#19 MUSICAL TERMS

1.   Sfogato – Italian – “Exhaled” – to sing lightly, airily

2.   Sforzando – Italian – Written sfz, sf – To perform the note with special stress or sudden emphasis

3.   Sfumato – Italian – very lightly, like a vanishing smoke-wreath

4.   Shading – The interpretation of a piece of music through dynamics and tempo for artistic effect

5.   Shanty – A characteristic song of the English working class in olden times

6.   Sharp - # - The character which raises the pitch of the note by a semitone

7.   Sharp (adjective) – Too high of a pitch.

8.   Shawm – A medieval high-pitched wind instrument

9.   Shofar – An ancient Jewish ritual trumpet made from a ram’s horn

10. Sight reading – The ability to read unfamiliar music with ease

11. Signature – The signs set at the head of the staff at the beginning of a piece or movement

Key signature – the sharps or flats in the piece

Time signature – how the measures are divided

12. Silenzio – Italian – “Silence” –

Lurgo silenzio – a long pause

13. Similar Motion – voices moving in the same direction

14. Simile – Italian – “Similarly” – perform the next measures the same way as the preceding measures

15. Sinfonia – Italian – An opera overture

Schirmer Pocket Manual of Musical Terms, Edited by Theodore Baker, Macmillan Publishing Co., 1978