| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Absolute music | Absolute music (sometimes abstract music) is a term used to describe music that is not explicitly "about" anything, non-representational or non-objective. In contrast with program music, absolute music has no words and no references to stories or images or any other kind of extramusical idea. |
| Accent | In music, an accent is an emphasis placed on a particular note, either as a result of its context or specifically indicated by an accent mark. |
| Accidental Music | Accidental Music is a UK indepedent dance and ambient music label formed by musician, writer and producer Morgan King in 2006. |
| Accompaniment | In music, accompaniment is the art of playing along with a soloist or ensemble, often known as the lead, in a supporting manner as well as the music thus played. |
| Acme siren | An acme siren is a percussion instrument used in concert bands for comic effect. Often used in cartoons, it produces the stylized sound of a police siren. |
| Acoustics | Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of sound, ultrasound and infrasound (all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids). |
| Acoustic resonance | Acoustic resonance is the tendency of an acoustic system to absorb more energy when the frequency of its oscillations matches the system's natural frequency of vibration (its resonance frequency) than it does at other frequencies. |
| Action | The action of a stringed instrument is the distance between the fingerboard and the string, which determines how easy it is to sound notes when pressure is applied with the finger tips. |
| Additive meter | In music, additive meter refers to a pattern of beats that subdivide into smaller, irregular groups. It is common in Eastern European musics, and contemporary compositions attempting to emulate such a sound. |
| ADSR envelope | An ADSR envelope is a component of many synthesizers, samplers, and other electronic musical instruments. |
| Aeolian mode | The Aeolian mode is a musical mode or diatonic scale. An Aeolian mode formed part of the music theory of ancient Greece, based around the relative natural scale in A (that is, the same as playing all the 'white notes' of a piano from A to A). Greek theory called this simple scale the Hypodorian mode, and the Aeolian and Locrian modes must have formed different (perhaps chromatic) variations of this. |
| Aerophone | An aerophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes, and without the vibration of the instrument itself adding considerably to the sound. |
| Alberti bass | Alberti bass is a particular kind of accompaniment in music, often used in the classical music era. It was named after Domenico Alberti (1710-1740), who used it extensively, although he was not the first to use it. |
| Aleatoric music | Aleatoric music (also aleatory music or chance music; from the Latin word alea, meaning "dice") is music in which some element of the composition is left to chance or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the determination of its performer(s). |
| Altered chord | In music, an altered chord, an example of alteration, is a chord with one or more diatonic notes replaced by, or altered to, a neighboring pitch in the chromatic scale. |
| Altered scale | In music, an altered scale is a scale in which all of the notes of the scale except the tonic have been flattened (lowered in pitch) by an interval of a half step from a major scale. |
| Alto | Alto is a musical term, derived from the Latin word altus, meaning "high", that has several possible interpretations. When designating instruments, "alto" frequently refers to a member of an instrumental family that has the second highest range, below that of the treble or soprano. In choral music, "alto" describes the second highest voice part in a four-part chorus. |
| American folk music revival | The American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States in the 1950s to mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, of course, since traditional folk music has thousands of years of history, and performers like Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, and Cisco Houston had enjoyed a limited general popularity in decades prior to the 1950s. |
| Analysis | Musical analysis can be defined as an attempt to answer the question how does this music work?. The method employed to answer this question, and indeed exactly what is meant by the question, differs from analyst to analyst, and according to the purpose of the analysis. |
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