Baroque Vocabulary

5. abrupt alternation between loud and soft dynamic levels; characteristic of Baroque music.
9. in music, to lengthen or widen a melody or chord.
10. bass part of a Baroque accompaniment with figures (numbers) above it indicating the chords to be played.
11. composition for several instrumental soloists and small orchestra; common in late Baroque music.
12. a Baroque keyboard instrument in which sound is produced by means of brass blades striking strings, capable of making gradual dynamic changes, but within a narrow volume range.
15. polyphonic composition based on one main theme, or subject.
16. in Italian, “all;” the full orchestra, or a large group of musicians contrasted with a smaller group; often heard in Baroque music.

1. single tone, usually in the bass, which is held while the other voices produce a series of changing harmonies against it; often found in fugues.
2. variation of a fugue subject in which the subject is presented by beginning with its last note and proceeding backward to the first.
3. compositional procedure used in fugues, in which a subject is imitated before it is completed; one voice tries to catch the other.
4. in Italian, “refrain;” a repeated section of music usually played by the full orchestra in Baroque compositions.
6. in music, to shorten or narrow a melody or chord.
7. literally meaning “bizarre, flamboyant, and elaborately ornamented.”
8. short piece usually serving to introduce a fugue or other composition; a short piece for piano.
13. in music, to reverse the order of a melody or chord.
14. the theme of a fugue.