| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| C major | C major (often just C or key of C) is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps. |
| Cadence | In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin cadentia, "a falling") is a particular series of intervals or chords that end a phrase, section, or piece of music. |
| Cadenza | In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display. |
| Caesura | A sudden silencing of the sound; a pause or break, indicated by the symbol: // |
| Call and response | In music, a call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first. |
| Canon | In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e.g. quarter rest, one measure, etc.). The initial melody is called the leader, while the imitative melody is called the follower which is played in a different voice. |
| Cantabile | Cantabile is a musical term meaning literally "singable" or "songlike" (Italian). It has several meanings in different contexts. In instrumental music, it indicates a particular style of playing designed to imitate the human voice. For 18th century composers, the term is often used synonymously with "cantando" (singing), and indicates a measured tempo and flexible, legato playing. For later composers, particularly in piano music, cantabile indicates the drawing out of one particular musical line against the accompaniment (compare counterpoint). |
| Cantata | A cantata (Italian, 'sung') is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment and generally containing more than one movement. |
| Cantor | A cantor or chanter (Gk. ψάλτης) is the chief singer (and ofttimes instructor) employed in a church with responsibilities for the ecclesiastical choir; also called the precentor. |
| Canzona | In music, a canzona was a 16th-century multipart vocal setting of a literary canzone and a 16th- and 17th-century instrumental composition. |
| Canzone | Literally "song" in Italian, a canzone (plural: canzoni) (cognate with English to chant) is an Italian or Provençal song or ballad. It is also used to describe a type of lyric which resembles a madrigal. |
| Capo | A capo (short for capotasto, Italian for "head of fretboard", also called a fret lobster or cheater bar) is a device used for shortening the strings, and hence raising the pitch, of a stringed instrument such as a guitar, mandolin or banjo. |
| Capriccio | A capriccio or caprice (sometimes plural: caprices, capri or, in italian, capricci), is a piece of music, usually fairly free in form and of a lively character. The typical capriccio is one that is fast, intense, and often virtuostic in nature. |
| Carol | A carol is a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with church worship, and often with a dance-like or popular character. |
| Cassation | Cassation is a minor form consisting of a suite of 18th Century short musical works, usually played outside, and almost always beginning with a march. These suites could have up to seven movements. Haydn, Mozart and Dittersdorf all wrote in this form. |
| Castrato | A castrato is a male soprano, mezzo-soprano, or alto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or one who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity. |
| Catch | A catch or trick canon is a type of round - a musical composition in which two or more voices (usually at least three) repeatedly sing the same melody or sometimes slightly different melodies, beginning at different times. |
| Catgut | Catgut is the name applied to cord of great toughness and tenacity prepared from the intestines of the sheep or goat, or occasionally from those of the hog, horse, mule, pig, and donkey. For a long time, the substance was the de facto material for the strings of harps, violins, and viols, as well as other stringed musical instruments, although most musical instruments produced today utilize steel strings. |
| Cavatina | Cavatina (Italian diminutive of cavata, the producing of tone from an instrument, plural cavatine) is a musical term, originally a short song of simple character, without a second strain or any repetition of the air. It is now frequently applied to a simple melodious air, as distinguished from a brilliant aria, recitative, etcetera, and often forms part of a large movement or scena in oratorio or opera. |
| Cell | In music a cell is similar to a figure or motif. Cell is a term in musical composition, used to discuss cyclic works. It is the smallest indivisible unit; the cell is distinct from the motif, which can be divided; the cell can, itself, be used as a developmental motif. |
| Celtic music | Celtic music is a term utilized by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic peoples of Northern Europe. |
| Chaconne | In music, a chaconne (Italian: ciaccona) is a musical form whose primary formal feature involves variation on a repeated short harmonic progression. |
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