E-
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H-I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P-Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X-Y-Z
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E-flat -
E-flat has quite a history of nobility: Mozart's 39th, Beethoven's "Eroica" symphony and "Emperor" concerto, Wagner's Valhalla.
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E-string snapped -
No surprise. The uppermost strings are the most likely to break: the E on the violin and the A on violas and cellos.
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Echo effect -
The immediate repetition of a short phrase softer than the original statement of it.
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Edge (to the sound) -
A penetrating quality which results from producing the upper harmonics of a pitch so it can be clearly heard with the lower harmonics.
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Edgeless tone -
An emphasis on the lower harmonics so as to create a warmer, more mellow sound.
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8' and 4' column -
refers to the standard measurements of a vibrating tube of air. 8' is at written pitch, 4' is an octave higher.
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Eighth note -
One eighth of a whole note. As a rule of thumb, and a weak one at that, the quarter note is the one that gets one beat in music nowadays. This was not always so. Notes were whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, etc. In this case the eighth-notes make a steady and fast accompaniment.
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Eine kleine Nachtmusik -
The name of Mozart's most famous piece literally translates 'A little night music', the source of the Sondheim show's title. Nachtmusik is the German word for Serenade.
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Eingänge -
Means entrance way in German, is a short improvised passage like a mini-cadenza leading into a return of fully written material. As with the cadenza (see above) it, too, is now something written out.
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El Niño -
Mentioned as part of an off-hand joke when Santa Claus was asked about the weather at the North Pole during an NJSO Pops program, it was a perhaps unwittingly Christmas related remark. El Niño is not just 'the child', but is "The Christchild," so named because the weather effect historically achieves its strongest power during Advent and as late as Christmas.
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Elaborations (used in the repeat of the first strain) -
Refers to two things: 1) a typical baroque aria could be described as A-B-A,
the first A called the first strain, the second A is its repeat. 2) It was typical in the baroque period that the added figurations were more elaborate in the second strain.
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Elgar, Sir Edward (as Bach admirer) -
Both composers used numbers a signs for others and for themselves. Bach's personal numbers were 14 (If A=1, B=2, etc., then B+A+C+H = 14) and 41 (J+S+B+A+C+H). This latter works only when we understand that in Bach's time the German letter pairs I/J and U/V were each considered as one letter. Thus J = 9, not 10, and S = 18, not 19. In that case J+S+B+A+C+H = 9+18+2+1+3+8 = 41. Elgar, not knowing of or conveniently forgetting this alphabet difference, equated his name with Bach's since E+L+G+A+R = 43.
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Embellishment -
Improvising notes in addition to those written or, later, less important tones surrounding and centered on more important tones.
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Embouchure -
1) The actual mouthpiece of a wind instrument.
2) The manner in which the lips and tongue cause vibrations in or through
the mouthpiece.
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Empfindsamer Stil -
Sensitive style. A mid- to late-18th century German reaction to the predominance of the bass line and top line found in *baroque music. It is characterized by the mere elegance of melody found in the Stil Galant deepening into something more emotionally expressive. The new style emphasized beautiful melodic line placed over chordal accompaniment. It also included regular phrase lengths divisible by 4, something which was not so predominant in the baroque except in specific dance forms.
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English horn (cor anglaise)-
Really a tenor oboe. The root of the name 'English horn', which is neither particularly English nor related to a horn, is murky. Some feel it was a pejorative nickname supplied by the French. Others of a more academic bent wonder, though they do not go so far as to actually suggest, that the use of double-reeds for English royalty when at home (as opposed to brass for military campaigns) has something to do with it.
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Enharmonic -
One pitch can have two names, e. g. C = B-sharp; G-sharp = A-flat, etc. Sometimes that can lead to interesting chord progression through the use of pitches common to two chords. If an A-flat chord moves to an E major chord, the A-flat root of the first becomes the G-sharp third of the next.
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Enigmatic scale -
Ascending: C, D-flat, E, F-sharp, G-sharp, A-sharp, B, C. Descending: C, B, A-sharp, G-sharp, F, E, D-Flat, C. Used by Verdi as the *cantus firmus for the Ave Maria, which is the first of his Four Sacred Pieces.
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Ensemble -
Playing in a group with tight synchronization.
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Ensemble playing-
Imagine yourself and a person driving in a car next to you trying to coordinate every turn, speed changes of even the smallest variety, even getting down to the level of having your hands on the steering wheel at the same angle. That's the difficulty in playing in good ensemble.
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Entartete Musik -
Degenerate music. The Nazi term for everything from jazz to twelve-tone music, especially if it had a racial content - Jewish or black.
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Epistolary writing -
In the form of letters from and to the protagonist. Goethe's water-shed The Sorrows of the Young Werther is such a novel.
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Equal temperament -
All the neighboring twelve pitches within an octave are equidistant.
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Equal voiced chamber music -
All the parts are of equal importance and difficulty. There was a time in the 18th century when one instrument would predominate over the others in a chamber work. Early piano trios, for instance, were mostly piano sonata with the cello playing the same bass line and the violin helping out the pianist's right hand. In early string quartets the first violin was a virtuoso part while the other three were strictly accompanists. Haydn, though he started off that way, created equal voiced trios and quartets in his maturity. Mozart's mature works are also equal voiced.
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Erhu -
A two-stringed Chinese 'violin' played upright with the bridge end resting on the lap. The bow hair is wrapped around the strings.
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Erich Maria Remarque -
One of the main spokesmen in Germany for the Lost Generation. Best known for Nichts neues im Westen (All Quiet on the Western Front), his Drei Kameraden (Three Comrades) paints a moving picture of the post-WWI years in Germany. Much of the music of Germany in the Weimar Republic period reflects the attitudes and "who cares" mores of the survivors of the "War to End All Wars." I once studied with an elderly German art-critic who knew Remarque in those years. He told us that the author's name was not really the distinctive 'Remarque', but the ever-so-common German surname 'Kramer'. Spell Kramer backwards and ...
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Ernst Krenek (1900-1991)
First married to Mahler's daughter. It was Krenek's book on twelve-tone writing that convinced Stravinsky to try the style.
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España by Chabrier -
Ed Wismer points out that Perry Como made España into a hit record called 'Hot Diggity Dog'.
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Espressivo -
Expressively.
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Etude -
A study. Usually a musical etude will focus on one technical problem.
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Eugene Onegin -
An opera by Tchaikovsky.
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Euphonium -
The highest member of the tuba family.
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Excerpt books -
Books containing orchestral passages for practice. They exist for every orchestral instrument, and every orchestral musician has at least one, probably several.
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Exposition -
The opening section of a piece of music in which the material to be used is 'exposed', thus the term.
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Extended chords -
Chords which reach beyond the usual root, third, fifth, and seventh (e.g. A-C-E-G) to include a ninth, eleventh, and a thirteenth (e.g. A-C-E-G-B-D-F). A perfect fifteenth is no longer an extended chord because there the pattern returns to the root. Needless to say, all of the above examples are of the simplest variety. Various sharp and flat alterations may be worked on the tones to produce a wide range of chords. Extended chords invariably can be analyzed and heard as two separate *polychords (e.g. A-C-E / G-B-D)