Symbols

• fz: fortzando – Big accent/ Hard accent

• sfz: sfortzando
• a2: Unison – both parts together
• : Grace note (accatciatura) – crushed note
• : Appogiatura – takes half the notes value
• ppp: Pianississimo – very, very soft
• pp: pianissimo – very soft
• p: soft
• mp: Mezzo piano – moderately soft
• mf: Mezzo forte – moderately loud
• f: Forte – loud
• ff: Fortissimo – very loud
• < : cresc. – crescendo – gradually getting louder
 : decresc. – gradually becoming softer
• Dim. : diminuendo – gradually becoming softer
• Tr. : trill – Play written note alternated quickly with the next note (in the
scale) above
• : mordent – play the note, then the next note up, then the note again.

• : inverted mordent – instead of it is

• : turn <- this rhythm can be different depending on
the era and the composer.

• : inverted turn
• : mordent turn
• Molto espress – Molto meaning much/very and espress meaning expressive
• Legato e sostenuto – smooth and sustained (in a smooth manner)
• Sul G – play on the g string
• Allargando – broadening, becoming slower
• Mesto – sad
• Sempre – always
• Leggiere – lightly
• Con sordini – with mute
• Dolce – sweetly
• Ma marcarto (Ma – but), Marcarto – marked – to be played in a prominent
manner
• Sonore – sonorously
• Soli – solo
• Scherzo – a joke – a lively movement
 • Lunga – Long pause

• Tacent – don’t play

• Subito – immediately/suddenly

• Poco – little
• Sfp dim. – hit it hard, come back to p and then trail off
• Con fuoco – with fire
• Largamente et espress – Broadly (spacious and deliberate style) and expressive
• Come prima – as at first as the opening
• : harmonics
• Stringendo – tightening – increase tention of the music (in effect to increase
speed)
• Flote nehmen – change to flute/pick up flute
• Blechern – Brassy
• Niente – nothing
• Dim. a niente – softer until silent
• Tutti – all together
• div.: divisi – parts divided (usually used after a.2)
• : repeat previous bar
• An ‘x’ sross means a note of indefinite pitch
• Damp – put something over drum
• Piu – more
- 2 octaves higher/lower

Articulation – how notes are played

• : Staccato – ½ written value
• : accent – make it different – stand out from all the rest
• : agogic accent – make the note stand out by playing full value (this commonly
mistaken or reffered to as tenuto ten. – which just means to play the full value)
• : hat accent – short accent
• : slur – play legato, smooth and joined
• : play quavers – saves writing out heaps of quavers
• : play semiquavers
• : tremolo – as fast as you can
• Pizz.: pizzicato – plucking
• Arco.: bow the strings

Expression Marks –Italian words & Tempo Terms

 • Allegro – Lively
• Moderato – moderately
• Andante – easy going walking pace
• Largo – slow
• Adagio – slow
• Lento – broad
• Vivace – quick
• Presto – fast
• Rit. – ritardando – gradually becoming slower

ADD-ONS

• ‘issimo’ – greatly or extremely

• ‘etto’ – a little
• ‘mente’ – more

Eg. Pretissimo – Extremely fast

Allegretto – a little lively
Largemente – more broad

Forms
• Ternary - ABA
• Binary – AB
• Rondo - ABACA

Textures

• Monophonic - Unison
• Homophonic - Same rhythm different notes
• Polyphonic – different parts doing different things

Clefs
- Alto Clef

- Tenor Clef

- G Clef

- C Clef
 - Vocal tenor clef – played an octave lower

Time Signatures – Metre

• Simple Time – each beat is divided into 2 -
• Compound Time – each beat is divided into 3 -

Examples:
• 2/4 - Duple simple time
• 3/4 - Triple simple time
• 4/4 - Duple simple time
• 6/8 – Duple compound time (2 notes divided into 3)

Instruments
• Fagotti - Bassoons
• Corni – Horns (more correctly French horn)
• Harfe – harp
• Geige – violin
• Clarino – trumpet
• Clarinetten – clarinet
• Flote – Flute
• Piatti – Cymbals
• Tromboni – Trombone
• Paukeu – Timpani
• Basso – Bass
• KontraBass – Bass
• Trompete – Trumpets
• Posause – trombone
• Clarinetti – clarinet

Standard order of orchestral instruments

 • Voice
• Woodwind
• Brass
• Percussion
• Strings

Compositional devices
• Repetition
• Sequence
• Exact sequence - exactly the same thing (repetition)
• Musical sequence - not exactly the same thing eg. Different notes, same pattern
• Chromatic movement
• Inversion
• Canon: a melody followed by one or more imitations after a certain duration eg.
Quaver rest
• Instrumental imitation: making one instrument sound like another instrument
• Layering: Building up by adding parts one by one
• Retrograde - backwards
• Transformation - changing something about the music to change the character of
it
• Embellishment - Ornamenting things without changing the main material
• Augmentation - Play in half speed eg a quaver turns into a crotchet
• Diminution - double time
• Mirroring - to do on another side - same thing somewhere else
• Isolation - taking one aspect of the motif and leave the rest
• Inversion: Harmonic inversion - Interval inverted e.g. 3rd turns into 6th
Melodic inversion - flipping melody

Ornaments
• Trill
• Scalic passages/Scalic runs
• Passing notes
• Auxilary notes
• Glissando
• Accaciatura
• Appogatura
Terms
• Hemiola - fitting 2 notes in the space of 3 or 3 notes in the space of 2
• Ostinato - short passage of notes repeated
• Motif - short musical idea
• Pedal note - bass note held for a long time
• Imitation - one part copying another part
• Glissando - sliding between notes
• Variation - changing a musical idea slightly
• Cadenza - solo
• Cluster chords - a bunch of notes
• 12 tone row - every note in the octave
• Melisma - googly solo bit usually used at the end of songs. Look for parts that are
a little different
• Harmonic structure - chords around melody

• Irregular rhythms - where you can’t really follow it or it doesn’t fit into the time
signature

• Non-tonal harmony - have things that don’t fir together in the key (dischords) eg.
Treble playing in Bb major (bb) whilst the bass clef is playing in A major (###)

• First - Tonic
• Second - Supertonic
• Third - Mediant
• Fourth - Subdominant
• Fifth - Dominant
• Sixth - Submediant
• Seventh - Leading note

Modulation

When moving into another key, there will be a perfect cadence in the new key before
moving on. For example: if you are moving from Cmaj to Fmaj the cadence would be
C7 - F
When modulating into the subdominant like so, it can be good to make the 5th chord of
the new key (tonic of the original) a dominant 7th. Not doing this could make it look like
you were doing a chord progression of I IV instead of a perfect cadence in the new key.
Chords
I - normal chord e.g. FAC
Ib - 1st inversion e.g. ACF (3rd at the bottom)
Ic - 2nd inversion e.g. CFA (5th at the bottom)

Dominant 7th chord - flat the 7th

Major 7th chord - just add the 7th
Minor 7th chord - flat 3rd, flat 7th

Examples:
Eb Bb Gb - Eb major
C Eb Ab - Ab major in first inversion
C Eb Ab F - F minor 7

Defining Eras

• Always listen out for scales and instrumentation

• 20th century impressionistic - leaves interpretation up to the listeners and if you

hear lots of minor 3rds it’s usually pentatonic
- Dischords
- Vague
- Abstract music creating a scene

• Classical - doesn’t have far out chords, stays in key

- standard chord sequence
- compare music to composers of that era if possible

o Baroque - segmented
- use of harpsichord
- ornamentation (trills and so forth)