Classical Music Terms - What Do They Mean?

Listening to classical music in some ways is like taking a spoonful of medicine when you are sick. Just as the medicine helps whatever "ails" you, music can do the same thing. For example, if you are upset, it can help calm you down. If you are angry, it can change your mood. If you need sleep, it can even help you there.

The problem with that spoonful of medicine is you never know what you're going to get. It can taste good or bad.

Thankfully, most all classical music is good stuff!

However, I think a lot of people shy away from classical music not because of the music, itself, but because of the terms used to describe it. A lot of people think of them as "high-brow", or "high-falutin". The truth is they are neither! They're mostly Italian, Greek, French or German words that describe exactly what the composer was writing.

Although you can listen to the music without knowing any of them, it helps, especially if you're reading an album cover or insert, to understand what's being said. So let's look at a few of them.

Symphony

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word symphony comes from a Greek word meaning "agreement or concord of sound". In order to be a concord of sound, there must be many different sounds, all "agreeing" with one another. A symphony is simply an "extended" (or in plain English, LONG!), musical composition, almost always "scored", (musical talk for "written"), for an orchestra, because that is the only medium where all these sounds can come together. A symphony is the mechanism that blends them all together into an agreeable sound.

Concerto

A concerto, (Italian meaning "playing together") , is simply a composition made for a solo instrument, usually, but not always, within a larger piece of music, such as a symphony. The type of concerto depends on the solo instrument that plays it. If that instrument is a piano, it is a piano concerto, if a violin a violin concerto, etc. Since a concerto is usually part of a larger performance by an orchestra, (for example a symphony), the full orchestra usually "backs off", and just accompanies the soloist, putting the spotlight on the concerto rather than the orchestra.

Sonata

A sonata is a musical composition for one or two players consisting of four movements, (introduction, exposition, development, recapitulation). In other words, a musical piece that requires a definite set of movements to fully explore and present. Put simply, a sonata first tells us what to expect from the piece, then gives us the piece itself, and finally tells us what we've just heard!

Movement

A movement is just a part of a musical composition. Many modern recordings feature selected movements from a particular composition, (for example in an album of several different pieces of music). What you are getting is a "piece of the piece", but not the whole composition. Performances of a complete piece of music require all the movements to be played in proper succession.

Opus

Opus doesn't refer to that little comic book character! It's from the Latin, literally meaning "opera" or musical work. Basically, it's just a musical composition by a particular composer that has been catalogued or listed in some musical reference for convenience. An opus is usually, but not always, followed by a number, which signifies when it was published, but not necessarily when it was written.

Etude

From the French word "etudier", etude means to study. So etudes or studies in reality are practice pieces, composed with a definite purpose in mind, such as helping the composer (or performer) enhance or improve some particular technique or interpretation. Think of it as if it were you practising your music lessons! Every time you practised, if you did it right, you got better at it. That's basically what etudes are all about.

We've kept it pretty simple, because our goal is to help you comprehend what the terms mean, not to bore you with all the details! Composing music, be it classical, or any other genre, takes a lot of work. Understanding what went into it should help us get more out of it.

Enjoy!