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Glossary

  • Acoustic recording: The earliest form of music recording, which was used until it was replaced in 1925 by electrical recording. In acoustic recording sounds are played into a horn, which activates a diaphragm attached to a stylus, which transfers the energy from the sound waves to a cylinder or disc.
  • Acoustics: The study of the physics of sound; the term is also used more narrowly, to describe the sound qualities of a particular auditorium or room.
  • Aesthetic experience: A term introduced in 18th century philosophy by Immanuel Kant and others to describe the pleasures felt in the presence of something beautiful, such as a work of art or a sunset.
  • Altricial: The condition of being unable to move or survive on its own after birth, such that an altricial infant is dependent on parental care for survival. The term is contrasted with “precocial.” Human infants are altricial; bees and butterflies are precocial because they can survive on their own almost immediately after birth.
  • Ambience: The acoustic characteristics of a room or other space; a space without much reverberation is characterized as “dead” while a space with a high degree of reverberation is characterized as “live.”
  • Amusia: A condition in which an individual is unable to differentiate among musical pitches and may have other impairments in musical processing as well. By definition, amusia is not a result of problems such as deafness or lack of exposure to music. The condition can be present at birth (congenital amusia) or can arise following brain injury, for example, from a stroke (acquired amusia).
  • Aphasia: A condition characterized by partial or complete loss of language abilities. An inability to speak is referred to as expressive (or non-fluent) aphasia. An inability to understand speech is referred to as receptive (or fluent) aphasia.
  • Art as Experience: A 1958 book by the American philosopher John Dewey, in which he argues that the most complete and rich experiences available to humans are aesthetic experiences, during which one experiences an integration of the past, present, and future.
  • Articulators: The set of anatomical structures in the mouth responsible for speech production. Articulators include the tongue, jaw, palate, and lips.
  • Atlantic: An independent record label founded in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson; Ray Charles, the Drifters, and the Modern Jazz Quartet are among the artists who recorded for the Atlantic label.
  • Audible Frequency Range: The range of sound that can be heard by a person with normal hearing, usually estimated from about 20 hertz (Hz) to 20,000 Hz.
  • Baby Einstein: A company founded by Julie Aigner-Clark in 1997, as Julie Aigner-Clark Films, to produce educational videos including music and stories. In 2006 a complaint was filed with the Federal Trade Commission charging that the Baby Einstein Company and two other companies falsely claimed that viewing their products would improve a child's intelligence, but the complaint was dismissed in 2007.
  • BMI: Broadcast Music Inc., a licensing organization created by radio station executives in 1940 after another licensing organization, ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers tried to double the fees they charged to play music owned by their members over the air.
  • Brain anatomical structures: The brain consists of the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the brain stem. The cerebrum is composed of the cerebral cortex, the basal ganglia, and the limbic system, and is divided into the left and right cerebral hemispheres. The brain may also be classified anatomically and functionally into a number of lobes, including the frontal lobe, the parietal lobe, the occipital lobe, the temporal lobe, the limbic lobe, and the insular cortex. Auditory processing is generally associated with the temporal lobe but complex musical behaviors are associated with activity throughout the brain.
  • La Cage aux Folles: A musical written by Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herman that opened on Broadway in 1983 and became a popular and commercial success with mainstream theater audiences. It is sometimes called the first gay musical because the story centers on the relationship between two gay men.
  • Capital: A record label established in 1932 by Johnny Mercer, Glenn Wallichs, and Buddy DeSylva. Capital recorded many popular artists, including Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Paul Whiteman, and in the 1960s recorded the Beach Boys as well as numerous country and western (e.g., Merle Haggard, Buck Owens) and British Invasion groups (e.g., Freddie and the Dreamers).
  • “The Carnival of the Animals”: An 1896 musical work by the French composer Camille Saint- Saëns for two pianos and orchestra. Today it is often performed with narrated verses by the poet Ogden Nash, and is a popular piece in children's concerts, because the different sections use different parts of the orchestra and represent different animals; for instance, the section “The Swan” features a solo cellist.
  • Catharsis: A term introduced in Aristotle's Rhetoric to mean the pleasure provided by purging the emotions of pity and fear by experiencing them in an art work.
  • Central nervous system (CNS): That part of the body's nervous system that includes the brain, the spinal cord, and spinal nerves. The CNS controls the functioning of the body.
  • Circle of fifths: A map of musical notes in which adjacent positions on the circle are represented by notes separated by an interval of a perfect fifth (the interval between do and sol). Twelve positions are illustrated on the map, such that all notes of the chromatic scale are represented. The circle of fifths has been useful in the analysis of harmony, whereby each position on the circle is understood to be a chord name. Neighboring chords on the circle are psychologically proximal, and movement between adjacent chords on the circle is very common in Western classical and popular music. The circle of fifths has also been used in the analysis of key change.
  • Cover: A song recorded by a musician but that is more closely associated with a different musician. Popular recordings are often covered: for instance, after Bing Crosby's recording of Irving Berlin's “White Christmas” became a hit, more than 400 other artists also recorded the song.
  • Critical band: A hypothetical frequency range within which two or more auditory inputs give rise to sensory interactions. The most common sensory interaction is masking, whereby one auditory input masks or obscures a second input, often because it is louder. One definition of the critical band is the smallest distance in frequency beyond which masking no longer occurs.
  • Crossover: A recording or artist that is successful in one market, and then becomes successful in one or more additional markets; for instance, country singer Glen Campbell became popular in the mainstream pop market in the 1970s.
  • Cue: Any sensory attribute that can be used to classify, interpret, remember, or identify the sensory input. In ethology, a cue is sometimes contrasted with intentional forms of communication, which are called “signals.”
  • “Degenerate music”: In German, entartete Musik was music condemned by the Nazi government in Germany in the 1930s as being decadent or otherwise harmful to the public. The definition of degenerate music included jazz, music by modernist composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Jewish musicians such as Felix Mendelssohn, and political music such as that written by Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler.
  • Deliberate practice: In the expertise theory of K. Anders Ericsson, a type of practice that is extremely focused and concentrated on improvement at the boundary of an individual's current expertise, and which is carefully monitored by the individual performer or by an expert such as the individual's teacher.
  • Double dissociation: A clinical research outcome in which deficits in two cognitive or behavioral measures appear to be uncorrelated with one another, suggesting that they are associated with distinct brain mechanisms. For example, one patient may have impaired music perception skills but normal language skills, whereas a second patient may exhibit impaired language skills but normal music perception skills. Such a double dissociation between music and language would suggest that these two domains are associated with distinct brain areas at some levels of processing.
  • Ecological validity: The extent to which an experimental or laboratory situation approximates real-world conditions. Results from investigations that are high in ecological validity are more easily generalized to natural, nonexperimental circumstances. However, it is difficult to achieve high ecological validity in tightly controlled experiments designed to elucidate specific effects, because the real world typically involves many unpredictable changes in multiple aspects of the environment.
  • Enculturation: The process by which explicit or implicit knowledge about the norms, symbols, and values of any culture or society are acquired and internalized. Enculturation occurs rapidly in early development but is a lifelong process.
  • Equal temperament: A system of musical tuning in which the frequency ratio between any two notes is constant; the result is a system in which music may be written in any key, but no interval except the octave is perfectly in tune as it would be in a solely intonation tuning system.
  • Eurhythmics: A method of musical education developed in the early 20th century by the Swiss educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, which uses movement to teach musical expression, structure, and rhythm.
  • Event-related potential (ERP): Electrophysiological activity arising from the brain in response to a physical or cognitive event. The timing of such responses is used to infer the brain mechanisms that are involved in processing the event.
  • FCC: The Federal Communications Commission, an agency created in 1934 to regulate radio and television broadcasts and ensure that the airwaves are used for the interests of the general public.
  • Fetes des belles eaux: A 1937 composition by the French composer Olivier Messiaen for six Ondes Martenot, an electronic musical instrument invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot.
  • Field recordings: Recordings of traditional music made “in the field,” that is, in the music's natural environment rather than in the studio; the first field records were made in 1890 and captured the songs of the Zuni and Passamaquoddy Native American tribes.
  • Folkways: A record label created in New York City in 1947 by Moe Asch and Marian Distler, and that was notable for the broad variety of recordings it issued, including many in the category now known as “World Music.”
  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): An influential technique for imaging the brain during cognitive or physical activity, often by highlighting areas of the brain that require increased blood oxygen during such activities. The technique allows researchers to understand the relation between complex thoughts or behaviors and brain activity.
  • Grammar: A set of rules that govern the use of language, music, dance, or any other complex behavior or communication system.
  • Grammy award: A series of awards given annually since 1958 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), recognizing performers and groups in a variety of categories, and including popular, classical music, and spoken arts.
  • Grand Ole Opry: An American country music radio and television program established as the WSM Barn Dance in 1925, by George D. Hay. The Grand Ole Opry has featured some of the biggest stars in country music over the years, including Bill Monroe, Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, and Dolly Parton.
  • Grooming: A social activity observed in chimpanzees and other animals whereby one individual removes parasites from another individual. It is thought that grooming behavior functions as a mechanism for social bonding among animals, supporting social relationships and group cooperation. Some theorists believe that the music also functions to support social bonds.
  • Hair cells: Specialized receptors of hearing located in the cochlea of the inner ear. Sound entering the ear causes movement of the eardrum and ultimately movement of specific hair cells. Movement of hair cells triggers electrical nerve impulses that ultimately lead to the experience of audition.
  • Hammond organ: An electric organ developed by the American engineers Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and introduced to the commercial market in 1935. The Hammond organ was originally marketed to churches but it also proved popular among jazz, rock, and reggae musicians.
  • Harmonic and harmonic series: A harmonic is a frequency component (or partial) of a complex sound wave that is a multiple of the fundamental frequency. For example, a frequency component that is three times the fundamental frequency is a harmonic. The harmonic series describes a set of frequencies that share a large common divisor. For example, the sequence 100, 200, 300, 400 … represents a harmonic series with a fundamental frequency of 100, whereas the sequence 100, 187, 221, 223, 263 … is not a harmonic series.
  • Harmonic Elements and Rhythmics: A treatise written in the 4th century B.C.E. by the Greek writer Aristoxenus that contains the first known theoretical writing about music. Harmonic Elements discusses scales and tonality not in terms of mathematical ratios (as did Pythagoras), but in terms of experiential knowledge.
  • Hominin: A term in evolutionary biology that refers to contemporary humans, extinct human species, and their ancestors.
  • Imaginary Landscapes: A series of musical pieces by the American composer John Cage that incorporates nontraditional sources of sound. For instance, the instruments used in Imaginary Landscape No. 1, written in 1939, include two variable-speed turntables; Imaginary Landscape No. 3, written in 1942, includes audio frequency oscillators and variable speed turntables; and Imaginary Landscape No. 4, written in 1951, uses 12 radios.
  • Infant-directed song: A technical term for lullabies and other songs directed at infants.
  • Inharmonic: A frequency component (or partial) of a complex sound wave that is not an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency. Inharmonic frequencies are especially prominent in instrument sounds such as bells and gongs, whereas harmonic frequencies are prominent in instrument sounds such as the oboe or clarinet. It is usually difficult to perceive a clear pitch when there are prominent inharmonic frequencies associated with a sound.
  • De institutione musica: A treatise on music written about 500 C.E. by the Roman philosopher Boethius, which described three types of music: cosmic, human, and instrumental.
  • International Society for Music Education (ISME): An international organization, founded in 1953, for professionals interested in promoting music learning.
  • Just Tuning: Also called “just intonation” or “pure intonation,” a tuning system in which the frequencies of notes can be expressed by ratios of small whole numbers, for example, 3:2.
  • Kodaly Method: A method of music education developed by the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály in the 1930s, using techniques including rhythmic movement, rhythm syllables, hand signs, and solfége.
  • Languages of Art: A 1976 book by Nelson Goodman arguing that the intellect plays a key role in aesthetic experiences, and that during aesthetic experiences, an individual's emotions and cognitions work together.
  • Magnetoencephalography (MEG): A technique for studying the brain that considers the electromagnetic fields that are produced by electrical activity in the brain.
  • Masking: A term in psychoacoustics that refers to the difficult of hearing one sound in the presence of another sound. If the masking sound occurs after the masked sound, the effect is called “backwards masking.” Research on the conditions that lead to masking effects has provided insight into the nature of the auditory system.
  • Mental representation: A concept in cognitive psychology that refers to the storage of information such as ideas, rules, concepts, and images. Understanding the structure of our mental representations often requires careful experimental methodologies.
  • Micrologus: A music treatise written around 1026 by the Benedictine monk Guido d'Arezzo that describes different methods of performing Gregorian chant and also introduced syllables for a six-note ascending scale (ut, re mi, fa, sol, la), a concept adopted by modern solfège techniques.
  • MIDI: Musical instrument digital interface, a technical standard agreed upon in 1982 that allows electronic musical instruments and computers to communicate through electronic signals.
  • Modularity: A concept in the philosophy of cognition that refers to the distinctive and noninteractive aspects of mental processing. Modular systems are thought to operate independently from one another, such that modules are restricted in the kind of sensory, perceptual, or cognitive information they can access. This property, called information encapsulation, explains why a visual illusion can persist at a perceptual level even when we are aware at a cognitive level that it is an illusion. For example, knowing that two lines in the Müller-Lyer illusion are the same length does not change the fact that they look different in length.
  • Mood: A feeling or experience that extends over time. Moods are sometimes differentiated from emotions because their presence is not well explained by a specific cause or origin.
  • Musilanguage: A concept referring to a possible evolutionary precursor to music and language with characteristics of both domains. Although the existence of such a precursor is unknown, theorists have reasoned that it may have functioned for emotional communication among ancestral populations.
  • Napster: A peer-to-peer Internet music sharing service developed by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. The original version of Napster operated from 1999 to 2001, when it was shut down by court order, due to copyright infringement. A second version of Napster was operated by Roxio from 2006 to 2010, as a legal, advertising-supported music streaming service, and is currently available as a subscription-based music streaming service operated by the online music subscription service Rhapsody.
  • Neurologic music therapy: Any music-based therapy used to treat a neurological impairment such as Parkinson's disease, dementia, or aphasia. Rhythmic auditory stimulation, for example, has been used to treat motor problems among individuals with Parkinson's disease.
  • NIHL: Noise induced hearing loss; hearing loss caused by damage to the auditory system from excessive sound intensity. NIHL can be caused by a single exposure (e.g., a loud explosion) or can occur gradually over time from repeated exposure (e.g., from workplace noise or listening to loud music).
  • Octave: The interval between two pitches, when the frequency of the higher pitch is twice that of the lower pitch; for instance, the note with a frequency of 880 Hz is one octave above the note with a frequency of 440 Hz.
  • Ondes Martenot: An electronic musical instrument invented by the French musician Maurice Martenot. Introduced in 1928, the Ondes Martenot produces sounds similar to that of the theremin, and was incorporated into works by composers such as Olivier Messiaen, Arthur Honegger, and Darius Milhaud, as well as for film soundtracks and the music for television series.
  • Orff Schulwerk: A method of musical education, developed by the German composer Carl Orff and educator Gunild Keetman in the 1920s, which combines music, drama, and speech in a setting that emphasizes play and improvisation.
  • Overtones: The frequency components or “partials” of a complex tone. Overtones that are multiples of the fundamental frequency are also called harmonics, but overtones can also be inharmonic.
  • Perfect pitch: Also known as absolute pitch, the ability to identify a note without being provided with any point of reference.
  • Peripheral nervous system (PNS): Those parts of the nervous system that are outside the brain and spinal cord and that serve the limbs and organs.
  • “Peter and the Wolf”: A 1936 composition by the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev for orchestra and narrator; it was commissioned by the Central Children's Theatre in Moscow and is often used to introduce young people to classical music because it incorporates a folktale and associates different characters with different musical instruments and themes.
  • Phaedrus: A dialogue during which Plato discusses the pleasures provided by art and considers the effects of some types of art on a person's character.
  • Poème électronique: An electronic musical composition by the French composer Edgard Varése that was first performed at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958.
  • Poetics: A work containing notes on the aesthetic theory of Aristotle, probably written between 347 and 342 b.c.e., and which includes his theory of the catharsis of emotions as one of the pleasures provided by the experience of art.
  • Positron emission tomography (PET): A technique that has been used to examine how the brain responds in various contexts, such as listening to music. A short-lived radioactive tracer isotope is first injected into the participant, and the metabolically active molecule becomes concentrated in relevant areas of the brain. The participant is then placed into an image scanner to reveal areas of brain activity.
  • Primary auditory cortex: An area of the brain located in the temporal lobe and comprising parts of Heschl's gyrus.
  • Pythagorean Comma: A musical distance of about a quarter of a semitone, which is the difference (in the just tuning system) between 12 perfect fifths and seven octaves.
  • Relative pitch: The capacity to perceive and remember relationships between pitches. Relative pitch allows us to recognize a familiar melody sung by a man, woman, or child (at different starting pitch positions) as long as the relative distances between the pitches are maintained. It also allows us to recognize and differentiate harmonic events, such as major and minor chords.
  • Savant syndrome: A psychological term describing someone who is mentally and/or socially impaired, but has outstanding abilities in a specific field, such as music performance.
  • Schenkerian analysis: An influential technique of analyzing music invented by music theorist Heinrich Schenker (1868–1935). A goal of Schenkerian analysis is to reveal hierarchical relationships in music by distinguishing between structural and nonstructural (e.g., ornamental) notes. With this technique, analysts can move from the surface structure of the music (the actual notes) to progressively deeper levels of music, ultimately revealing the fundamental structure, or Ursatz.
  • Seashore Tests of Musical Ability: A series of tests published in 1919 by the Swedish-American psychologist Carl Seashore. The tests are able to determine perceptual and cognitive skills believed to be important in learning music and are intended for use with children between the ages of 9 and 18.
  • Semantic memory: Recall of factual information, (e.g., how to perform mathematical operations) that is not linked to specific events in an individual's life.
  • Sexual dimorphism: Differences in behavior and form between males and females of the same species. Bird calls and peacock features are examples of sexually dimorphic traits because they are exhibited differentially in male and female birds.
  • Signal: Any sensory input that is the result of an intentional act of communication by an organism. Signals are used to classify, interpret, remember, or identify sensory input. In ethology, a signal is sometimes contrasted with features of the environment that are informative but not an intentional act of communication (see cues).
  • Solfège: A method of music instruction that assigns syllables to pitches; in the United States, the syllables are do, re, mi, fa, so, la, and ti for the standard tonal scale. In the “fixed do” method, the syllables are associated with fixed pitches, so that “do” is always C, “re” always D, and so on, while in “movable do” methods the tonic note of a scale is always “do,” the second scale step “re,” and so on.
  • Standardized Tests of Musical Intelligence: A series of tests first published in 1939 by the British psychologist Herbert Wing. These tests are intended for use with children ages 9 through 18 and are based on the theory that there is a general factor of music ability similar to the “g” or “general intelligence” factor that Carl Spearman believed could be identified and measured through intelligence testing.
  • Stream: A perceptual experience of a single line of sound that arises from the same source. Well-formed melodies are experienced as an auditory stream.
  • “Sun City”: A protest song written by Steven Van Zandt in 1985 to promote opposition to the policy of Apartheid (racial separation) in South Africa; a large number of musical artists participated in recording the song, including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Pete Townshend, and Pat Benatar.
  • Suzuki method: A method of teaching music to children developed by the Japanese violinist Shin'ichi Suzuki, based on learning by ear and memorizing music, with music reading introduced later. Suzuki training can begin at a very young age, using scaled-down instruments appropriate to a child's size, and also assumes adult supervision (usually by a parent) of the child's practice sessions.
  • Synesthesia: A rare condition in which stimulation to one perceptual or cognitive domain, such as music, leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in other sensory modalities, such as color. Famous musicians with synesthesia include Duke Ellington, Billy Joel, Györgi Ligeti, Franz Liszt, Eddie Van Halen, and Kanye West.
  • Tactus: A Renaissance term that refers to the beat of music. The tactus also refers to the experience of a regular pulse in music, indicated by the rate at which people tap their feet or clap their hands to music.
  • Techne: The word for “craft” used in Plato's Sophist, a category including all kinds of making or doing, including the visual, literary, and mixed musical arts.
  • Telharmonium: An early electronic musical instrument developed by the American inventor Thaddeus Cahill in 1897; Cahill gave concerts on the Telharmonium in the early 20th century, and Telharmonium music was also transmitted over telephone wires, but the instrument fell out of popularity, largely due to technical difficulties caused by its extreme weight and size.
  • The Ten Thousand Hour Rule: A rule of thumb stating that it takes about 10,000 hours of concentrated practice to achieve excellence in a field such as musical performance or chess; this principal is based on research by K. Anders Ericsson and others.
  • Theremin: An electronic musical instrument named after its inventor, Leon Theremin, who received a patent for it in 1928. The theremin is played by manipulating the frequency and amplitude of electronic signals through hand motions, without ever touching the apparatus, and is best known for its use on the soundtracks for popular movies such as Spellbound (1945) and The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).
  • Trautonium: An electronic musical instrument invented in 1929 by Friedrich Trautwein. The first public performance of the Trautonium took place in 1930 and featured Oskar Sala and Paul Hindemith, and Hindemith would later write several pieces for or incorporating the trautonium.
  • Tritone: A musical interval formed by notes three whole steps apart, for example, C and F sharp; the tritone is also described as a diminished fifth, because it is one half step less than a perfect fifth, or an augmented fourth, because it is one half step greater than a perfect fourth. In the common practice musical tradition, the tritone is considered a dissonant interval, and was described in the 18th century as “the devil in music” (diabolus in musica).
  • “The Unanswered Question”: Six lectures delivered by the American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein at Harvard University in 1981, in the Charles Eliot Norton lecture series, and later published in book format. In these lectures, Bernstein states his desire for researchers to uncover a musical grammar similar to the generative grammar of language discovered by Noam Chomsky, one that would explain why humans are able to understand music.
  • Woodstock Music & Art Fair: A three-day music festival held in 1969 on a farm owned by Max Yasgur in New York State. Attended by some 400,000 individuals, despite rainy weather, the festival was considered a key moment in the history of American popular music and was commemorated in the 1970 documentary Woodstock, directed by Michael Wadleigh.
  • The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: An educational 1946 composition by the British composer Benjamin Britten, which introduces the various instruments of the orchestra through an arrangement of a melody by Henry Purcell.
  • Zoomusicology: A field of research that considers how animal calls may have influenced the development of music.
Sarah E.Boslaugh, Kennesaw State University
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