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Music Terms Glossary - I
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

idee fixe (French, "fixed idea") Term used by Berlioz for the theme representing his beloved in every movement of his Symphonie fantastique.

imitation The successive repetition in different voices of a single musical idea.

Impressionism A French art movement of the late nineteenth century that rejected Romanticism in favor of fleeting, informal scenes from everyday life. improvisation The spontaneous, on-the-spot creation of music, preserved today largely in jazz but common in Western music well into the nineteenth century. incidental music Music performed before and during a play to intensify the mood.

intermedio In the Renaissance, a musical entertainment between the acts of a play.

interpretation The manner in which a performer carries out a composer's performance directions.

interval The acoustical distance between two pitches, usually reckoned by the number of intervening scale degrees.

introduction A passage or section, often in a slow tempo, that prepares the way for a more extended section.

inversion The playing of a melody upside down, with upward intervals played downwards and vice verse, most common in contrapuntal and serial music.

irregular meter The mixture at a single rhythmic level of more than one metric grouping.

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