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Music Terms Glossary - F
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

Fauvism The French version of Austro-German Expressionism.

fermata In musical notation, a sign (-) indicating the prolongation of a note or rest beyond its notated value.

figure (1) In Baroque and Classical music, the numbers below a staff designating the harmonies to be filled in above; (2) a general term for a brief melodic pattern.

figured bass The Baroque system of adding figures to a bass line, indicating what harmonies are to be improvised on each beat.

final In plainchant, the concluding note in a mode; corresponds roughly to the tonic note in a tonal scale.

finale (1) The last movement of an instrumental work; (2) the large ensemble that concludes an act in an opera.

fine arts The realm of human experience characterized as aesthetic rather than practical or utilitarian, including music, painting, dance, theater, and film.

fingerboard A piece of wood extending from the body of a string instrument; the strings are attached to the end of the fingerboard.

flat (1) In musical notation, a sign (6) indicating that the note it precedes is to be played a half step lower; (2) the term used to specify a particular note, for example, B6.

FMsynthesis Frequency-modulation synthesis;a superior version of electronic synthesis introduced in the consumer market by Yamaha in 1982.

folk music Music indigenous to a particular ethnic group, usually preserved and transmitted orally.

form A term used to designate standardized musical shapes, such as binary form or sonata form.

forte; fortissimo Loud; very loud.

fortepiano The wooden-framed eighteenth-century piano used by Mozart, Haydn, and their contemporaries.

fragmentation The technique of developing a them,, by dividing it into smaller units, most common in the music of the Viennese Classicists.

frequency In acoustics, the number of times per second that the air carrying a sound vibrates as a wave. fret A raised strip across the fingerboard of a stringed instrument, designed to produce a specific pitch when stopped at that point.

frottola A light, popular Italian song, a precursor of the Italian madrigal.

fugato A fugal passage within a composition.

fugue A polyphonic composition that makes systematic use of imitation, usually based on a single subject, and that opens with a series of exposed entries on that subject.

fundamental The basic pitch of a tone.

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