Entertainment / Music Glossary

Bagpipe: Wind instrument popular in Eastern and Western Europe that has several tubes, one of which plays the melody while the others sound the drones, or sustained notes: a windbag is filled by eith . . . View Full Definition

Balalaika: Guitar-like instrument of Russia with a triangular body, fretted neck and three strings: often used in traditional music and dance.

Ballad Opera: English comic opera, usually featuring spoken dialogue alternating with songs set to popular tunes: also called dialogue opera.

Ballade: French poetic form and chanson type of the Middle Ages and Renaissance with courtly love texts. Also a Romantic genre, especially a lyric piano piece.

Ballet: A dance form featuring a staged presentation of group or solo dancing with music, costumes and scenery.

Banjo: Plucked-string instrument with round body in the form of a single-headed drum and a long, fretted neck: brought to the Americas from Africa by early slaves

Baritone: Male voice of moderately low range.

Baroque: Time in music history ranging from the middle of the 16th to the middle of the 17th centuries. Characterized by emotional, flowery music: written in strict form.

Bas: Medieval category of soft instruments, used principally for indoor occasions, as distinct from haut, or loud, instruments.

Bass: Male voice of low range.

Bass Clarinet: Woodwind instrument of the clarinet family with the lowest range.

Bass Drum: The bass drum is a large membranophone of indefinite pitch that is played with a soft-headed stick: it produces a low, heavy sound that is heard prominently in this march.

Basse Danse: Graceful court dance of the early Renaissance: an older version of the pavane.

Basso Continuo: Italian for 'continuous bass'. See figured bass. Also refers to performance group with a bass, chordal instrument (harpsichord, organ), and one bass melody instrument (cello, bassoon).

Bassoon: The bassoon is a double-reed instrument made of wood. Its relative, the contrabassoon, heard here, is the lowest pitched and weightiest sounding woodwind instrument

Beat: Regular pulsation: a basic unit of length in musical time.

Bebop: Complex jazz style developed in the 1940s. Also bop.

Bel Canto: Beautiful singing: elegant Italian vocal style characterized by florid melodic lines delivered by voices of great agility, smoothness and purity of tone.

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