# Easily confused musical terms.



## drmdjones (Dec 25, 2018)

Hi, I am interested in hearing about musical terms that not only have specific musical meanings, but also extra-musical meanings or multiple meanings that make them potentially confusing.

To get the ball rolling I offer the following:

Harmony
Tonality
Sonata
Imitation


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I think most musical terms will qualify, unfortunately. Counterpoint and rhythm are another couple of examples.


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## fliege (Nov 7, 2017)

The Wikipedia pages seem good on those. I guess you want to look up counterpoint instead of "imitation". It might be more direct for you to explain what you find confusing than to ask the forum to simply echo information that is already out there.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

_obbligato_: it seems to mean either obligatory or optional depending on which way the wind's blowing. And why two bbs?

_Allé _in French is a bit like that -- it can either mean come here or go away depending on something only French people understand. _έλα_ is like that too in Greek as far as I can see.


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## Guest (Apr 23, 2019)

Mandryka said:


> _obbligato_: it seems to mean either obligatory or optional depending on which way the wind's blowing. And why two bbs?
> 
> *Allé in French is a bit like that* -- it can either mean come here or go away depending on something only French people understand. _έλα_ is like that too in Greek as far as I can see.


Er, nope. You mean, I think, *allez*!
Perhaps you meant _*Allée*_, which in FR means an alley.
*Allez*, Mandryka !!


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## Guest (Apr 23, 2019)

Mandryka said:


> _obbligato_: it seems to mean either obligatory or optional depending on which way the wind's blowing.* And why two bbs?*
> 
> _Allé _in French is a bit like that -- it can either mean come here or go away depending on something only French people understand. _έλα_ is like that too in Greek as far as I can see.


And why two bbs? Whyy nott?


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

TalkingHead said:


> Er, nope. You mean, I think, *allez*!
> Perhaps you meant _*Allée*_, which in FR means an alley.
> *Allez*, Mandryka !!


C'est ça, _ALLEZ GRIZOU !!! _

It's not the imperative of Aller, it's its own thing. You can say correctly I think

_Allez papa, si tu es champion, appuie sur le champignon!_


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## drmdjones (Dec 25, 2018)

fliege said:


> The Wikipedia pages seem good on those. I guess you want to look up counterpoint instead of "imitation". It might be more direct for you to explain what you find confusing than to ask the forum to simply echo information that is already out there.


I don't find these terms confusing, for the most part. But "lay people" often do, and even some musicians who may not know a lot about specific analytical jargon such as Schenker's terms: foreground, background, interruption, etc., or atonal analytical terms such as aggregate.

Inversion is another good one.

It occurs to me that if a musical term has a "real-world" meaning that this probably existed before the musical application of this term. We therefore use many of these terms metaphorically.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

This may be the case to bemoan yet again the parlous mis-use of 'crescendo' in general speech. 
As in "The standing ovation for Malignia Trump reached a crescendo". 
No, it didn't. 
The crescendo of applause reached its ecstatic, deafening peak. 

See also 'andante' and 'al dente'


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## Thomyum2 (Apr 18, 2018)

I find that people often conflate the terms _rhythm_, _tempo_, and _meter_ in common language use.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Thomyum2 said:


> I find that people often conflate the terms _rhythm_, _tempo_, and _meter_ in common language use.


rhythm and pulse certainly.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

"Andantino." Is it faster or slower than "andante"? No one seems to know. Of course no one knows how fast "andante," is either; it means "at a walking pace," but how fast do you walk?


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## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

drmdjones said:


> Inversion is another good one.


Do you mean that you believe that many people find the term _inversion_ to be confusing when it's used in musical contexts?

I'd say it's one of the more straightforward terms when used to describe the rearrangement of the pitches of, for example, diatonic chords or the notes in a twelve-tone tone row. Perhaps I'm missing something?


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## drmdjones (Dec 25, 2018)

Well, there's melodic inversion, as you mentioned, where the contour of a melody is reflected across some axis pitch. So instead of going up a fourth and down a step, for example, it goes down a fourth and up a step. Melodic inversion can be exact (sometimes called mirror inversion) meaning all of the intervals of the inversion are the same sizes and qualities, just in the opposite directions, as the "rectus" intervals. On the other hand, the inversion can be diatonic where a major third up might become a minor third down to keep the inversion in the diatonic scale.

Inversion in a 12-tone matrix is exact inversion of (NB) pitch classes rather than pitches. The realization of an inverted version of the row may vary significantly in contour from the prime form's realization depending upon the octaves chosen for the pitch classes.

Then there is interval, or harmonic, inversion where a major third becomes a minor sixth.

Chordal inversion stems from interval inversion but is less precise. Taking the chordal third out of the alto and putting it in the bass, for example, results in some intervals being inverted but if there are other voicing changes then the intervallic relationships become more complicated. These complications can be seen in the numerous figures of thoroughbass manuals.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

You want confusing? Look into percussion terms and notation. There's a minefield of misunderstanding and confusion that baffles experienced pros. Here's a starting place: the Arabian Dance (la Cafe) from Act II Divertissement of the Nutcracker. The tambourine part. Shockingly, most every modern recording (and I'm talking since 1970) plays it incorrectly. The ancient Rodzinski/LPO recording on Westminster nails it. 

Or take the famous and oft played Polovtsian Dances by Borodin. What does the open circle on only some of the tambourine parts mean? Look in orchestration books - they're silent on it. Even Rimsky-Korsakov's book offers no help. Easily confused? Absolutely. And no definitive answers in sight.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

'homophony': people generally think of this as melody with accompaniment, but chorale texture also counts as homophony.

'stretto': can mean two different things. 1. a contrapuntal technique where entries of subjects are squeezed together so that the second one enters before the first one is finished.
2. An instruction to play fast at the end of an aria or movement, as in the coda of Liszt Transcendental Etude No.10 in F minor, where it is marked 'Stretta'.



Bluecrab said:


> Do you mean that you believe that many people find the term _inversion_ to be confusing when it's used in musical contexts?


I think people can sometimes confuse 'inversion' in counterpoint with 'invertible counterpoint'.


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## drmdjones (Dec 25, 2018)

How about "refrain?" It's general meaning is to stop doing something. It's musical meaning is to do it again!


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