic approach (as opposed to an abstract or symbolic one) that portrayed socialism in a positive light. In music this meant use of simple, accessible language, centered on MELODY, and patriotic subject matter.
solmization A method of assigning syllables to STEPS in a SCALE, used to make it easier to identify and sing the WHOLE TONES and SEMITONES in a MELODY.
solo concerto CONCERTO in which a single instrument, such as a VIOLIN, contrasts with an ORCHESTRA.
solo madrigal In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, a THROUGH-COMPOSED setting of a nonstrophic poem for solo voice with accompaniment, distinguished from an ARIA and from a MADRIGAL for several voices.
sonata (Italian, "sounded") (1) A piece to be played on one or more instruments. (2) BAROQUE instrumental piece with contrasting sections or MOVEMENTS, often with IMITATIVE COUNTERPOINT. (3) GENRE in several movements for one or two solo instruments.
sonata da camera or chamber sonata BAROQUE SONATA, usually a SUITE of stylized DANCES, scored for one or more TREBLE instruments and CONTINUO.
sonata da chiesa or church sonata BAROQUE instrumental work intended for performance in church; usually in four MOVEMENTS-slow-fast-slow-fast-and scored for one or more TREBLE instruments and CONTINUO.
sonata form FORM typically used in first MOVEMENTS of SONATAS, instrumental chamber works, and SYMPHONIES during the CLASSIC and ROMANTIC PERIODS. An expansion of ROUNDED BINARY FORM, it was described in the nineteenth century as consisting of an EXPOSITION, DEVELOPMENT, and RECAPITULATION based on a limited number of THEMES.
sonata-rondo A FORM that blends characteristics of SONATA FORM and RONDO FORM. One frequent structure is ABACABA, in which A and B correspond to the first and second THEMES of SONATA FORM and B appears first in the DOMINANT and returns in the TONIC.
song cycle A group of songs performed in succession that tells or suggests a story.
soprano (from SUPERIUS) (1) High female voice. (2) Part for such a voice in an ENSEMBLE work.
soul The leading African-American tradition of POPULAR MUSIC in the 1960s that combined elements of RHYTHM-AND-BLUES and gospel singing in songs on love, sex, and other secular subjects.
sound mass Term coined by Edgard Varèse for a body of sounds characterized by a particular TIMBRE, register, RHYTHM, or MELODIC gesture, which may remain stable or may be transformed as it recurs.
source music See DIEGETIC MUSIC.
spatial Pertaining to a conception of music as sounds moving through musical space, rather than as the presentation and VARIATION of THEMES or MOTIVES.
species The particular ordering of WHOLE TONES and SEMITONES within a perfect fourth, fifth, or octave.
spiritual African-American type of religious song that originated among southern slaves and was passed down through oral tradition, with texts often based on stories or images from the Bible.
Sprechstimme (German, "speaking voice") A vocal style developed by Arnold Schoenberg in which the performer approximates the written pitches in the gliding tones of speech, while following the notated rhythm.
Stadtpfeifer (German, "town pipers") Professional town musicians who had the exclusive right to provide music within city limits.
step INTERVAL between two adjacent pitches in a DIATONIC, CHROMATIC, OCTATONIC, or WHOLE-TONE SCALE; WHOLE STEP or HALF STEP.
stile antico (Italian, "old style") Style used in music written after 1600, in imitation of the old contrapuntal style of Palestrina, used especially for church music.
stile concitato (Italian, "excited style") Style devised by Claudio Monteverdi to portray anger and warlike actions, characterized by rapid reiteration of a single NOTE, whether on quickly spoken syllables or in a measured string tremolo.
stile moderno (Italian, "modern style") Seventeenth-century style that used BASSO CONTINUO and applied the rules of COUNTERPOINT freely. See SECONDA PRATICA.
Stollen See BAR FORM.
stop (1) Mechanism on an organ to turn on or off the sounding of certain sets of pipes. (2) The particular set of pipes controlled by such a mechanism.
string quartet (1) Standard chamber ENSEMBLE consisting of two VIOLINS, viola, and cello. (2) Multimovement COMPOSITION for this ENSEMBLE.
strain In a MARCH or RAG, a PERIOD, usually of sixteen or thirty-two measures.
strophic Of a poem, consisting of two or more stanzas that are equivalent in form and can each be sung to the same MELODY; of a vocal work, consisting of a strophic poem set to the same music for each stanza.
strophic variation Early seventeenth-century vocal GENRE, a setting of a STROPHIC poem, in which the MELODY of the first stanza is varied but the HARMONIC plan remains essentially the same, although the duration of harmonies may change to reflect the accentuation and meaning of the text.
style luthé (French, "lute style") or style brisé (French, "broken style") Broken or ARPEGGIATED TEXTURE in keyboard and LUTE music from seventeenth-century France. The technique originated with the lute, and the FIGURATION was transferred to the HARPSICHORD.
subdominant In TONAL music, the NOTE and CHORD a fifth below the TONIC.
subject THEME, used especially for the main MELODY used in a RICERCARE, FUGUE, or other IMITATIVE work.
substitute clausula In NOTRE DAME POLYPHONY, a new CLAUSULA (usually in DISCANT style) designed to replace the original polyphonic setting of a particular segment of a CHANT.
suite A set of pieces that are linked together into a single work. During the BAROQUE, a suite usually referred to a set of stylized DANCE pieces.
superius (Latin, "highest") In fifteenth- and sixteenth-century POLYPHONY, the highest part (compare CANTUS).
suspension DISSONANCE created when a NOTE is sustained while another voice moves to form a dissonance with it; the sustained voice descends a STEP to resolve the dissonance.
syllabic Having (or tending to have) one NOTE sung to each syllable of text.
symphonic poem (or tone poem) Term coined by Franz Liszt for a one-movement work of PROGRAM MUSIC for orchestra that conveys a poetic idea, story, scene, or succession of moods by presenting THEMES that are repeated, varied, or transformed.
symphonie concertante A CONCERTO-like GENRE of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries for two or more solo instruments and ORCHESTRA, characterized by its lightheartedness and MELODIC variety.
symphony Large work for ORCHESTRA, usually in four MOVEMENTS.
swing A style of JAZZ originating in the 1930s that was characterized by large ENSEMBLEs and hard-driving jazz rhythms.
synchopation Temporary disruption of METER by beginning a long NOTE on an offbeat and sustaining it through the beginning of the next beat.
synthesizer Electronic instrument that generates and processes a wide variety of sounds.
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