Entertainment / Music Glossary

Cornet: Valved brass instrument similar to the trumpet but more mellow in sound.

Cornetto: Early instrument of the brass family with woodwind-like finger holes. It developed from the cow horn, but was made of wood.

Council Of Trent: A council of the Roman Catholic Church that convened in Trent, Italy from 1543 to 1565 and dealt with Counter-Reformation issues, including the reform of liturgical music.

Countermelody: An accompanying melody sounded against the principal melody.

Counterpoint: The compositional art of combining two or more simultaneous melodic lines (polyphonic texture): term means 'point against point' or 'note against note.'

Countersubject: In a figure, a secondary theme heard against the subject: a countertheme.

Country-Western: Genre of American popular music derived from traditional music of the rural South, usually vocal with an accompaniment of banjos, fiddles and guitar.

Courante: French Baroque dance, a standard movement of the suite, in triple meter at a moderate tempo.

Cover: Recording that remakes an earlier, often successful, recording with a goal of reaching a wider audience.

Cowbell: Rectangular metal bell that is struck with a drumstick: used widely in Latin-American music.

Credo: A section of the Mass: the third musical movement of the Ordinary.

Crescendo: The dynamic effect of gradually growing louder, indicated in the musical score by the marking '<'.

Crossover: Recording or artist that appeals primarily to one audience but becomes popular with another as well (e.g., a rock performer who makes jazz recordings).

Crotales: A pair of small pitched cymbals mounted on a frame: also made in chromatic sets.

Crumhorn: Early woodwind instrument, whose sound is produced by blowing into a capped double reed and whose lower body is curved.

Cut Time: A type of duple meter interpreted as 2/2 and indicated as ¢: also called alla breve.

Cyclical Form: Structure in which musical material, such as a theme, presented in one movement returns in a later movement.

Cymbals: Cymbals are two circular brass plates of equal size, which when struck together produce a shattering sound, as heard in this example.

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