Terms & Concepts

"The Greek language itself made no distinction between art and craft: both were called technē; a great work of art was simply an exceptional piece of workmanship (aristourgēma)."

–  "Western painting," in Britannica Academic {BA}

Below you will find a listing of terms and concepts we will encounter in the readings and lectures, with links to definitions in online music dictionaries, and encyclopedias.

1. Basso continuo (abbr. continuo) {BA; Grove}
• See also:
• Thoroughbass {Grove}
• Figured bass {Grove}
2. Bicinium {WP}
3. Cadence {BA; Grove}
   
4. Canon {BA; HD; Grove}
• Round {BA}
• Prolation canon {WP}
• Puzzle canon {WP}
• Multiple canon
• Double canon, triple canon, etc.
5. Cantus firmus (Lat.) {BA}
6. Chanson {BA; Grove}
7. Chant, plainchant, or plainsong {BA; Grove}
• Gregorian chant {BA; Grove}
• Final {Grove}
  
• Mode (see Mode)
• Reciting tone {WP}
• Syllabic, neumatic, melismatic
8. Chiavette {WP}
   
9. Chorale {BA; Grove}
10. Chromaticism {BA}
    
11. Clausula {BA; Grove}
12. Clefs {WP}
    
13. Contrapuntal motion {WP}
    
• Parallel
• Similar
• Contrary
• Oblique
  
14. Counterpoint {BA; HD; Grove; OB}
• 16th-century counterpoint (Benjamin 2005; See also Gauldin 2013a)
• Modal, vocal
• Species counterpoint {HD} (Fux 1725)
• 18th-century counterpoint (Benjamin 2003; See also Gauldin 2013b)
• Tonal, instrumental
• Free, or harmonic, counterpoint {Grove} (Kennan 1999)
• 20th-century counterpoint (Owen 1992; See also: Searle 1954)
• Block counterpoint {Rogers 1995; Straus 2024}
• Dissonant counterpoint {Grove; Spilker 2011}
• Linear counterpoint (Kurth 1917; Galkin 2021)
• Twelve-tone counterpoint {Krenek 1940; Webern 1963; Mead 1994}
  
• Micropolyphony {WP} (Ligeti 1960)
  
• Polystylism {WP} (Schnittke 1971)
• Polyphony in contemporary popular idioms {Hanson 2024}
• Other
• Pärt, Tintinnabuli {Tokun 2011}
  
• Reich, Counterpoint Series {SteveReich.com}
15. Emancipation of the dissonance {WP} (Schoenberg 1984)
16. Form {BA}
• Before 1600
• Formes fixes {WP} (Taruskin and Gibbs 2012)
• Ballade: aab[C]
• Rondeau: ABaAabAB
• Virelai: AbbaA
• Trecento song forms {WP} (Taruskin and Gibbs 2012, p. 119)
• Ballata: AbbaA
• Madrigal: aa[a]b
• After 1600
• Binary form {BA}
• Ternary form (BA)
• Rondo form {BA}
• Sonata form {BA} (Hepokoski and Darcy 2011)
• Variation form {BA}
17. Fugue {BA; HD; Grove}
• Precursors of fugue:
• Canzona {Grove}
• Ricercare {Grove}
• Simple fugue
• Multiple fugue
• Double fugue, triple fugue, etc.
• Fugato
18. Galant schemata {WP} (Gjerdingen 2007)
19. Harmony {Grove} (Cohn 2026 et al.)
    
• Bach (Benjamin 1986, Appendix 1)
  
• Basso continuo (see above)
• Interval constellations (after Remeš)
• Centricity (Kleppinger 2011)
  
• Common-practice tonality
  
• Tonality {Grove} (Hyer 2001)
  
• Twentieth-Century Harmony (Persichetti 1961)
  
20. Homophony {BA; Grove}
    
• Homorhythmic {HD}
• Melody and accompaniment
21. Imitation {HD; Grove}
22. Invention {BA; Grove}
23. Invertible counterpoint {HD}
• Double counterpoint
• Triple counterpoint
24. Isorhythm {BA; Grove}
25. Layer {Grove}
• Textural layers
• Polyphonic layers
26. Madrigal {BA}
27. Mass {BA; Grove}
• Cantus firmus mass
• Parody mass
• Paraphrase mass
28. Melody {BA; Grove}
29. Mensural notation {BA; WP}
    
30. Micropolyphony {WP}
    
31. Minimalism {Grove}
32. Mode {Grove}
33. Modulation {BA}
34. Monody {BA}
35. Motet {BA; Grove}
36. Motif, or motive {Grove}
• Leitmotif {Grove}
  
37. Music of the:
• Middle Ages {HD}
• Renaissance {HD}
• Baroque {HD}
• Classical period {HD}
• Romantic period {HD}
• Twentieth-Century {HD}
38. Notation
• III. History of Western notation
  
• Plainchant {Grove}
  
• Mensural notation {BA; Grove; WP}
39. Organum {BA; Grove; WP}
    
40. Partimento {Grove; Partimenti.org}
    
41. Phrase {Grove}
    
• Period {Grove}
  
• Sentence {Grove}
  
42. Polyphony {BA}
• Micropolyphony {WP}
• Textural polyphony (Owen 1992)
  
43. Polystylism {WP}
    
44. Psychology of music {Grove} (Margulis 2018)
    History | Perception and Cognition | Affect | Performance
    
• Bregman, Auditory scene analysis {WP} (Bregman 1990)
• Deutsch, Illusions and Research {UCSD}
  
• Gestalt psychology {BA}
45. Quodlibet {BA}
    
46. Recitative {BA}
47. Rhythm & meter
• Meter {Grove}
• Hypermeter {Hein 2024}
• Rhythmic modes {BA; Grove}
48. Rule of the Octave {Grove}
    
49. Style analysis {Grove} (LaRue 1970; See also: Meyer 1980)
    
• Sound
• Harmony
• Melody
• Rhythm
• Growth
• ---
• Text influence
50. Symphony {BA; Grove}
51. Technē (Greek)
• See Western painting {BA}
52. Tessitura {Grove}
    
53. Texture {Grove}
• Monophony {BA}
• Polyphony (see above)
• Homophony (see above)
  
• Hetrophony {BA}
54. Theme {Grove}
    
55. Twelve-note serialism {Grove} (Straus 2016)
    
• Serialism {BA; HD; Grove}
• Serial operations: P, R, I & RI
• Pointillism {WP}
• Klangfarbenmelodie (Ger.) {Grove}
• Hauptstimme/Nebenstimme signs (Ger.) {Grove}
56. Voice leading [part-writing] {Grove} (Huron 2016)
57. Word painting {Grove}
    

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

1. Britannica Academic {BA}
2. Harvard Dictionary {HD} - *
3. Grove Music Online {Grove} - *
4. Wikipedia {WP}

See also: EBSCO Music Research Starters

History of Western Music

1. Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century {Full text: TCL}
   
2. Music in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries {Full text: TCL}
   
3. Music in the Nineteenth Century {Full text: TCL}
   
4. Music in the Early Twentieth Century {Full text: TCL}
5. Music in the Late Twentieth Century {Full text: TCL}

* - USC proxy server login required

References

See: MUSC 726A Bibliography

Updated: September 8, 2026