tablature A system of NOTATION used for LUTE or other plucked string instrument that tells the player which strings to pluck and where to place the fingers on the strings, rather than indicating which NOTES will result. Tablatures were also used for keyboard instruments until the seventeenth century.
tabor See PIPE AND TABOR.
talea (Latin, "cutting"; pronounced TAH-lay-ah) In an ISORHYTHMIC COMPOSITION, an extended rhythmic pattern repeated one or more times, usually in the TENOR. Compare COLOR.
temperament Any system of tuning NOTES in the SCALE in which pitches are adjusted to make most or all INTERVALS sound well, though perhaps not in perfect tune.
tempo (Italian, "time") Speed of performance, or relative pace of the music.
tempo di mezzo (Italian, "middle movement") The operatic scene structure developed by Gioachino Rossini in the early nineteenth century, the middle section of an ARIA or ENSEMBLE, usually an interruption or a TRANSITION, that falls between the CANTABILE and the CABALETTA.
tempus (Latin, "time"; pl. tempora) In medieval systems of NOTATION, the basic time unit. See also MODE, TIME, AND PROLATION.
tenor (from Latin tenere, "to hold") (1) In a MODE or CHANT, the RECITING TONE. (2) In POLYPHONY of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the voice part that has the chant or other borrowed MELODY, often in long-held NOTES. (3) Male voice of a relatively high range.
tenor mass CANTUS-FIRMUS MASS.
termination In a PSALM TONE, the CADENCE that marks the end of the PSALM VERSE.
ternary form A FORM in three main sections, in which the first and third are identical or closely related and the middle section is contrasting, creating an ABA pattern.
tetrachord (from Greek, "four strings") (1) In Greek and medieval theory, a SCALE of four NOTES spanning a perfect fourth. (2) In modern theory, a SET of four pitches or PITCH-CLASSES. (3) In TWELVE-TONE theory, the first four, middle four, or last four notes in the ROW.
text depiction Using musical gestures to reinforce or suggest images in a text, such as rising on the word "ascend."
text expression Conveying or suggesting through musical means the emotions expressed in a text.
texture The combination of elements in a piece or passage, such as the number and relationship of independent parts (as in MONOPHONY, HETEROPHONY, POLYPHONY, or HOMOPHONY), groups (as in POLYCHORAL music), or musical events (as in relatively dense or transparent sonorities).
theme Musical subject of a COMPOSITION or section, or of a set of VARIATIONS.
thematic transformation A method devised by Franz Liszt to provide unity, variety, and a narrative-like logic to a composition by transforming the thematic material into new THEMES or other elements, in order to reflect the diverse moods needed to portray a PROGRAMMATIC subject.
theorbo Large LUTE with extra BASS strings, used especially in the seventeenth century for performing BASSO CONTINUO as accompaniment to singers or instruments.
thoroughbass BASSO CONTINUO.
through-composed Composed throughout, as when each stanza or other unit of a poem is set to new music rather than in a STROPHIC manner to a single MELODY.
tiento Spanish IMPROVISATORY-style instrumental piece that features IMITATION, akin to the sixteenth-century FANTASIA.
timbre or tone color Characteristic color or sound of an instrument or voice.
time signature Sign or numerical proportion, such as 3/4, placed at the beginning of a piece, section, or MEASURE to indicated the METER.
Tin Pan Alley (1) Jocular name for a district in New York where numerous publishers specializing in POPULAR SONGS were located from the 1880s through the 1950s. (2) Styles of American popular song from that era.
toccata (Italian, "touched") Piece for keyboard instrument or LUTE resembling an IMPROVISATION that may include IMITATIVE sections or may serve as a PRELUDE to an independent FUGUE.
tonal Operating within the system of TONALITY.
tonality The system, common since the late seventeenth century, by which a piece of music is organized around a TONIC NOTE, CHORD, and KEY, to which all the other notes and keys in the piece are subordinate.
tone (1) A sound of definite pitch. (2) See WHOLE STEP.
tone cluster Term coined by Henry Cowell for a CHORD of DIATONIC or CHROMATIC seconds.
tone color See TIMBRE.
tone poem SYMPHONIC POEM, or a similar work for a medium other than ORCHESTRA.
tonic (1) The first and central NOTE of a MAJOR or MINOR SCALE. (2) The main KEY of a piece or MOVEMENT, in which the piece or movement begins and ends and to which all other keys are subordinate.
tonos (pl. tonoi) Ancient Greek term used with different meanings by various writers; one meaning is a particular set of pitches within a certain RANGE or region of the voice.
topics Term for the different and contrasting styles in Classic-era music that serve as subjects for musical discourse.
total serialism The application of the principles of the TWELVE-TONE METHOD to musical parameters other than pitch, including duration, intensities, and TIMBRES. See SERIAL MUSIC.
Tract (from Latin tractus, "drawn out") Item in the MASS PROPER that replaces the ALLELUIA on certain days in Lent, comprising a series of PSALM VERSES.
tragédie en musique (French, "tragedy in music"; later tragédie lyrique, "lyric tragedy") French seventeenth- and eighteenth-century form of OPERA, pioneered by Jean-Baptiste Lully, that combined the French classic drama and BALLET traditions with music, DANCES, and spectacles.
transcription Arrangement of a piece for an instrumental medium different from the original, such as a reduction of an ORCHESTRAL score for PIANO.
transition (1) In the EXPOSITION of a MOVEMENT in SONATA FORM, the passage between the first and second THEMES that effects the MODULATION to a new KEY. (2) More generally, a passage between two MOVEMENTS or SECTIONS of a work.
transverse flute Flute blown across a hole in the side of the pipe and held to one side of the player; used for medieval, RENAISSANCE, and BAROQUE forms of the flute to distinguish it from the RECORDER, which is blown in one end and held in front.
treble (French, "triple") (1) A high voice or a part written for high voice, especially the highest part in three-part POLYPHONY of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. (2) Pertaining to the highest voice.
treble-dominated style Style common in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in which the main MELODY is in the CANTUS, the upper voice carrying the text, supported by a slower-moving TENOR and CONTRATENOR.
Trecento (Italian, short for mille trecento, "one thousand three hundred"; pronounced treh-CHEN-toh) The 1300s (the fourteenth century), particularly with reference to Italian art, literature, and music of the time.
triad CHORD consisting of two successive thirds (for instance, C-E-G), or any INVERSION of such a chord.
trill Rapid alternation between a NOTE and another HALF STEP or WHOLE STEP above.
trio (1) Piece for three players or singers. (2) The second of two alternating DANCES, in the Classic-era MINUET AND TRIO FORM. (3) The second main section of a MARCH.
trio sonata Common instrumental GENRE during the BAROQUE PERIOD, a SONATA for two TREBLE instruments (usually VIOLINS) above a BASSO CONTINUO. A performance featured four or more players if more than one was used for the continuo part.
triple motet Thirteenth-century MOTET in four voices, with a different text in each voice above the TENOR.
triplum (from Latin triplus, "triple") (1) In POLYPHONY of the late twelfth through fourteenth centuries, third voice from the bottom in a three- or four-voice TEXTURE, added to a TENOR and DUPLUM. (2) In NOTRE DAME POLYPHONY, an ORGANUM in three voices.
tritone INTERVAL spanning three WHOLE TONES or six SEMITONES, such as F to B.
trobairitz (from Occitan trobar, "to compose a song") A female TROUBADOUR.
trope Addition to an existing CHANT, consisting of (1) words and MELODY; (2) a MELISMA; or (3) words only, set to an existing melisma or other melody.
troubadour (from Occitan trobar, "to compose a song") A poet-composer of southern France who wrote MONOPHONIC songs in Occitan (langue d'oc) in the twelfth or thirteenth century.
trouvère (from Old French trover, "to compose a song") A poet-composer of northern France who wrote MONOPHONIC songs in Old French (langue d'oïl) in the twelfth or thirteenth century.
tutti (Italian, "all") (1) In both the SOLO CONCERTO and the CONCERTO GROSSO, designates the full ORCHESTRA. Also called RIPIENO (Italian, "full"). (2) Instruction to an ENSEMBLE that all should play.
twelve-bar blues Standard formula for the BLUES, with a HARMONIC PROGRESSION in which the first four-measure PHRASE is on the TONIC, the second phrase begins on the SUBDOMINANT and ends on the tonic, and the third phrase starts on the DOMINANT and returns to the tonic.
twelve-tone method A form of ATONALITY based on the systematic ordering of the twelve notes of the CHROMATIC scale into a ROW that may be manipulated according to certain rules.
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