The uxbridge music dictionary

[Young Col]

Inspired by Daveysaxboy's invention of the word "vibratrate" (which still needs a definition)and in the same vein as a more general round in BBC radio 4's Sorry I haven't a Clue, I thought we should attempt to compile an on line dictionary of musical definitions. There may have been earlier threads on this, but I don't think it has been pulled together comprehensively. It is of course a companion to that other well known serious work, Groves.
I'm grateful to OG for the correct name for this work.

Here for starters are some definitions that have occurred to me.

Supertonic - a strong mixer to go with your gin
Neapolitan 6th - a mixture of ice cream flavours only sold to musos who understand complicated chords
Key centre - the shop next to Plumb Centre where you get spare door locks and the like
Plagal cadence - the end of the bubonic era
Minor third - the youngest in a more or less average sized family

More contributions welcome

YC

 

[jadoube]

Warped tone hole - hiding place for ex prime minister
Level tone hole - burial place for ex prime minister
Keilwerth - salvage price of beached sailing boat
Metronome - Swiss underground railway
Alla Breve - audience instruction given after a particulalry dramatic piece of italian opera
Passing notes - cheating during examination
Cadence - the behaviour of an absolute bounder
Common time - come the revolution
Harmony - drunk Scotsman's invitation to fight all comers
Staccato - a pizza piled high with potato chips

 

[Taz]

Legere - a reed to take things at a slower pace of life.
Accompaniment - anything with chips and brown sauce
Backing tracks - an escape route out of an awkward gig

 

[Chris]

altisssimo- A new brand of coffee
accent- Local dialect
anima- A mouse in your sax case
bridge- Humber, London,Tower etc
capo- Headgear for sax players
dolissimo- Sweet Coffee
hemiola- Painfull medical condition
rubato- Rub hard( if you get cramp in your fingers)

 

[Young Col]

These are all important contributions and highly enlightening! More please.....

 

[Chris]

allegro- Old car
alt- slang for "halt or stop"
comodo- Far eastern lizzard
con moto- Car salesman
cut time- Work to rule
doppio movimento- that was a bad curry last night
flat- student housing
G.P.- Family doctor
geshwind- Darn that cucumber
mancando- Male Multi-tasking
MG- Sports car
movent- The result of to much beer
Portato- Root vegetable
stringendo- Broken guitar string
time- What a landlord calls

 

[old git]

I'm grateful to OG for the correct name for this work.

Here for starters are some definitions that have occurred to me.

Plagal cadence - the end of the bubonic era

YC

Thank you for the attribution but with my pedant's hat on, it is imperative to correct your Plagal cadence definition from "bubonic" to "pneumonic".

Apologies for being serious.

 

[Young Col]

Apologies. Bubonic was the stuff the Queen Mother used to drink. Mixed with a supertonic, naturally.

 

[Chris]

agiatto- Shake sax
animandosi- Lazy guard dog
con calore- Low fat chilli
down tempo- Stop work
fine- What you get for parking on yellow lines
freddo- Andrew Flintoff
lilt- Soft drink
Moll- gangsters girlfriend
saltando- Goes with chips
tenor- The amount you need to borrow till payday

 

[Taz]

Chris, you've definitely got too much time on your hands! ))))

 

[Chris]

Just the odd 10/15 mins away from practice Taz... HONEST!!!;};}

Chris

 

[old git]

Divertimento - Buying the missus a new handbag and hoping she wont notice the Two Voices.

 

[BigMartin]

Da Capo --- Tony Soprano
Soprano --- see Da Capo

 

[old git]

Diva - Olympic Pool Competitor
Contralto - Keep going despite the red light
Bass - A good brew
Grove's - A place for Druids
Crescendo - Surfer's wipeout
Dimuendo - Funeral of someone thick

Apologies for being serious.

 

[Young Col]

Blues - Chelsea FC
Timbre - what you shout when a tree is falling
Tre corde - that device Mr Spock uses in Star Trek
Bombardon - an early type of canon (sic)

 

[old git]

Con Brio - How the CaSLM operates

Apologies for being serious.

 

[Young Col]

This from a friend - guitarist, but never mind

Rallentando - a meeting of bicycles built for two
Flattened fifth - one's little finger after an unfortunate hammer incident
Middle eight - a centrally mounted V8 lump
pizzicato - Italian food for cats
flatulant - a piece with no sharps
sheet music - music of little merit

YC

 

[old git]

Gregorian Chant - Dissing Greg
Capriccio - A Ford car sneeze
Baroque - Strongly rhythmic common time music, usually enhanced by alcohol
Concerto - Injury to children's pedal extremities during autumn
Forte - An excellent brand of ice cream sundae
Fugue - An extremely rude expression
Chorale - Praise for a beer


Apologies for being serious.

 

[jadoube]

Compound time - a spell in jail
Modulation - excessively admiring Kevgermany
Duplet - someone over-charged rent
Septolet - renting ones home out until the end of the Edinburgh festival
Sextolet - ****** for rent (to comply with rules)
Bar line - queue of musicians
Celere - a shorter species of green stringy vegetable
Stringendo - a musical piece with two ends
Veloce - a musical bicycle

 

[old git]

Bridge - The middle eight of Troubled Water
Con Moto - Latest modification of my Zimmer Frame
Largo - Irish Pilsner
Detaché - A chute in Le Tour
Come Prima - One of Louis' gigs
Broken Chord - Jerry Lee Lewis has played this piano; alternatively:- A keyboard with plastic keys
Homophony - Sorry. Don't want to get banned