| A | B |
|---|
| Aria | Song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment found in operas, oratorios and cantatas |
| Cantata | A composition in several movements for solo voices, instruments, and chorus based on a religious text. |
| Chorale | Hymn tune sung to a German religious text |
| Dies Irae | The traditional Gregorian chant sung at funerals |
| Humanism | An intellectual idea focused on human life and its accomplishments |
| Madrigals | Composition fo several solo voices set to a short secular poem, combining homophonic and polyphonic textures and often using word painting. |
| Mass Ordinary | Roman Catholic church texts that remain the same from day to day throut most of the year. |
| Mass Proper | The portion of the Mass that is changed or "proper" for a designated day in the church year |
| Modes | Scales containing seven tones with an eighth tone duplicating the first an octave higher, not major and minor |
| Recitative | Vocal line in a opera, oratorio or cantata that imitates expressive speech |
| Strophic | A song in which several verses of words are sung to the same melody |
| subject | The main theme of a fugue |
| Suite | A collection or group of stylized pieces of dance music |
| Terraced dynamics | Abrupt alternation between loud and soft dynamic levels; characteristic of Baroque music |
| Word painting | The compositional technique of having the musical sounds reinforce the words |
