Year 9 End of Year Test Revision

Music in Theatre

Opera Musical theatre

Sung throughout with orchestral Can be sung throughout, or a

accompaniment mixture of spoken and sung
No amplification of voices Microphones to amplify voices
Recitative to move action along Recitative to move action along
Arias, duets, ensembles Ballads, comedy songs, action
songs, production numbers

Incidental music

Background music while action

happens
Underscoring
Music that characters can hear, or
music that they cannot.
Atmospheric
Builds tension

Recitative a device used in opera or musical theatre to move the story along. Lines
sung to single or few notes in speech rhythm.

Staccato detached, spiky playing

Tremolo strings trembling effect on violins or other string instruments. Builds

tension.

Ballad slow, sad song with lush string accompaniment. Big, powerful number in a
musical.

Comedy song funny number to release tension in the middle of an act.

Elements of Music

Dynamics - the loudness and softness of the music. Sometimes this is called volume. Music
often changes volume gradually and goes from loud to soft or from soft to loud.

Pitch - the highness or lowness of notes in the music. Most pieces of music use a mixture of
high and low sounds. Some instruments, for example the tuba, can play very low notes,
whereas smaller instruments, such as the piccolo, can play very high notes.

Tempo - the speed of the music, whether it is fast or slow. Does the music speed up or slow
down or does it stay at the same tempo throughout?

Texture - how many layers or voices are in a piece. If there are a lot of instruments playing at
once the texture is thick; if there are only one or two instruments playing the texture is thin.
You can build up the texture from thin to thick, or reduce it from thick to thin.
 Year 9 End of Year Test Revision

Instrumentation - every instrument has its own tone colour or timbre. For example, a metal
instrument sounds different from a wooden one, and hitting the skin of a drum sounds
different from blowing a recorder.