|
|
Music Glossary A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U W X Y Z 1 3 - background music
- Music used in place of silence that may or may not have lyrics.
Contrast with foreground music.
- Beat
- Any pulsing unit of musical time is considered a beat. In metered music, the first pulse or beat of each bar is the "downbeat" and it is the accent which is normally most strongly emphasized. In some music -- notably jazz and rock -- the main emphasis often falls on one of the "afterbeats" or "backbeats" of the bar. Of course these descriptions betray Eurocentric attitudes. Beat also refers to the overall musical performance in jazz music.
- Behind the Beat
- This musical performance technique, usually a characteristic of an individual performer's style, occurs when a singer or instrumentalist deliberately sounds the notes slightly after the beat set by the rhythm section or as set by the rest of the ensemble. This technique is most often found in reference to jazz stylings but can be used in blues and rock as well. Behind the beat methods are never properly employed in any classical idiom.
- Bikutsi
- Bikutsi is a rhythmic style which originated with the Beti people of present day Cameroon. Literally it means to "thump the earth" which gives a strong indication that the Beti are what anthropologists would call "dirt affirming people"; that is, they recognize many aspects of human nature including those that are sexually driven. In origins the bikutsi rhythms were war and blood affirming. The music would call the people together by resounding through the forest. Such calls were made for requisite vengeance against other groups. These heavily energetic rhythms were meant to enjoin one's blood to boil -- in the figurative sense -- for the cause of war. Rhythmic dances of the bikutsi were preserved by the women as a response to Christian missionaries who attempted to "save" the people from their own "sinful" expressions. Story telling occurred followed by dances in which the shaking of the shoulders, back and buttocks were followed by a series of clapping. The dances are still performed and the fighting concepts have been removed. Sexual underpinnings and fantasies as told in the stories of the women clearly remain in the bikutsi rhythms.
- Boost
- To increase gain, especially to increase gain at specific frequencies with an equalizer.
- Boot
- Starting up a computer by loading a program that allows it to run other programs. The term comes from bootstrapping which means that the computer "pulls itself up by its own bootstraps."
- Bridge
- 1. Transitional passage connecting two sections of a composition.
2. That part of a stringed instrument which supports the strings.
- Broken Time
- All pieces of music in the Western tradition state the time signature and key signature at the beginning of the score. Many works are written in 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, 3/8, and 6/8 time frames; other time signatures are used but these are the most common. In the process of composing a piece of music, the writer may chose to change the time signature. Sometimes it will be just for a measure or two and on other occasions the change will require a major divergence in the composition. These small measured changes are referred to as "broken time" where a transition may occur or syllabic composing will call for a slight interruption from the original time signature. 4/4, when interrupted, often changes to 2/4. Broken time can also refer to stuttered time signatures such a 5/4 or 7/8 which, for the novice performer and listener, can be quite unsettling.
- Bug
- An error in a computer program that causes it to work incorrectly.
- Bulk Dump
- Short for System Exclusive Bulk Dump (a method of transmitting data, such as the internal parameters of a
MIDI device to another MIDI device).
- Busker
- A street performer; in music, a person who plays music on the street.
- Buss (Bus)
- A wire carrying signals to some place, usually fed from several sources.
- Byte
- A grouping of eight information bits.
- byte
- A group of eight bits together.
|
|
Music Glossary 
