Music Glossary: D - L

Da capo

A musical term meaning ‘from the beginning’ in Italian.  It is an instruction to repeat a passage of music.

Deutscher (or Ländler)

A precursor to the waltz, the deutscher is a slow folkdance of rustic origin for couples.  Originally performed outdoors (complete with stamping), the deutscher had evolved into a more elegant ballroom dance by the early 1900s.

Dynamic(s)

A term used to describe the variation in musical volume caused either by altering the number of voices or instruments or by playing or singing with more or less vigour.  Dynamics are indicated in the score by abbreviations:

pp = pianissimo (very quiet)
p = piano (quiet)
mp = mezzo piano (moderately quiet)
mf = mezzo forte (moderately loud)
f = forte (loud)
ff = fortissimo (very loud)

 

George Frideric Handel

(23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759)

German-born composer of the Baroque period.  Among his best known compositions are such works as the Water Music (1717), Messiah (1741 – with its famous ‘Hallelujah’ chorus) and Music for Royal Fireworks (1749), written to celebrate the end of the War of the Austrian Sucession.  Handel spent much of his life in England and was naturalized in 1727.

Harmony

The use of different pitches to support and complement a melody line, often in the form of chords 

Joseph Haydn

(31 March 1732 – 31 May 1809)

Franz Joseph Haydn was a composer of the Classical period.  He is often referred to as the ‘father of the symphony’, having written 108 of them.  Perhaps one of the most famous is Symphony No. 94, the ‘Surprise Symphony’ (1792), in which the serene second movement is momentarily interrupted by a sudden, deafening chord - before resuming its tranquil progress.

Improvisation

The composing and playing of music on the spot

Leitmotif

Popularized by Wagner and frequently employed in his operas, a leitmotif is a recurrent musical theme related to a particular character, object or event.

Jean-Baptiste Lully

(28 November 1632 – 22 March 1687)

Italian-born French composer who spent much of his life in the service of King Louis XIV of France.  A great libertine, he fathered ten children by his wife but indulged in a series of affairs with both women and men.  A toe injury sustained while conducting with a long cane led to his death: the wound turned gangrenous and Lully declined to have the toe amputated.

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