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| Early-seventeenth-century type of madrigals for one or more voices accompanied by basso continuo and in some cases by other instruments. |
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| A pattern in the bass that repeats while the melody above it changes. |
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| Form of Lutheran church music in the eighteenth century, combining poetic texts with texts drawn from chorales or the Bible, and including recitatives, arias, chorale settings, and usually one or more choruses. |
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| In the seventeenth century, a composition on a sacred text for one or more singers and instrumental accompaniment. |
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| Genre of dramatic music that originated in the seventeenth century, combining narrative, dialogue, and commentary through arias, recitatives, ensembles, choruses, and instrumental music, like an unstaged opera. Usually on a religious or biblical subject. |
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| Pieces in dance rhythms, whether independent, paired, or linked together in a suite. Not generally danced to. |
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| The process of reworking a given melody, song, theme, or other musical idea, or the resulting varied form of it. Form that presents an uninterrupted series of variants (each called a variation) on a theme; the theme may be a melody, a bass line, a harmonic plan, or other musical subject. |
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| English genre of solo song with lute accompaniment. |
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| A system of notation used for lute or other plucked string instrument that tells the player which strings to pluck and where to place the fingers on the strings, rather than indicating which notes will result. |
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| English name for harpsichord, that is small enough to place on a table, with a single keyboard and strings running at right angles to the keys rather than parallel with them as in larger harpsichords. |
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| Piece for keyboard instrument or lute resembling an improvisation that may include imitative sections or may serve as a prelude to an independent fugue. |
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| A prelude in the style of an improvisation. From the late sixteenth century on, an instrumental piece that treats one or more subjects in imitation. Continuous genre, based on one motive. |
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| A serious form of opera popular during the romantic era, that was sung throughout and included ballets, choruses and spectacular staging. |
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