Pursuant to yesterday's post, here's a list of terms that I compiled for distribution in my aural skills class. These are terms with which every music student should be acquainted.
Definitions should be easily available. Most sight singing textbooks have appendices with a glossary; orchestra folders tend to have terms on the inside pockets; dictionaries of music are good...
I'm also particularly interested not only having a student write the term down, but (as I illustrated yesterday) apply the terms in context. I'd rather the student know that Andante falls in between Largo and Allegro as opposed to giving me some metronome marking. I'd prefer students be able to comprehend what Allegro con brio or Poco meno mosso means as opposed to giving me a definition of poco, a definition of meno, and a definition of mosso.
UPDATE: Here are links to the list as a Word file and as a PDF:
1. accelerando
2. adagio
3. affettuoso
4. agitato
5. al
6. allargando
7. allegretto
8. allegro
9. amoroso
10. andante
11. andantino
12. animato
13. a piacere
14. appassionato
15. assai
16. a tempo
17. attacca
18. bewegt
19. brio
20. cantabile
21. comodo (also commodo)
22. con
23. crescendo
24. da capo
25. dal segno
26. decrescendo (or diminuendo)
27. dolce
28. espressivo
29. fine
30. fuoco
31. giocoso
32. grave
33. l’istesso tempo
34. langsam
35. largamente
36. largo
37. larghetto
38. largo
39. leggiero
40. lento
41. maestoso
42. meno
43. mezzo
44. moderato
45. molto
46. morendo
47. mosso
48. moto
49. niente
50. non tanto
51. non troppo
52. ossia
53. pesante
54. poco
55. presto
56. rallentando
57. rubato
58. sans
59. scherzando
60. sempre
61. sostenuto
62. stringendo
63. tenuto
64. vivace
65. vivo
Definitions should be easily available. Most sight singing textbooks have appendices with a glossary; orchestra folders tend to have terms on the inside pockets; dictionaries of music are good...
I'm also particularly interested not only having a student write the term down, but (as I illustrated yesterday) apply the terms in context. I'd rather the student know that Andante falls in between Largo and Allegro as opposed to giving me some metronome marking. I'd prefer students be able to comprehend what Allegro con brio or Poco meno mosso means as opposed to giving me a definition of poco, a definition of meno, and a definition of mosso.
UPDATE: Here are links to the list as a Word file and as a PDF: