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A 440: The sound that is produced when a string or air column vibrates at 440 cycles per second is assigned the pitch value A. Western orchestras tune to A 440.

Acadian: French settlers from Acadia (later named Nova Scotia) who were exiled to Louisiana. See also Cajun.

accent: Stressing a pitch through different types of emphasis, including increased intensity, changes in range or by lengthening duration.

accompaniment: Instrumental support for a foregrounded melody or solo instrument.

accordion: A free aerophone with reeds hidden within two rectangular headboards connected by a folding bellows. Keys or buttons on the right-hand side play melody, while buttons on the left play bass chords.

acoustics: The science explaining the nature of sound.

acrostic: A word spelled by reading down the first letters of the lines of a poem.

Addis Ababa: The capital of Ethiopia.

aerophones: Instruments which sound through the vibration of air. One of the five main classes of instruments in the Sachs-Hornbostel system, subdivided into trumpets and horns, pipes (flutes and reeds), and free aerophones.

African National Congress (ANC): The South African organization, headed by Nelson Mandela, which led the fight against apartheid.

Afrikaaner: A descendant of the Dutch settlers of South Africa.

Afrikaans: A South African language developed from nineteenth-century Dutch.

air: A slow and long main theme, also known as a tune or ground. See also allrd urlar.

air and variations: A musical form where a main theme is repeated with different alterations to its melody, harmony, rhythm, etc.

al-Wahhab, Muhammad ëAbd: Famous Egyptian composer and player of the ëud.

Aleppo: The second largest city in Syria; historical home of the Syrian Jewish community.

Allons ý Lafayette: Recorded in 1928 as the first commercial Cajun ethnic recording.

allrd urlar: A Gaelic term for the ground or melody that is used as the theme in a pibroch.

Amazing Grace: A popular hymn, the text of which is attributed to the eighteenth-century English evangelist and former slave trader, John Newton. See also New Britain.

Amharic: A Semitic language, Amharic is the official language of Ethiopia.

antiphonal: A performance practice which involves alternating between two or more singers or players who may be separated from each other spatially.

Apache Indian: Stage name of Steve Kapur, the singer who developed the bhangramuffin style.

arbor:The circular structure surrounding the courtyard where the powwow is held.

Argentina: Country in southern South America. Birth-country of Astor Piazzolla. See also compadrito, gaucho, organ grinder and tango.

articulation: The manner in which a note is begun or finished. See also slide.

Ashear, Cantor Moses: An Aleppo-born cantor and composer of pizmonim who immigrated to New York City in 1912.