Choose a letter:

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M

N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - Y - Z

Sachs-Hornbostel system: A system used to classify musical instruments, named in honor of scholars Curt Sachs and Erich von Hornbostel, who developed the system. The five main classes of instruments are: aerophones, chordophones, electrophones, idiophones, and membranophones.

sacred service: The performance of liturgy.

sadhana: A Tibetan Buddhist ritual meditation text.

Santa Lucia: Eighteenth-century Neapolitan song popular in Lower Manhattanís "Little Italy". Its melody was borrowed for the pizmon Mi Zot.

Santa Margherita Ligure Voci DíAlpe: A turn-of-the-twenty-first century Ligurian all-male amateur choir.

Santerìa: A syncretic Afro-Cuban religious and musical practice later transplanted to other places in North America.

saxophone: A Western European single reed aerophone made of metal.

scale: A series of pitches set forth in ascending or descending order. See major scale, minor scale and pentatonic scale.

Scollay Square: A commercial and social center in Boston demolished in the early 1960s to make space for the new Government Center complex.

Scotland: The northern half of Great Britain and adjoining islands including the Isle of Skye.

Scottish Highland bagpipes: The large Scottish outdoor bagpipes which have three drones, a nine-note chanter and a bag filled by mouth through a blowpipe.

Scottish Highlands: The mountainous region in northern Scotland.

scraped idiophones: Idiophones, such as the rubboard, which vibrate as a result of a hand-held tool scraping the notched surface of the idiophone.

Sebet: A Sabbath-afternoon songfest of unaccompanied pizmonim held among Syrian Jews in North America to celebrate a special occasion such as a bar mitzvah, an engagement, a wedding or the arrival of a new child.

seconds: Singing an octave or two above another singer in the Shoshone tradition.

semitone: The smallest interval in Western classical music. There are twelve semitones (Also called "half steps) in the Western octave.

Sephardic: A term which refers to descendants of Spanish Jews who were forced into exile in 1492.

setting: The context of musical performance, ranging from the structure of the performing space to the behavior of those present.

SFX Entertainment: A corporation which manages a large and diverse portfolio of artists and owns and/or operates the largest network of performance facilities in the United States.

shaken idiophones: Idiophones, such as the Ethiopian sistrum, which have sounding parts which strike together when the instrument is shaken.

shape-note: Also called "fasola, a particular kind of nineteenth-century musical notation of American hymns where the shape of the note indicates the pitch it represents.

shawl dance: A dignified traditional dance performed by Native American women with shawls draped over their arms. See also Fancy Shawl dance.

Shoshone: A Great Basin people who migrated to the Plains, some settling in the later nineteenth century on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.

significance: The range of meanings conveyed to musicians and listeners by musical sound and its setting.

sikus: Andean panpipes (aerophone).

Simon Fraser University: A University in Burnaby, British Columbia named after a nineteenth-century explorer of western Canada who was of Scottish descent. Known for its world-champion pipe band.

single reed: A reed which is constructed from a single thin vibrating strip. Examples of single reed instruments include aerophone such as the accordion, saxophone and the clarinet.

sistra (senasel): [sing. sistrum] Ethiopian Christian shaken idiophones.

Skye, Isle of: An island off of the northwestern coast of Scotland. Home to the MacCrimmons.

slide: A motion linking pitches. Characteristic technique of the Hawaiian steel guitar. See also glide and rekrek.

smallpipes: Bagpipes, such as the Irish Uilleann pipes , with a low sound intensity which are usually played indoors. The bag is generally filled by a bellows rather than by mouth.

sojourner: A person who migrates with the intent to stay for a while and then to return home.

solo: Literally "alone, in Italian", solo refers to musical sound that is produced by only one singer or instrumentalist, either individually or with the accompaniment of a larger ensemble.

sonata form: A Western classical music form which consists of an "exposition in which themes are presented, a contrasting development section where the themes are elaborated upon and a recapitulation where the main themes return.

song cycle: Songs that are composed or performed as a set, sometimes because they have texts by the same poet or are written as a unit by the composer.

Sontonga, Enoch Mankayi: The evangelist from the Xhosa people who composed the South African hymn, Nkosi Sikelelí iAfrika in 1897.

sound: Vibrations in frequencies of the audible spectrum (from 20Hz to 20kHz). Musical vibrations can be produced by the human voice, by instruments, or by electronic resources. Sound can be described in acoustical terms as having four basic characteristics: quality, pitch, duration and intensity.

soundscape: The distinctive settings, sounds and significances of a musical culture.

soundscape cluster: Closely-related soundscapes that share sounds, settings and significances.

South Africa: The country in southern-most Africa.

spiritual: A genre which emerged from the musical expression of slaves converted to New World Christianity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

stamped idiophones: Idiophones that are stamped on, suchas pits, boards, pots, beams, mortars or slit-drums.

stamping idiophones: Idiophones which are hit on the ground in a vertical motion, such as sticks, tubes or gourds.

steel guitar: An electromechanical instrument derived from the guitar, usually played flat like a zither. Characteristic sounds of the steel guitar include a pronounced vibrato, slides and "palm harmonics" or "chimes". See also Moe Family.

strathspey: A kind of reel which is slower and has more elaborate melodies and ornaments than a simple reel.

strophic form: A form in which subsequent verses of text are set to the same melody. Strophic form can include a refrain which recurs between the verses.

struck idiophones: Idiophones such as the triangle which are struck by a hand-held tool such as a stick.

subculture: People who share a common identity and related practice whether based on ethnicity, religion, language, or generation, that is perceived as distinct from the predominant culture in a given society. Contrast with interculture and superculture.

Sunday School Songs: A repertory of Ethiopian Christian hymns which emerged in the early 1990s with texts primarily in Amharic instead of Ge'ez.

superculture: Mark Slobinís term for the sphere of musical interaction which involves the power of the state and international industries as well as the assumptions and expectations they generate. Contrast with subculture and interculture.

sygyt: A type of khoomii which is sung in a high register with clear overtones that sound like whistling.

syllabic text setting: A text setting in which each syllable of text is sung to one pitch.

syncopation: A rhythmic effect which provides an unexpected accent, often by temporarily unsettling the meter through a change in the established pattern of stressed and unstressed beats.

synthesizer: While technically referring to any radioelectric instrument or digital electronic instrument, a modern synthesizer is generally self-contained with a performance interface, sound editing controls and sound generation circuitry.