2.6: Glossary
A cappella – vocal music without instrumental accompaniment
Cadence – the ending of a musical phrase providing a sense of closure, often through the use of one chord that resolves to another
Chant – text set to a melody written in monophonic texture with un-notated rhythms typically used in religious worship
Courtly Love – love for a beloved, without any concern for whether or not the love will be returned, called “courtly” because it was praised by those participating in medieval courts
Drone – a sustained pitch or pitches often found in music of the middle ages or earlier and in folk music
Hymn – religious song most generally having multiple strophes of the same number and length of lines and using strophic form
Mass – Catholic celebration of the Eucharist consisting of liturgical texts set to music by composers starting in the middle ages
Melisma – multiple pitches sung to one syllable of text
Polyphony – musical texture that simultaneously features two or more relatively independent and important melodic lines
Refrain – a repeating musical section, generally also with repeated text; sometimes called a “chorus” Rhythm According to the
Text – rhythm that follows the rhythm of the text and is not notated
Song – a composition sung by voice(s)
Strophe – section of a poem or lyric text generally of a set number of lines and line length; a text may have multiple strophes
Strophic – musical form in which all verses or strophes of a song are sung to the same music
Syllabic – music in which each syllable of a text is set to one musical note Verse and Refrain
Form – a musical form (sometimes referred to as verse and chorus) in which one section of music is sung to all the verses and a different section of music is sung to the repeating refrain or chorus