| Term | Description |
|---|
| Pitch | Pitch is the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. While the actual fundamental frequency can be precisely determined through physical measurement, it may differ from the perceived pitch because of overtones, or partials, in the sound. |
| Pitch class | In music, a pitch class is a set of all pitches that are a whole number of octaves apart, e.g. the pitch class C consists of the Cs in all octaves. |
| Pitch space | In music theory, pitch spaces model relationships between pitches. These models typically use distance to model the degree of relatedness, with closely related pitches placed near one another, and less closely related pitches placed farther apart. |
| Pizzicato | Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of an instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of stringed instrument. |
| Plainsong | Broadly speaking, plainsong (also known as plainchant) is the name given to the body of traditional songs used in the liturgies of the Roman Catholic Church. |
| Polonaise | The polonaise (Polish: polonez, chodzony; Italian: polacca) is a rather slow dance of Polish origin, in 3/4 time. Its name is French for "Polish." |
| Polyphony | In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). |
| Polyrhythm | Polyrhythm is the simultaneous sounding of two or more independent rhythms. Polyrhythms can be distinguished from irrational rhythms, which can occur within the context of a single part; polyrhythms require at least two rhythms to be played concurrently, one of which is typically an irrational rhythm. |
| Polytonality | The musical use of more than one key simultaneously is polytonality. |
| Popular music | Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more of the mass media. |
| Portamento | Portamento is a musical term primarily denoting a vocal slide between two pitches and its emulation by instruments such as the violin, and in 16th century polyphonic writing refers to an ornamental figure. It is also applied to one type of glissando as well as to the "slide" or "bend" functions of synthesizers. |
| Postmodern music | Postmodern music is both a musical style and a musical condition. As a musical style, postmodern music contains characteristics of postmodern art—that is, art after modernism (see Modernism in Music). |
| Power trio | The power trio is a rock and roll band format popularized in the 1960s. The traditional power trio has a lineup of guitar, bass and drums, leaving out the rhythm guitar or keyboard often featured in other rock music. In more recent years, the term has become generally applied to any sort of three-person band. |
| Prelude | A prelude is a short piece of music, usually in no particular introduction to succeeding movements of a work that are usually longer and more complex. It generally features a single rhythmic and melodic motif that is used in every measure throughout the piece. |
| Premiere | The word premiere (or première, from the French première, "first") generally means "a first performance". |
| Program music | Program music is a form of art music intended to evoke extra-musical ideas, images in the mind of the listener by musically representing a scene, image or mood. |
| Prolongation | In music, especially Schenkerian analysis, a prolongation creates the detail of a musical composition by elaborating the background structure. Prolongations include diminutions. |
