Entertainment / Music Glossary

Leading Note: The seventh note of the scale where there is a strong desire to resolve on the tonic.

Legato: Word to indicate that the movement or entire composition is to be played smoothly.

Leitmotif: Leading motive, or basic recurring theme, representing a person, object or idea, commonly used in Wagner's operas.

Libretto: Text, or script, of an opera, prepared by a librettist.

Lied: German for 'song': most commonly associated with the solo art song of the nineteenth century, usually accompanied by piano.

Lieder: Plural of Lied.

Ligature: Curved line connecting notes to be sung or played as a phrase.

Lining Out: A call and response singing practice prevalent in early America and England: characterized by the alternation between a singer leader and a chorus singing heterophonically.

Lute: Plucked-string instrument of Middle Eastern origin, popular in western Europe from the late Middle Ages to the eighteenth century

Lyre: Ancient plucked-string instrument of the harp family, used to accompany singing and poetry.

Lyric Opera: Hybrid form combining elements of grand opera and opéra comique and featuring appealing melodies and romantic drama.

Madrigal: Renaissance secular work originating in Italy for voices, with or without instruments, set to a short, lyric love poem: also popular in England.

Madrigal Choir: Small vocal ensemble that specializes in a cappella secular works.

Maestro: Refers to any great composer, conductor, or teacher of music.

Magnificat: Biblical text on the words of the Virgin Mary, sung polyphonically in church from the Renaissance on.

Major: One of the two modes of the tonal system. Music written in major keys have a positive affirming character.

Major Scale: A collection of seven different pitches ordered in a specific pattern of whole and half steps.

Mambo: Dance of Afro-Cuban origin with a characteristic quadruple-meter rhythmic pattern.

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