Musical Term

Front 1

Abbassare (It.).

Back 1

To lower, e.g. to tune down a str. of an instr. of the vn. family to obtain a note
normally outside its compass.

Front 2

Absolute Music.

Back 2

Instr. mus. which exists simply as such, i.e. not `Programme Music', or in any way illustrative.

Front 3

A Cappella (It.).

Back 3

In the chapel style, which in choral singing has come to mean unaccompanied.

Front 4

Accentuation.

Back 4

Emphasizing certain notes. In setting words to mus., coincidence of natural accents in text with mus. results in good accentuation.

Front 5

Acciaccato (It.).*

Back 5

Broken down, crushed. The sounding of the notes of a chord not quite
simultaneously, but from bottom to top.

Front 6

Acciaccatura.

Back 6

A species of grace note,indicated by a small note with its stem crossed through, viz.,The prin. note retains its accent and almost all its time-value. The auxiliary note is
theoretically timeless; it is just `crushed' in as quickly as possible before the prin. note is heard.
Some renowned pianists even play the 2 notes simultaneously, immediately releasing the
Acciaccatura and retaining the prin. note. Sometimes 2 or more small notes are shown before the
prin. notes, and then they generally amount to Acciaccature (being in most cases perf. on the
`crushed-in', or timeless and accentless, principle), although they have no strokes through their tails,
and although the names Double or Triple Appoggiatura are often given them. Note a
combination of Acciaccatura with Spreadchord: as though notated--- Although the Acciaccatura is theoretically timeless, it nevertheless must take a fragment of
time from somewhere. In the cases shown above (which may be considered the normal ones) it
takes it from the following note. In 2 othercases, however, time is taken from the preceding note:
(1) when harmonically and in context it is clearly attached to that note rather than the following
note; (2) when, in pf. mus., it appears in the bass followed by a chord in the left hand or in both
hands---the composer's intention being to increase harmonic richness by sounding the bass note in a
lower octave and then holding it by the pedal whilst the chord is played; in this case the chord (as a
whole) is to be heard on the beat, the Acciaccatura slightly preceding it. See also Mordent.