- Select Composer - C.P.E. Bach J.S. Bach L. Beethoven J. Brahms F. Chopin J. Desprez G. Dufay A. Dvorak G.F. Handel F. Haydn F. Liszt C. Monteverdi W.A. Mozart J. Ockeghem G. Palestrina H. Purcell F. Schubert R. Schumann A. Vivaldi

Chamber Music:
Instrumental music written for a small ensemble with two or more equal parts, dating from the time of Viennese Classical master Franz Joseph Haydn.

Clavichord:
A stringed keyboard instrument used from the 15th to 18th centuries, and coming back into use in the 1890s. It has a rectangular case with the keyboard in one of the long sides. Intended for private practice due to a very soft tone in concert use.

Concerto:
A multi-movement work in which an instrument is blended with orchestra or contrasted as a soloist.

Continuo (also "thoroughbass"):
An independent bass line sounding throughout a piece in repetition. Developed for ensemble music in Europe from ca. 1600 to 1750. The cembalist or organist played this bass which was doubled with the lowest vocal art.

"Empfindsamer Stil":
A mid-18th-century North German style of feeling and sentiment, and emotional and sensitive expression.

Fortepiano (also "pianoforte"):
The late 18th- and early 19th-century keyboards known to Haydn, Hummel, Beethoven, and Schubert; any of various early forms of the modern piano instrument.

Improvisation:
The creation of music during performance instead of a prewritten composition or a performance from memory.

Oratorio:
A sacred musical composition for solo vocalists, chorus, and orchestra. Performed without scenery or costumes and emphasizing narration; secular works also scored for a combination of solo singers, chorus, and orchestra.

Ornamentation:
Embellishment or decoration of a melody notated through small signs; modifying music usually through the addition of notes, such as grace notes

Sonata ("to sound"):
Instrumental composition in several movements for piano solo or instrumental combinations with piano accompaniment. Originated in the 16th century for any work played and not sung, becoming prevalent from the 17th century on.

Symphony ("a sounding together"):
Large-scale orchestral composition, usually in four movements. Some examples from the 19th and 20th centuries have explicit programs (Programmatic Symphony).