| Term |
Description |
|---|
| BACH motif | In music, the BACH motif is the sequence of notes B flat, A, C, B natural. |
| Back beat | In music a back beat (also called backbeat) is a term applied to the beats 2 and 4 in a 4/4 bar or a 12/8 bar as opposed to the odd downbeat. In a simple 4/4 rhythm, 1 2 3 4, the 1st beat is the down beat. If beat four immediately precedes a new bar it is also called an upbeat. |
| Balance | In music, balance is the softness or loudness of a note or notes. |
| Ballad | A ballad is a narrative poem, usually set to music; thus, it often is a story told in a song. |
| Ballad opera | The term ballad opera is used to refer to a genre of English stage entertainment - originating in the 18th century and continuing to develop in the following century and later. There are many types of ballad opera. |
| Ballet | 'Ballet' as a musical form is a musical composition intended for ballet performance. The same music can be used for several different ballet choreographies. Until about the second half of the 19th century the role of music in ballet was secondary, with main emphasis being on dance, with music being a compilation of danceable tunes. |
| Bar | In musical notation, a bar or measure is a segment of time defined as a given number of beats of a given duration. |
| Barbershop chorus | A barbershop chorus is a chorus that sings a cappella music in the barbershop style. |
| Barbershop quartet | A barbershop quartet is an ensemble of four people who sing a cappella in the exacting barbershop music genre. |
| Baritone | Baritone (or barytone; French: baryton; German: Bariton; Italian: baritono) is most commonly the type of male voice that lies between bass and tenor. |
| Barline | A bar line (or barline) is a vertical line which separates bars. |
| Baroque music | Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750. |
| Bass | Bass refers a variety of musical instruments that can be collectively regarded as bass instruments since they produce tones that are in the low-pitched range. |
| Bass drum | A bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. |
| Bass flute | The bass flute is the bass member of the flute family. It is in the key of C, pitched one octave below the concert flute. |
| Bass guitar | The electric bass guitar is a bass stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers (either by plucking, slapping, popping, or tapping) or using a pick. |
| Bass line | A bass line (also spelled bassline) is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass or keyboard (piano, Hammond organ, electric organ, or synthesizer). Basslines are in the low-pitched musical register, which is lower in pitch than the other musical parts (chords, instrumental melodies, and vocal melodies). |
| Basso continuo | Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600-1750), were, as the name implies, played continuously throughout a piece, providing the harmonic structure of the music. The word is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing the continuo part, if more than one, are called the continuo group. |
| Baton | A baton is a stick that is used by conductors primarily to indicate the musical beat of a piece through horizontal and vertical movements. |
| Beat | A beat is the basic time unit of a piece of music; for example, each tick sounded by a metronome would correspond to a beat. |
| Beautiful music | Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM / EZ) is a mostly-instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s. |
| Beijing opera | Beijing opera or Peking opera (Chinese: 京劇) is a form of traditional Chinese theatre which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. |
