The Music Dictionary
Music Theory and Harmony Terms
Every theory and harmony term in The Music Dictionary, with its meaning in music.
- Accidental
- A symbol that raises, lowers, or restores a written pitch outside its prevailing key signature.
- Atonality
- Music that does not establish a single pitch as its governing tonal center.
- Augmented chord
- A triad of two stacked major thirds, such as C–E–G-sharp, giving an augmented fifth above the root.
- Authentic cadence
- A harmonic close moving from dominant to tonic, often producing a strong sense of arrival.
- Borrowed chord
- A harmony taken from a parallel mode, adding color without necessarily changing the tonal center.
- Cadence
- A melodic or harmonic gesture that marks a pause, conclusion, or transition.
- Chromaticism
- The use of pitches outside the prevailing diatonic collection to intensify harmony or melody.
- Circle of fifths
- A circular arrangement of keys that reveals signatures and closely related tonal centers.
- Cluster chord
- A harmony formed from adjacent or closely spaced pitches, often prized for its dense sonority.
- Common tone
- A pitch shared by successive harmonies that can create continuity across chord changes.
- Consonance
- A perceived quality of stability or repose. Its meaning depends partly on musical style and context.
- Diatonic
- Using only the notes of a major or natural minor scale, built from five whole steps and two half steps.
- Diminished seventh chord
- A chord of four notes stacked in minor thirds, forming a symmetrical and harmonically flexible sonority.
- Dissonance
- A perceived tension or roughness that may invite resolution or serve as a desired color.
- Dominant
- The fifth scale degree or harmony built upon it, often directing motion toward the tonic.
- Drone
- A held pitch, usually the tonic, sounding under the music. In Hindustani music the tanpura provides it.
- Enharmonic
- Pitches written differently but sounding alike in equal temperament, such as F-sharp and G-flat.
- Extended harmony
- Chords enriched by ninths, elevenths, or thirteenths beyond the basic seventh.
- Figured bass
- Numerals below a bass line indicating intervals and guiding harmonic realization.
- Functional harmony
- An account of chords by their roles in creating departure, tension, and return.
- Half cadence
- A phrase ending on dominant harmony, typically leaving an expectation of continuation.
- Harmonic rhythm
- The rate at which harmonies change, distinct from the rhythm of the melody.
- Harmonic series
- The family of frequencies at integer multiples of a fundamental, central to timbre and tuning.
- Heterophony
- Simultaneous variations of one melody, common in many musical traditions.
- Interval
- The measured distance between two pitches, described by number and quality.
- Inversion
- A chord arrangement placing a note other than the root in the bass.
- Key signature
- Sharps or flats at the beginning of a staff indicating a prevailing pitch collection.
- Leading tone
- The seventh scale degree a semitone below the tonic, which pulls up to the tonic. In minor it appears when the seventh is raised, as in harmonic and melodic minor. A seventh a whole step below the tonic is called the subtonic.
- Lydian mode
- A seven-note mode resembling major with a raised fourth degree.
- Mediant
- The third scale degree, also the harmony constructed on that degree.
- Microtonality
- Music using pitch intervals smaller than, or differently divided from, standard semitones.
- Modal interchange
- The borrowing of chords from parallel modes for expressive harmonic contrast.
- Modulation
- A shift of tonal center that changes the listener’s sense of harmonic home.
- Neapolitan chord
- A major chord on the lowered second degree, frequently heard in first inversion.
- Nonchord tone
- A melodic pitch outside the supporting harmony, such as a passing or neighboring note.
- Octatonic scale
- An eight-note scale built from strictly alternating whole steps and half steps.
- Parallel key
- A major and minor key sharing the same tonic pitch.
- Pedal point
- A sustained or repeated tone under changing harmonies, often in the bass.
- Pentatonic scale
- A five-note scale family used in numerous traditions, with many distinct interval patterns.
- Picardy third
- A major tonic chord ending a passage otherwise written in a minor mode.
- Plagal cadence
- A movement from subdominant to tonic, often associated with an “Amen” ending.
- Polychord
- A combination of distinct chord structures sounded together to create a composite harmony.
- Polytonality
- The simultaneous suggestion or use of more than one tonal center.
- Quartal harmony
- Chords constructed chiefly by stacking fourths rather than thirds.
- Relative key
- Major and minor keys that share the same key signature.
- Secondary dominant
- A dominant-function chord temporarily pointing toward a harmony other than the tonic.
- Solfège
- A method of singing pitches on syllables such as do, re, and mi to train the ear and sight-reading.
- Suspension
- A held tone that becomes dissonant against new harmony before moving to resolution.
- Tonic
- The central pitch or harmony around which a tonal passage is organized.
- Tritone
- An interval spanning three whole tones, historically important for harmonic tension.
- Voice leading
- The motion of individual parts between harmonies, balancing smooth connection and melodic purpose.
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