Page 152 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 and 10: The Arts, 2010

THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9 AND 10 | The Arts
technical exercises. Exercises that develop performance skills and facility.
technology. Electronic instruments and inter- faces, as well as compositional hardware and software, used for composing music and altering and recording sound.
tempo. An aspect of the element called duration. The speed of a piece. Some common tempo indications are: allegro (quickly and in a lively way), moderato (at a moderate speed), andante (somewhat slowly, at a walking pace), largo (slowly), adagio (slowly and gracefully), and vivace (briskly, quickly, brightly).
ternary form (ABA form). A musical form that consists of three sections – a first section, a contrasting section, and a third section that
is a repetition of the first. See also form.
texture. One of the elements of music. The rela- tionship between the “horizontal” aspect of music (i.e., a single line such as a melody) and the “vertical” (i.e., some type of accompaniment such as harmony). For example, texture that is mainly vertical is homophonic (i.e., it consists of a melody with chordal accompaniment), and texture that is mainly horizontal is polyphonic (i.e., it consists of two or more melodies sung
or played together). Texture may also be created by a group of percussion instruments playing music that is not primarily melodic, such as the Balinese gamelan. See also harmony.
theme. An important melodic subject of a piece of music.
theme and variations. A form of music in which a melody or section of music constitutes the basis (the theme) for a series of variations (A, A1, A2, A3...). The variations often result from changes in the key, metre, rhythm, harmony,
speed, and/or mood of the theme. See also form.
timbre. The element of music relating to the unique quality of sounds that allows us to dis- tinguish between them (e.g., the characteristic sound of a trumpet versus a clarinet, or a male versus a female voice). Also called tone colour.
triad. A basic chord consisting of three notes: the root, the third above the root, and the fifth above the root. See also chord.
triplet. A grouping of three notes that takes the same amount of time that two notes of the same value would normally take in a specific piece.
A small numeral “3” is placed above the triplet. Heard in succession, triplets produce a gently swinging motion.
tone colour. The quality of a particular musical sound. Also referred to as timbre. Words that are sometimes used to describe the tone colour or timbre of an instrument or the tone colour(s) of a musical work might be rich, bright, mellow, or piercing.
tone row. A non-repetitive ordering of the twelve tones of the chromatic scale that is used in serialism. Tone rows were widely used by serialist composers of the twentieth century.
twelve-bar blues. One of the most popular forms in the blues and in other popular music. The twelve-bar blues has a distinctive structure both musically and in its lyrics. The typical twelve-bar blues chord progression is a version of the I–IV–V–I chord progression (e.g., G–C–D7–G or A–D–E7–A). This chord progression forms the basis of thousands of songs, not only blues songs such as “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” and “Hound Dog”, but also jazz classics such as “Night Train” and pop and rock songs, such as the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”. Lyrics are typically in three lines, and the first two lines are almost the same with slight differences in phrasing and interjections. See also form.
unison. (1) The sound produced when two or more instruments or voices play or sing the same pitch. (2) The interval that occurs when two melodic parts (voices or instruments) join to produce the same sound.
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