| W | after the catalogue of music by Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) prepared by Helga Schölz-Michelitsch | ||||||||
| after the catalogue of music by Richard Wagner (1813-1883) prepared by John Deathridge, Martin Geck and Egon Voss (b.1937) | |||||||||
| also Wq, after Alfred Wotquenne (1867-1939), the cataloguer of music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) | |||||||||
| reference to Gérard Zwang's catalogue of the secular cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) | |||||||||
| referring to the catalogue prepared by Chappell White of music by Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755-1824) | |||||||||
| referring to the catalogue prepared by Monika Willer of the concertos by Johann Gottlieb Graun (1703-1771) | |||||||||
| referring to the list of works in the appendices to the book about Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) by David P. Appleby | |||||||||
| referring to the catalogue prepared by Alexander Weinmann of the works of Johann Baptist Vanhal (1739-1813) | |||||||||
| W | abbreviation of Werke (German: work, piece), 'west', 'western' | ||||||||
| W. | abbreviation of 'Wednesday', 'west', 'western' | ||||||||
| w. | abbreviation of 'warm', 'week', 'weight', 'white' | ||||||||
| WA | abbreviation of 'Western Australia' | ||||||||
| Wa | from Burma, castanets held together by a metal hinge. The player's thumb and index finger pass through the leather cords connected to both halves of the castanet. This instrument forms a pair with the si. The singer holds the si in the right hand and the wa in the left playing opposing rhythms. Weak beats are sounded on the si, and strong beats on the wa | ||||||||
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| Waage | (German f.) scales (for weighing) | ||||||||
| waagebalken | (German m.) balance rail [entry supplied by Michael Zapf] | ||||||||
| waagerecht | (German) horizontal, horizontally | ||||||||
| Waarde | (Dutch) value | ||||||||
| Waardestreep | (Dutch) beam | ||||||||
| WAB | referring to the catalogue prepared by Renate Grasberger of music by Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) | ||||||||
| Wabe | (German f.) honeycomb | ||||||||
| wach | (German) awake, alert | ||||||||
| Wache | (German m.) guard, sentry, guard duty, watch (at sea) | ||||||||
| Wache halten | (German) keep watch | ||||||||
| wachen | (German) to be awake | ||||||||
| wachen über | (German) to watch over | ||||||||
| Wache stehen | (German) stand guarad | ||||||||
| wachhund | (German m.) guard-dog | ||||||||
| Wacholder | (German m.) juniper | ||||||||
| Wachposten | (German m.) sentry | ||||||||
| Wachs | (German n.) wax | ||||||||
| wachsam | (German) vigilant, vigilantly | ||||||||
| Wachsamkeit | (German f.) vigilance | ||||||||
| wachsen | (German) to grow, to wax | ||||||||
| wachsend | (German, literally 'growing') increasing, crescendo | ||||||||
| Wachsfigur | (German f.) waxwork | ||||||||
| Wachstuch | (German n.) oil-cloth | ||||||||
| Wachstum | (German n.) growth | ||||||||
| Wachstumring | (German m.) a growth ring | ||||||||
| Wachte | (German) see custos | ||||||||
| Wachtel | (German f., literally 'quail') an instrument imitating the bird-cry of the quail | ||||||||
| Wachtelpfeife | (German f.) see wachtel | ||||||||
| Wächter | (German m.) guard, keeper, attendant | ||||||||
| Wächterlied | (German n.) watchman's-song, one of the Minnesinger counterparts of the alba of the Provençal toubadours and one form of the Tagelied of the German Minnesinger, all of which depict the separation of two lovers at the break of day. Specific to the Wächterlied, the trusted watchman warns the knight to depart | ||||||||
| Wachtmeister | (German m.) (police) constable | ||||||||
| Wachturm | (German m.) watch-tower | ||||||||
| wach werden | (German) to wake up | ||||||||
| wackelig | (German) or wacklig, wobbly, rickety, shaky (person) | ||||||||
| Wackelkontakt | (German m.) loose contact | ||||||||
| wackeln | (German) to wobble, to shake, to totter | ||||||||
| wacklig | see wackelig | ||||||||
| Wa-daiko | (Japanese) Japanese drum | ||||||||
| Wade | (German f.) calf (part of the leg) | ||||||||
| Wadex | abbreviation of 'word and author index' | ||||||||
| Wadi | (Arabic) a dry water-course, a gulley | ||||||||
| Wadmel | or hodden, a coarse cloth made of undyed wool, formerly much worn by the peasantry of Scotland | ||||||||
| Waffe (s.), Waffen (pl.) | (German f.) weapon, arms (plural form) | ||||||||
| Waffel | (German f.) waffle, wafer (with ice-cream) | ||||||||
| Waffenruhe | (German f.) cease-fire | ||||||||
| Waffenstillstand | (German m.) armistice | ||||||||
| Wagemut | (German m.) daring | ||||||||
| wagemutig | (German) daring, daringly | ||||||||
| Wagen | (German m.) cart, carriage, coach, pram, car | ||||||||
| wagen | (German) to risk | ||||||||
| Wagenheber | (German m.) (car) jack | ||||||||
| Wagenseil-Verzeichnis | catalogue of the orchestral works of Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) prepared by Helga Schölz-Michelitsch | ||||||||
| Waggon | (German m.) wagon | ||||||||
| waghalsig | (German) daring, daringly | ||||||||
| Wagnerian rock | a musical genre that was created by Jim Steinman due to his love for the music of Richard Wagner and Phil Spector. The genre is a merger (almost a musical hybrid) of twentieth century Rock & Roll and nineteenth century Opera reminiscent that of Wagner's and Spector's, and not to say the least, with a major distinctive touch of Steinman's own musical skills. The genre can be argued to be a subform of Rock opera | ||||||||
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| Wagner tuba | Wagnertuba (German f.), tuba wagneriana (Italian f., Spanish f.), Waldhorntuba (German f.), tuba ténor (French m.), tuba Wagner (French m.), tuba wagnérien (French m.) | ||||||||
| brass instrument invented by Richard Wagner (1813-83) derived from the French horn although looking like a baritone horn | |||||||||
| available as a B-flat tenor and an F bass, and usually played by members of the horn section | |||||||||
| Wagnertuba (s.), Wagnertuben (pl.) | (German f.) Wagner tuba, tuba wagneriana (Italian f., Spanish f.), Waldhorntuba (German f.), tuba ténor (French m.), tuba Wagner (French m.), tuba wagnérien (French m.) | ||||||||
| Wagnis | (German n.) risk | ||||||||
| Wagon | (French m.) carriage (for passengers), wagon (for goods) | ||||||||
| Wagon-lit | (French m.) a sleeping-coach on a Continental train | ||||||||
| Wagonwheel | one of the big circle figures danced by all couples in one large circle facing the centre which are traditionally associated with square dancing | ||||||||
| Wagonghu | a Korean harp with thirteen strings attached diagonally to a soundbox | ||||||||
| Wagon-lit | (French m.) sleeping-car (train) | ||||||||
| Wagon-restaurant | (French m.) dining-car (train) | ||||||||
| Wahine tunings | slack-key guitar tunings based on a major-seventh | ||||||||
| Wahl | (German f.) choice, election, ballot | ||||||||
| wählen | (German) to choose, to elect, to vote, to dial (telephone) | ||||||||
| wahlfrei | (German) optional | ||||||||
| Wähler (m.), Wählerin (f.) | (German) voter | ||||||||
| wählerisch | (German) choosy, fussy | ||||||||
| Wahlfach | (German n.) optional subject | ||||||||
| wahlfrei | (German) optional | ||||||||
| Wahlkampf | (German m.) election campaign | ||||||||
| Wahlkreis | (German m.) consistuency | ||||||||
| Wahllokal | (German n.) polling-station | ||||||||
| wahllos | (German) indiscriminate. indiscriminately | ||||||||
| Wahlrecht | (German n.) right to vote | ||||||||
| Wählscheibe | (German f.) (telephone) dial | ||||||||
| Wahlspruch | (German m.) motto | ||||||||
| Wahlurne | (German f.) ballot-box | ||||||||
| Wahlverwandtschaft (s.), Wahlverwandtschaften (pl.) | (German f.) a natural sympathy and intuitive understanding between two persons | ||||||||
| Wahn | (German m.) delusion, mania | ||||||||
| wähnen | (German) to believe | ||||||||
| Wahnsinn | (German m.) madness | ||||||||
| wahnsinnig | (German) mad, insane, crazy, terrible | ||||||||
| wahnsinnig werden | (German) go mad, terribly | ||||||||
| Wahnsinnige (m.), Wahnsinniger (f.) | (German) maniac | ||||||||
| Wahnvorstellung | (German f.) deception, delusion | ||||||||
| wahr | (German) true, real | ||||||||
| wahren | (German) to keep, to safeguard | ||||||||
| währen | (German) to last | ||||||||
| während | (German) during, while, whereas | ||||||||
| währenddessen | (German) in the meantime | ||||||||
| wahrhaftig | (German) really, truly | ||||||||
| Wahrheit | (German f.) truth | ||||||||
| wahrheitsgemäß | (German) truthful, truthfully | ||||||||
| wahrnehmbar | (German) perceptible | ||||||||
| wahrnehmen | (German) to notice, to take advantage of, to exploit, to look after | ||||||||
| Wahrnehmung | (German f.) perception | ||||||||
| wahrsagen | (German) to predict | ||||||||
| Wahrsagerin | (German f.) fortuneteller | ||||||||
| wahrscheinlich | (German) probable, probably | ||||||||
| Wahrscheinlichkeit | (German f.) probability | ||||||||
| Währung | (German f.) currency | ||||||||
| wahr werden | (German) to come true | ||||||||
| Wahrzeichen | (German n.) symbol | ||||||||
| Wah-wah | (English, German m.) in jazz, an onomatopoetic term that describes the undulating sound produced by alternatingly dampening, then restoring, a portion of a tone, for example, on brass instruments by muting, on electric guitars through the use of an electronic device, placed on the floor and operated with the player's foot | ||||||||
| Wah-Wah mute | or 'plunger mute', used on brass instruments, a mute shaped like a 'plumber's helper', used to create wah-wah sounds as it is held and moved in front of the instrument's bell while a note is being played | ||||||||
| Wah-wah pedal | a foot operated device used by an electric guitarist and bassist which modulates the output by removing low frequencies and boosts high frequencies producing the characteristic wah-wah effect | ||||||||
| Waiata | (Maori, literally 'singing') songs that were not first written down until early in the 20th-century | ||||||||
| Waila music | see 'chicken scratch' | ||||||||
| Wailing | piangendo (Italian), klagend (German), plaintif (French m.), plaintive (French f.) | ||||||||
| Waise | (German f.) orphan | ||||||||
| (German f.) an unrhymed line in poetry, which, in German poetry, when marked the rhyme scheme, would be indicated with a small x (the rhyming lines would be marked with small a, b, c, etc.) | |||||||||
| Waisenhaus | (German n.) orphanage | ||||||||
| Waisenkind | (German n.) orphan | ||||||||
| Waist | a narrowing in the middle of the body of an instrument, resulting in a shape like an hourglass, typically found in string instruments, and on some drums | ||||||||
| (of a bell) the middle area of the bell wall | |||||||||
| Wait | also 'wayte' or 'wayghte', a medieval salaried musician who originally acted as a town watchman, equivalent to the German Stadtpfeifer | ||||||||
| waits originally seem to have been watchmen or sentinels in camps, castles, and other fortified places, including towns, and to have played some kind of horn as an alarm or signal. By the fifteenth century towns were becoming the characteristic employers of waits, and in some towns waits were coming to be regarded as musicians primarily and watchmen secondarily. By the end of the sixteenth century the transition was general if not complete: waits were then municipal musicians, who had traditional but relatively unimportant guardian functions. Well before this time the waits of London had achieved musical importance because they were, except for the King's Musick, the only permanent, secular musical organization in London, and because they may have been the only organization in England regularly giving public concerts [from Musicians In English Society From Elizabeth To Charles I by Woodfill] | |||||||||
| a street musician who performed songs and music as part of Christmas celebrations | |||||||||
| old name for a shawm | |||||||||
| Waji | (Afghanistan) arched harp | ||||||||
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| Waka | or yamato uta, a genre of Japanese poetry closely related to the tanka, consisting of alternate five- and seven-syllable lines. The primary difference seems to be that the word waka dates back to the sixth century BC, while the more familiar terms tanka and uta date back to an eighth-century CE poetry anthology, the Manyoshu | ||||||||
| Waka-pinkullus | Andean single-register mouthpiece flutes | ||||||||
| Wakes | originally the celebration of the feast day of a particular saint, usually the parish church's patron saint, Wakes became local holidays, with village sports, dancing and other communal pastimes taking place on the saint's day and for several days afterwards | ||||||||
| Wal | (German m.) whale | ||||||||
| Walberswick Artists Colony | established in about 1880 as a 'seaside' artists colony. Early residents included Charles Keene and Phillip Wilson Steer. Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife lived here (1914/15) but were forced to return to London suspected of espionage after letters were found in their house from the Austrian Successionist painters | ||||||||
| Wald | (German n.) wood, forest | ||||||||
| Waldensians | sect organised in the 12th century in Lyons; the founder became a mendicant preacher and expounded against the worldliness of the established church; the sect survives today | ||||||||
| Waldesgespräch | (German n.) conversation in the woods | ||||||||
| Waldflöte | (German) shepherd's flute | ||||||||
| (German f., literally 'forest flute') or Waldflute, in an organ, a full-toned open metal flue pipe at 4 ft. and 2ft. pitch | |||||||||
| Waldhorn | (German n., literally 'forest horn') valveless hunting horn, winding-horn, French horn, corno (Italian m., Spanish m.), Horn (English, German n.), cor (French m.), cuerno (Spanish m.) | ||||||||
| (German n.) bugle | |||||||||
| Waldhorntuba (s.), Waldhorntuben (pl.) | (German f.) Wagner tuba, tuba wagneriana (Italian f., Spanish f.), Wagner-Tuba (German f.), tuba ténor (French m.), tuba Wagner (French m.), tuba wagnérien (French m.) | ||||||||
| waldig | (German) wooded | ||||||||
| Waldteufel | (German m.) bull-roarer, thunder stick, friction drum | ||||||||
| Waldzither | (German f.) a term that came into use around 1900, in order to distinguish citterns from zithers | ||||||||
| Wa let-hkok | from the Burmese classical orchestra, the saing waing, a split bamboo clapper | ||||||||
| Wali | work dances that are quite popular in the regions of Guinea in West Africa. It is performed in two sections, koukou and triba. Koukou is a Malinke dance from the Guinean highlands, and is a work dance for young men and women. Triba is shared with the Landouma of mid-Guinea; it is performed to celebrate their rice harvest | ||||||||
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| Waliser | (German m.) Welshman | ||||||||
| walisisch | (German) Welsh | ||||||||
| Walk | |||||||||
| Walkaround | also spelled 'walk-around' or 'walk around', or called a 'horay', a dance from the blackface minstrel shows of the 19th century. The 'walkaround' began in the 1840s as a dance for one performer, but by the 1850s, many dancers or the entire troupe participated | ||||||||
| Walkdown | or 'curtain call', when, at the end of a performance, the actors come to the front of the stage to take their bows | ||||||||
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| Walking bass | (English, German m.) a bass line that moves steadily in a rhythm contrasting to that of the upper parts | ||||||||
| in jazz, a 'walking bass' usually moves by steps played on bass or piano, with each note usually having the duration of a crotchet (quarter note) | |||||||||
| walking rhythm | (jazz term) a moving, four-beat rhythmic pattern, usually said of the bass line | ||||||||
| Walking stick flute | a flute elongated to the length of and finished to look like a gentleman's walking stick. Other wind instruments, e.g. flageolets, harmonicas, were similarly incorporated into gentlemen's walking sticks | ||||||||
| Walking stick violin | like the walking stick flute above, an instrument designed to be portable when disguised as a walking stick | ||||||||
| Walking tune | in Scandinavia, walking tunes have been used for marches or promenades for generations. More recently, walking tunes have also served as music for the pivot dance, snoa | ||||||||
| Wall | (German m.) mound, rampart | ||||||||
| Wallfahrer (m.), Wallfahrerin (f.) | (German) pilgrim | ||||||||
| Wallfahrt | (German f.) pilgrimage | ||||||||
| Wall of Sound | a phrase used to describe the effect created by the music production techniques of legendary record producer Phil Spector | ||||||||
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| Wallon (m.), Wallonne (f.) | (French) Walloon | ||||||||
| wallon (m.), wallonne (f.) | (French) Walloon | ||||||||
| Walnuß | (German f.) walnut | ||||||||
| Walnut | (German Walnuss, French Noyer, European Species: Juglans regia, American Species: J. nigra (Black walnut): Average Weight: 38 to 48 pounds per cubic foot) walnut was in use as a furniture wood in England from the Tudor period and from at least the 14th century on the continent. The statute of 1371 that formed the Paris Joiners' Guild mentions armoires of walnut as one of the guild's products. Walnut was the predominant furniture wood of the Renaissance in France and Italy. Walnut is reasonably strong, while still being workable. American Walnut is a close replacement, although a fair amount of "American" walnut is apparently really J. regia or a European/American hybrid | ||||||||
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| Walpurgisnacht | (German f.) the Eve of St.Walburga, the night before 1st May, when according to German belief witches and spirits are aboard to exercise their powers, hence, a witches' sabbath | ||||||||
| Wals | (Dutch) waltz | ||||||||
| Wals (cylinder) | (Dutch) barrel or cylinder (inside a barrel organ) | ||||||||
| Waltz | valzer (Italian), Walzer (German), valse (French) | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Chopin's surviving 19 waltzes (five he wrote as a child), along with his mazurkas and polonaises, were clearly not intended to be danced to. They marked the adoption of the waltz and other dance forms as serious composition genres | |||||||||
| Walz | (German) barrel or cylinder (inside a barrel organ) | ||||||||
| Walze | (German f.) an ascending or descending turn-like figure | ||||||||
| (German f.) in the 18th-century, a term used for musical figures such as the Alberti bass | |||||||||
| (German f.) the roll in a player piano | |||||||||
| (German f.) crook, corps de rechange | |||||||||
| (German f.) roller | |||||||||
| Walzeisen | (German n.) rolled iron | ||||||||
| wälzen | (German) to roll, to pore over (book), to mull over (problem) | ||||||||
| Walzenorchestrion | (German) barrel orchestrion | ||||||||
| Walzenorgel | (German) barrel organ | ||||||||
| Walzer | (German m.) waltz | ||||||||
| Walzer tanzen | (German) to (dance a) waltz | ||||||||
| Walzertempo | (German n.) waltz-time | ||||||||
| Walzsong | a song in waltz rhythm | ||||||||
| Wande | (German f.) wall, partition, side, face | ||||||||
| Wandel | (German) change | ||||||||
| wandelbar | (German) changeable | ||||||||
| wandeln | (German) to stroll | ||||||||
| Wanderbewegung | (German f., literally, 'trecking movement') a movement popular in post-World War I Germany, that promoted guitars, mandolins, and recorders as part of their cultural philosophy devoted to 'German' music, songs, and poetry. The lost war, the collapse of the monarchy, and the bloody street fighting that followed disgusted many young people at the time. They retreated into their own world by literally "heading for the hills." Drawing upon German romantic tradition, they thought that they could recapture the essence of German culture through a retreat to nature. Feeling betrayed and bewildered, they rejected their present world in search of what they thought would be more genuine, simpler values and traditions to be found in nature. In 1933 Hitler banned all independent youth groups in 1933. Germany had, and still has, many regional folk traditions of music and dance. Much of the 20th century, however, has seen German culture appropriated by the ruling powers (who fought "foreign" music at the same time). More recently, the East German regime promoted folk music as long as it was what they saw as an expression of pure German tradition, and a tool for spreading party propaganda. In both East and West Germany, folk songs called volkslieder were taught to children; these were popular, sunny and optimistic, and had little relation to authentic German folk traditions | ||||||||
| Wanderjahre | (German n. pl.) the years of wanderings, the years spent by a journeyman travelling from one workshop to another to gain knowledge and experience | ||||||||
| in literature, a period in a character's life during which he or she is absent from their normal routine, engaged in thought, travel, and a quest for novel experiences or insight | |||||||||
| Wanderlust | (German f.) fondness for travelling, an urge to see the world | ||||||||
| Wandervogel (s.), Wandervögel (pl.) | (German m.) a young person exploring the countryside or visiting foreign countries, usually in a simple, inexpensive way | ||||||||
| Wandindi | Kenyan guitar | ||||||||
| Wandler | (German m.) transformer | ||||||||
| Wandschoner | (German m.) wall covering | ||||||||
| Wangga | a musical genre of the Indigenous Australian people near the South Alligator River | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Wanham | see wolgeum | ||||||||
| wankend | (German) hesitating, wavering, shaking | ||||||||
| Wannaj | or zannaj, the Arabic harp, the name a loose phonectical prounciation from Syriac-Greek dialect word for 'phoenix' | ||||||||
| Wapa | (Bonaire) a graceful, rhythmic, shuffling dance that mimics the movements used in planting and harvesting | ||||||||
| see seú | |||||||||
| Wa patala | (Burmese) wooden xylophone | ||||||||
| War. | abbreviation of 'Warsaw', 'Warwickshire' | ||||||||
| Warble | sing, yodel | ||||||||
| Warbler | singer (colloquial) | ||||||||
| War dances | dances associated with preparations for war, in imitation of the acts of heroes, to celebrate the festivals of the gods of war, etc. | ||||||||
| Warden | head of a custody, or subsection of a province, within the Franciscan order | ||||||||
| (in medieval cooking) a hard pear with blackish bruises, prepared by baking or stewing | |||||||||
| Wardrobe | costumes, or the people responsible for them | ||||||||
| Wardrobe Master | the person in charge of the costume department | ||||||||
| Wardrobe Mistress | the person in charge of the costume department | ||||||||
| Warks. | abbreviation of 'Warwickshire' | ||||||||
| Warlekkoke | (Burmese) bamboo clappers | ||||||||
| Wärme | (German f.) warmth | ||||||||
| Warm up | exercise that prepares a player or singer, particularly designed to limber up the muscles | ||||||||
| Warpipes | the chanter has eight holes and plays a distinctive 'pipe scale' to which is added one tenor drone, tuned an octave below the chanter, and a bass drone tuned a further octave lower | ||||||||
| Warsaw Concerto | Richard Addinsell (1904-1977) has had the perhaps unfortunate fate of not only being eclipsed by a piece of his music, but by the name of a piece of his music. Say "Richard Addinsell" to people and they will ask, "Who?" But say Warsaw Concerto to them and they can probably hum it - at least they can if they are over about 50, listen to Classic FM, or are Spike Milligan fans. Warsaw Concerto was the Rachmaninov-like musical highlight of the film Dangerous Moonlight (1941) in which Polish piano virtuoso Stefan Radetzky escapes from Warsaw only to return to the war to fight | ||||||||
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| Wasaabi | Japanese horseradish, that has an unusual fluorescent green flesh, it has a very strong taste and is used greatly in Japanese cuisine | ||||||||
| Waschbrett | (German n.) washboard | ||||||||
| Wash. | abbreviation of 'Washington' | ||||||||
| Washboard | (English, French m., German n.) ) originally used to scrub laundry by hand and consisting of a wooden board or frame that holds a metal plate with a corrugated surface, the washboard has a musical use as a percussion instrument to add a "raspy" or scraping sound to the rhythm of a composition, a sound similar to that produced by a güiro | ||||||||
| Washi | (Japanese) or Wagami (Japanese), a type of paper made in Japan. Washi is commonly made using fibres from the bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub (Edgeworthia papyrifera), or the paper mulberry, but also can be made using bamboo, hemp, rice, and wheat | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Washint | an Ethiopian end-blown bamboo flute with four finger holes, similar to the foodhir and ney | ||||||||
| Washtub bass | or 'gutbucket', a folk instrument made from an overturned washtub (the resonator), broom handle (the neck), and a single string, the tension on the string being provided by pulling back and forth on the handle | ||||||||
| Wasla (s.), Waslat (pl.) | suites of instrumental and vocal pieces, a feature of urban-based performances of Arab music at the beginning of the 20th-century | ||||||||
| Wasli | also referred to as wasli paper, a type of paper used specifically for painting miniatures. It was devised in India, in the 10th century, and figures widely in Mughal-era painting | ||||||||
| Wasoulou | also wassoulou, wasoulou or wasulu, named for the Wasoulou region in southern Mali, a musical style from Mali, typified by a strong Arabic feel, practised by the jelis, the music-making caste whose hereditary role as 'praise singers' and musicians has, since the thirteenth century, been at the heart of professional Malian music. Today that monopoly has been broken and today wasoulou features also a new generation of (mostly female) artists referred to themselves as kono ('songbirds') | ||||||||
| Wassail | (from Anglo-Saxon for 'good health') a drinking festival, often mentioned in Christmas carols, associated particularly with the West Country of England, and with Twelfth Night and cider apple orchards. The West Country Wassail traditionally takes place on 17th January, the modern equivalent of the date of Twelfth Night of the Julian calendar (which was replaced with the Gregorian calendar in 1752). Accounts of the wassailing of fruit trees were recorded in St Albans in 1486 and Kent in 1586, while the 17th-century diarist John Aubrey wrote of the practice of toasted slices of bread being placed in the cider apple trees. Cecil Sharp recorded a wassail song on his early 20th-century study of English folk music | ||||||||
| Wasserklappe | (German f.) water key, chiave dell'acqua (Italian f.), clé d'eau (French f.), llave de agua (Spanish f.) | ||||||||
| Wassermusik | (German f.) water music | ||||||||
| Wasserorgel | (German f.) see hydraulus | ||||||||
| was soll ich anziehen? | (German) what shall I wear | ||||||||
| Wassoulou | see wasoulou | ||||||||
| Waste pallet | a valve in the organ bellows which allows superfluous air to escape | ||||||||
| Wasulu | see wasoulou | ||||||||
| Watcha watcha | the first genre of Malagasy pop music, a benga-inspired electric dance music from the northwest coast of the island | ||||||||
| Wate | (Fiji, Pacific Islands) or dele, a women's dance in which they sexually humiliated the corpses and captives | ||||||||
| Water drumming | or liquindi, percussion created by men or women who plunge, slap and beat their hands in the river to create a variety of rhythmic and melodic sounds for example, the Baka forest people of southeast Cameroon; West African drums made from large gourds, cut in half, scraped clean and carefully dried, before being filled with water (if the drum is large) or being placed cut-side down in the water (if the drum is smaller) | ||||||||
| Waterleaf | see 'sizing' | ||||||||
| Water gong | this is the name given to the effect of dipping a vibrating gong or small tam-tam into water. As the gong begins to submerge a downward glissando is produced and conversely as the gong is raised from the water, an upward glissando | ||||||||
| Water key | chiave dell'acqua (Italian f.), Wasserklappe (German f.), llave de agua (Spanish f.), clé d'eau (French f.), a convenient outlet for condensation and other moisture which collects in wind and brass instruments | ||||||||
| Waterleaf | a carved design for column capitals of simple sinuous foliate designs | ||||||||
| Water-gilding | the application of gold leaf to a wood substructure that has been prepared with layers of gesso and clay. The binder in this technique is traditionally rabbit skin glue. This technique offers the most brilliance possible in a gold finish. It is the most manipulable gold finish available, having the widest range of possibilities between matte and brilliant. A burnish water-gilt surface is the most reflective finish possible | ||||||||
| Watermark | identifying design, indented in paper, that distinguishes one paper-type from another | ||||||||
| Water organ | see hydraulus | ||||||||
| Waterphone | a percussion instrument with a bulbous body and a small funnel through which water is poured. There is are steel prongs welded around the outer edge. When the prongs are bowed or scraped with the finger nail, etc., the instrument produces an eerie, ethereal sound | ||||||||
| Waterside Cottages | established in Drayton St Leonard, Oxfordshire, in the 1880s, by C.R. Ashbee, as holiday cottages run by the Guild of Handicraft for its workers | ||||||||
| Watsa-watsa | popular Malagasy dance rhythm influenced by music from Mozambique and Congo | ||||||||
| wattierter Schlägel | (German m.) padded stick | ||||||||
| Watts, Dr. | see 'Dr. Watts' | ||||||||
| Waulking song | a traditional Gaelic song form, waulking is a process for fulling Harris tweed (making it more airtight). The word waulking is a Scots word from the 14th century meaning the same as "full" in English. The waulking process not only fulls the tweed but also shrinks it slightly. The term waulking was coined by a non-Gaelic speaker who saw a waulking done by the feet and modified the word 'walking'. Waulkings were done by both hand and foot, but more usually by hand. The Gaelic name for waulking songs is Orain Luaidh, luaidh translates to 'full'. In Scotland, waulking was done exclusively by women whereas in Cape Breton both men and women did it - waulking is often seen in Cape Breton at "milling frolics" | ||||||||
| Wau-wau-Dämfer | (German m.) wah-wah mute | ||||||||
| WAV | a standard format for digital sound, developed by Microsoft. WAV files produce extremely high sound quality but take up more space than MP3s | ||||||||
| Waveform | a sound wave generated by an oscillator to produce notes with different timbres, for example, sine, pulse, sawtooth, square | ||||||||
| Waveform generator | see 'signal generator' | ||||||||
| Wavelength | symbolically, the Greek lower-case lambda (λ) - the distance between one peak (or crest) of a sine wave and the next corresponding peak (or crest). The wavelength of any frequency may be found by dividing the speed of sound by the frequency. The lengths of the sound waves (wavelengths) we can hear range from one inch to 40 feet. High frequency sounds have short wavelengths (and are more directional), low frequency sounds have long wavelengths (and are less directional). In lighting terms, blue light is short wavelength, green is medium and red is long wavelength. Beyond visible light are the short wavelength 'ultra violet' light and the long wavelength 'infra red' light. Wavelengths of light are measured in Angstroms or metres | ||||||||
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| Wave organ | an acoustic sculpture constructed on the shore of San Francisco Bay by the Exploratorium. Through a series of pipes, the wave organ interacts with the waves of the bay and conveys their sound to listeners at several different stations. The effects produced vary depending on the level of the tide but include rumbles, gurgles, sloshes, hisses, and other more typical wave sounds. The structure incorporates stone platforms and benches where visitors may sit near the mouths of pipes, listening | ||||||||
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| Wavering | tremolando (Italian), zitternd (German), tremblant (French) | ||||||||
| Wavy | a type of damage on a card where it can no longer lie flat, the wavy surface having been caused by water damage. Because of paper's organic properties, it absorbs water and expands when wet. If left to dry without tension applied, the paper's fibres will lose moisture at different rates and shrink unevenly producing a wavy surface | ||||||||
| Wax paper | or waxed paper, a kind of paper that is made moisture proof through the application of wax. It is used in arts and crafts and in cooking | ||||||||
| Wayang | (Javanese) sophisticated shadow theatre from Java in which music is provided by a gamelan orchestra. There are three main types | ||||||||
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| Wayang purwa | one type of wayang kulit theatre that makes use of the purwa repertoire, the oldest stories about cosmic events and divine will . The Javanese word purwa means 'beginning' or 'first' and derives, probably, from the Sanskrit parwan, a word used to denote the chapter of the Mahabharata | ||||||||
| Wa ya zo | Lakota (Native American, also known as Sioux) word for the flute or whistle | ||||||||
| Wayghtes | see 'Waits' | ||||||||
| Waylacho | or hualaycho, a smaller, higher pitched, charango that is the same as or similar to the maulincho | ||||||||
| Way of the Cross, The | (Latin) also called Stations of the Cross, Via dolorosa or Via crusis, a devotion performed in succession in front of each of the fourteen representations of episodes in the Passion of Christ | ||||||||
| Wayte | an old name for the hautboy or shawm | ||||||||
| Waytes | see 'Waits' | ||||||||
| Wazn | in Arab music a wazn (plural, awzan) is a rhythmic pattern or cycle, literally translated as "measure" (also called darb, mizan, and usul) | ||||||||
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| wd | abbreviation of 'warranted', 'wood'. 'word', 'would' | ||||||||
| Wd. Bl. | abbreviation of 'wood block' | ||||||||
| WDR | in 1953 Westdeutscher Rundfunk (West German Radio) officially opened the first electronic music studio in Germany | ||||||||
| wdth | abbreviation of 'width' | ||||||||
| w/e | abbreviation of 'week ending', 'weekend' | ||||||||
| Weak | debole (Italian), schwach (German), débile (French) | ||||||||
| Weak declension | in linguistics, a Germanic/Teutonic noun or adjective that changes little from one declension to another. The consonant [n] is prominent in this declension | ||||||||
| Weak ending | in poetry, another term for a feminine ending, in which the last syllable of a metrical line is unstressed | ||||||||
| Weak verb | in linguistics, a Germanic verb whose principle parts require the addition of a dental suffix - i.e., typically a /d/ or a /t/ | ||||||||
| Weanalied (s.), Weanalieder (pl.) | (German n.) song sung in the Viennese dialect | ||||||||
| Weaping | piangendo (Italian), weinend (German), pleurant (French) | ||||||||
| Weary Blues, The | the literary career of James Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was launched in 1926 with a volume of jazz poems, The Weary Blues, written for performance with musical accompaniment in the famous Harlem clubs of the era. It captured both the 'Opportunity Prize' and the prestigious 'Spingarn Award' and financed for Hughes the completion of his university education at Lincoln, PA | ||||||||
| Weave a Basket | one of the big circle figures danced by all couples in one large circle facing the centre which are traditionally associated with square dancing | ||||||||
| Weaver, John (1673-1760) | a dancer and choreographer who is commonly known as the father of English pantomime | ||||||||
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| Weave the Ring | one of the big circle figures danced by all couples in one large circle facing the centre which are traditionally associated with square dancing | ||||||||
| Web | paper manufactured for use as a roll, for the printing of large volume items. Webs were invented in England by Thomas Crompton in 1820. A printing press that utilises paper from rolls is sometimes referred to as a web press | ||||||||
| Weber-Fechner law | the Weber-Fechner law attempts to describe the relationship between the physical magnitudes of stimuli and human perception of the intensity of stimuli. Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795-1878) was one of the first people to approach the study the human response to a physical stimulus in a quantitative fashion. Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801-1887) later offered an elaborate theoretical interpretation of Weber's findings, which he called simply Weber's law, though his admirers made the law's name a hyphenate. The relationship between stimulus and perception is logarithmic. This logarithmic relationship means that if the perception is altered in an arithmetic progression (i.e. add constant amounts) the corresponding stimulus varies as a geometric progression (i.e. multiply by a fixed factor). The point is that this logarithmic relationship is valid, not just for the sensation of weight (which was one of Weber's experiments), but for other stimuli as well. The perception of loudness gives rise to a logarithmic scale known as the decibel scale of sound intensity. And yet another is pitch. In the case of perception of pitch, humans hear pitch in a logarithmic or "geometric" ratio-based fashion. For instance, the "pitch distance" between 100 Hz and 150 Hz sounds the same as 1000 Hz and 1500 Hz. The frequency of corresponding notes of adjacent octaves differ by a factor of 2. For notes spaced equally apart to the human ear, the frequencies are related by a multiplicative factor | ||||||||
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| Web-fed | the method by which a cylinder or rotary press is fed paper in a continuous manner from a large roll. Presses fed by webs can often print on both sides of a paper roll simultaneously at high speeds. They cannot produce the quality printing of sheet-fed presses but are very economical for high volume newspaper printing or other work that requires large press runs | ||||||||
| 'Web' music | 'Cathedral' is among the first interactive works of music and art on the web. Created by William Duckworth and Nora Farrell, online since 1997, it consists of three primary components: a website featuring a variety of interactive musical, artistic, and text-based experiences; a group of virtual instruments that allow listeners to participate actively and creatively; and an internet band that gives periodic live performances and offers listeners focused moments in which to come together and play music in an online community | ||||||||
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| Web offset |
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| Wechseldominante | (German f.) the secondary dominant V/V (i.e. dominant of the dominant), 'five of five' | ||||||||
| Wechselgesang (s.), Wechselgesänge (pl.) | (German m.) antiphony, antiphonal songs | ||||||||
| Wechselläuten | (German n.) or Variationsläuten (German), change ringing [information provided by Michael Zapf] | ||||||||
| wechseln | (German) to change, to shift | ||||||||
| Wechselnote (s.), Wechselnoten (pl.) | (German f.) changing note(s), passing note(s), appoggiatura(s) | ||||||||
| wechseltónig | (German) bisonoric [entry provided by Michael Zapf] | ||||||||
| Weckruf | (German m.) reveille | ||||||||
| Wed. | abbreviation of 'Wednesday' | ||||||||
| Wedge | a diacritical mark used in some Eastern European countries. It indicates a sound like the digraph <ch> in checkers | ||||||||
| the sign for staccatissimo, where the note's sounding duration is reduced to a quarter of its written length | |||||||||
| sometimes used as an alternative for 'hairpin' | |||||||||
| Wedge fugue | nickname of J.S. Bach's organ fugue in E minor (BWV 548), composed between 1727 and 1736, and so called because of shape of the fugue's subject | ||||||||
| Week | see 'days of the week' | ||||||||
| Week-end | (French m.) weekend | ||||||||
| Weekend piano | see orphica | ||||||||
| w.e.f. | abbreviation of 'with effect from' | ||||||||
| weg | (German) away, off | ||||||||
| wegnehmend | (German) taking away, togliendo (Italian), en ôtant (French) | ||||||||
| Wehmut | (German f.) sorrow, sadness, melancholy | ||||||||
| Wehmuth | (German f.) sorrow, sadness, melancholy | ||||||||
| wehmüthig | (German) sorrowful, melancholic | ||||||||
| Wehmüthigkeit | (German f.) sorrow, sadness | ||||||||
| wehmütig | (German) sorrowful, melancholic | ||||||||
| Wehmütigkeit | (German f.) sorrow, sadness | ||||||||
| Wehrwirtschaft | (German f.) war-time economy | ||||||||
| weibliche Endung | (German f.) feminine ending, feminine cadence | ||||||||
| weiblicher Reim | (German m.) feminine rhyme | ||||||||
| weich | (German) delicate, soft, mellow, tender, light, weak | ||||||||
| (German) minor | |||||||||
| Weicheisen | (German n.) soft iron | ||||||||
| weicher Einsatz | (German m.) soft attack | ||||||||
| weicher langer Beckenschlag | (German m.) soft long cymbal blow | ||||||||
| Weichlot | (German n.) soft solder, solder | ||||||||
| Weight | the quality created in a syllable of verse in which that syllable both (a) has heavy stress and (b) has a long vowel that stretches out the duration of time necessary to pronounce that syllable | ||||||||
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| Weight of wind | the wind-pressure used in an organ | ||||||||
| Weight, with | pesante (Italian), ponderoso (Italian), gewichtig (German), avec poids (French), pesant (French) | ||||||||
| Weihnachtshistorie | (German f.) the Nativity | ||||||||
| Weihnachslied | (German n., literally 'Christmas song') Christmas carol, Christmas song | ||||||||
| Weihnachsmusik | (German f.) Christmas music | ||||||||
| Weihnachts-Oratorium | J. S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 | ||||||||
| Weihnachtsspiel | (German n.) Nativity play | ||||||||
| Weimar | a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of Thuringia (German: Thüringen), north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 64,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899. Weimar was the capital of the Duchy (after 1815 the Grand Duchy) of Saxe-Weimar (German Sachsen-Weimar). In the 20th century, the city gave its name to the Weimar Republic | ||||||||
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| weinend | (German) weeping, wailing | ||||||||
| Weinlied | (German n., literally 'wine-song') drinking song | ||||||||
| Weinstube (s.), Weinstuben (pl.) | (German f.) an inn, a small drinking-house | ||||||||
| WeinWV | referring to the catalogue prepared by Wolfgang G. Haas of music by Stanley Weiner (1925-1991) | ||||||||
| Weiro | güiro | ||||||||
| Weiß-Blech | (German n.) tin | ||||||||
| Weissenote | (German, literally 'white note') minim | ||||||||
| weißes Rauschen | (German n.) white noise | ||||||||
| weiße Taste | (German f.) white key | ||||||||
| Weißleim | (German m.) PVA glue (a wood glue) | ||||||||
| weite Harmonie | (German f.) extended, or dispersed, harmony, as distinct from close harmony | ||||||||
| weite Lage | (German f.) open position or harmony | ||||||||
| weites Intervall | (German n.) compound interval | ||||||||
| Weitmelodik | (German f.) music using compound intervals | ||||||||
| Weitschweifigkeit | (German f.) giro di parole (Italian m.) circonlucozione (Italian f.) circumlocution, Umschreibung (German f.), circonlocution (French f.), circunloquio (Spanish m.) | ||||||||
| weit umher | (German) all around | ||||||||
| Wekelijks | (Dutch) weekly | ||||||||
| Wel. | abbreviation of 'Welsh' | ||||||||
| Welkin | celestial sphere, the apparent surface of the imaginary sphere on which celestial bodies appear to be projected, the celestial abode of God or the gods, the upper air | ||||||||
| often used poetically, for example in 'made the western welkin blush' (a reference to sunset) or 'make the welkin ring' ('to make a very loud sound') | |||||||||
| Well | ben (Italian), bene (Italian), gut (German), bien (French) | ||||||||
| Wellblech | (German n.) corrugated sheet iron | ||||||||
| Welle | (German f.) wave (as in sound wave) | ||||||||
| (German f.) lid (for example, of a piano) | |||||||||
| Wellenform | (German f.) waveform | ||||||||
| Wellenlänge | (German f.) wave-length | ||||||||
| Wellenrauschen | (German n.) roar of the waves | ||||||||
| Well-made play | see pièce bien faite | ||||||||
| Wellpapperohpapier | (German n.) containerboard [entry by Michael Zapf] | ||||||||
| Well temperament | also circular or circulating temperament, a type of tuning described in twentieth-century music theory. The term is modelled on the German word wohltemperiert which appears in the title of J.S. Bach's famous composition, Well-Tempered Clavier. The phrase wohl temperiert also occurs in the works of Bach's predecessor, the organ tuner and music theorist Andreas Werckmeister. The German usage is gute Temperatur, literally 'good temperament', but 'well temperament' has become ingrained, despite its being ungrammatical and, hence, avoidance by some authors | ||||||||
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| Well-tempered | see 'equal temperament' | ||||||||
| Well-Tempered Clavier | also called 'The 48', see Wohltemperierte Klavier, Das | ||||||||
| welluidend | (Dutch) musical | ||||||||
| Welly boot dance | an African dance, which is performed by dancers wearing gumboots (which in England would be called 'Wellington boots' or 'Wellies'). Some believe it to be a forerunner of the tap dance. The boots are embellished with bells, so that they ring as the dancers stamp on the ground | ||||||||
| Welsh harp | a celtic harp | ||||||||
| Welsh singing | a mode of singing in which the harper plays a melody, and the singer chants an accompanying part, chiefly on the dominant, both contriving to finish together | ||||||||
| Welsh step dancing | see clogging | ||||||||
| Weltanschauung (s.), Weltanschauungen (pl.) | (German f., literally 'world view') the philosophy of an individual, an artist, or a group of like-minded individuals, especially the philosophy concerning one's relationship to civilization | ||||||||
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| Weltansicht | (German, 'world-sight') the general attitude toward life and reality an individual or character demonstrates | ||||||||
| Weltbürger (s./pl.) | (German m.) a cosmopolitan, a citizen of the world | ||||||||
| Welte-Mignon | a company that produced quality musical instruments from 1832 until 1932, and particularly orchestrions and the famous Welte-Mignon reproducing pianos and later a similar system, the Welte Philharmonie-Orgel, for organs. The last project of Edwin Welte was an electronic organ provided with photo-cells, the Lichttonorgel or Photo tone-Organ. This instrument was the first ever which used analog sampled sound. In 1936, a prototype of such an organ was demonstrated in a concert in Berlin | ||||||||
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| Welterstaufführung | (German f.) world première | ||||||||
| Weltgeist | (German m.) the spirit of the world, the immanent spiritual quality of things | ||||||||
| weltlich | (German, literally 'worldly') secular (i.e. not religious) | ||||||||
| weltliche Musik | (German f., literally 'worldly music') secular music | ||||||||
| Weltmeistertitel | (German m.) world title | ||||||||
| Weltmusik | (German f.) world music | ||||||||
| Weltpolitik | (German f.) world politics, international politics | ||||||||
| Weltschmerz | (German m.) sentimental pessimism expressing the sorrow, disillusionment, and discontent one feels and accepts as a part of existence | ||||||||
| Weltverbesserungswahn | (German m.) the illusion of progress, a mistaken belief that things get better and better | ||||||||
| Wên and Wu | the two main classes of traditional Chinese drama: civil (wên) and martial (wu). The "script" of these plays is more like a roughly outlined scenario than an actual dramatic text as westerners understand drama. The plays include dialogue in prose and verse, dancing, mime, operatic singing, and acrobatics. Conventionally, the action takes place on a square stage. The subject-matter deals with traditional legends and historical events. The narrative points to a moral, and their setting seems to be a timeless amalgamation of various Chinese periods blended together. There are four types of character in Chinese drama: shêng (general male characters), tan (general female characters), hua-lien (strong vigorous male characters with faces painted like masks), and ch'ou (comedians) | ||||||||
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| Wende | (German f.) change | ||||||||
| Wendekreis | (German m.) (in geography) tropic | ||||||||
| Wendeltreppe | (German f.) spiral staircase | ||||||||
| wenden | (German) to turn | ||||||||
| Wendepunkt | (German m.) turning point (figurative), an unexpected turn of events (a feature associated particularly with the Novelle) | ||||||||
| wendig | (German) nimble, manoeuvrable (vehicle) | ||||||||
| Wendung | (German f.) a phrase (grammar) | ||||||||
| however, Tonsatz (German: musical phrase) | |||||||||
| wenig | (German) little, slightly | ||||||||
| weniger | (German) less | ||||||||
| weniger bewegt | (German) less fast | ||||||||
| weniger schnell | (German) less fast | ||||||||
| wenn nichts dazwischenkommt | (German) if all goes well | ||||||||
| wer | (German) who, someone, anyone | ||||||||
| Werbeabteilung | (German f.) advertising department, publicity department | ||||||||
| Werbeagentur | (German f.) advertising agency | ||||||||
| Werbefilm | (German m.) advertising film, promotional film | ||||||||
| werben | (German) to recruit, to attract | ||||||||
| werben für | (German) to advertise, to canvass for | ||||||||
| werben um | (German) to try to attract, to court (attention) | ||||||||
| Werbespot | (German m.) commercial | ||||||||
| Werbung | (German f.) advertising | ||||||||
| Werckmeister-Stimmung (s.), Werckmeisters Stimmungen (pl.) | (German f.) Werckmeister temperament, any of the tuning systems described by Andreas Werckmeister in his writings | ||||||||
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| werden | (German) to become | ||||||||
| werdend | (German) becoming | ||||||||
| Were | a Muslim style of music performed most often as a wake-up call for early breakfast and prayers during Ramadan celebrations | ||||||||
| Wergeld | an alternative spelling for wergild | ||||||||
| Wergild | (Anglo-Saxon, literally 'man-gold') the legal system of many Germanic tribes, including the Anglo-Saxons. This tradition allowed an individual and his family to make amends for a crime by paying a fine known as wergild to the family of another man whom he had injured or killed. The price varied depending upon the nature of the injury and the status of the injured man | ||||||||
| Werk | (German n.) work, movement | ||||||||
| (German n.) factory, mechanism, action (in the sense of mechanism) | |||||||||
| Werkel | (German) barrel organ, street organ, hand organ | ||||||||
| Werken | (German n.) handicraft | ||||||||
| werken van enn componist | (Dutch) works of a composer | ||||||||
| Werk ohne Opuszahl | (German n.) work without opus number | ||||||||
| Werktreue | (German f.) fidelity to the composition (an element considered essential in an historically-informed approach to performance) | ||||||||
| Werkunterricht | (German m.) handicraft | ||||||||
| Werkverzeichnis | (German n.) catalogue of works | ||||||||
| Werkzeug | (German n.) tool, engine, organ, puppet, artefact (archeology), instrument, utensil | ||||||||
| (German n.) medium, vehicle, means | |||||||||
| (German n.) tools, implements, kit (toolkit) | |||||||||
| Werner Icking Music Archive | often abbreviated WIMA, a web archive of public domain sheet music. WIMA continues the defunct GMD Music Archive and is named after its founder, the late Werner Icking. At present the archive is held by Christian Mondrup | ||||||||
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| Wernicke's area | a section of the superior-posterior temporal lobe that is thought to be responsible for language comprehension and possibly storage of phonological representations of sounds and words | ||||||||
| Wert | (German m.) denomination, value | ||||||||
| werten | (German) to rate | ||||||||
| Wertgegenstand | (German m.) an object of value | ||||||||
| Wertgegenstände | (German m. pl.) valuables | ||||||||
| Wertlegen auf | (German) set great store by | ||||||||
| wertlos | (German) worthless | ||||||||
| Wertminderung | (German f.) depreciation | ||||||||
| Wertpapier | (German n.) security (commerce) | ||||||||
| Wertsacken | (German f. pl.) valuables | ||||||||
| wertvoll | (German) valuable | ||||||||
| Wesen | (German n.) nature, being, creature | ||||||||
| Wesendonck | in 1852, Richard Wagner (1813-1883) made the acquaintance of a wealthy silk-merchant Otto Wesendonck (1815-1896) and his wife Mathilde (1828-1902). The former placed at the disposal of Wagner, and his wife Christine Wilhelmine (Minna), a small cottage, the Asyl (German, literally 'asylum'), on the Wesendonck estate near Zürich. This setting inspired Wagner to produce some of his finest music. The close association between Wagner and Mathilde soon developed into love, which they were forced to renounce. Their romance eventually found expression, however, in Wagner's passionate score of Tristan und Isolde (1857-59). From this period also are the Wesendonck Lieder, settings for voice and orchestra or piano (1857-58) of five poems by Mathilde Wesendonck | ||||||||
| wesentlich | (German) essential (in the sense of a component part of a chord), fundamental, considerable | ||||||||
| wesentliche Note | (German f.) an essential note | ||||||||
| wesentliche Septime | (German f.) dominant seventh | ||||||||
| weshalb | (German) why | ||||||||
| Wespe | (German f.) wasp | ||||||||
| wessen | (German) whose | ||||||||
| west. | abbreviation of 'western' | ||||||||
| West Coast blues | a type of blues music characterized by jazz and jump blues influences, strong piano-dominated sounds and jazzy guitar solos (which originated from Texas blues players relocated to California) | ||||||||
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| West Coast cool | see 'West coast jazz' | ||||||||
| West Coast hip hop | |||||||||
| West Coast jazz | (English, Westcoastjazz (German m.)) or 'West Coast cool', a form of jazz music that developed around Los Angeles at about the same time as hard bop jazz was developing in New York City, in the 1950s and 1960s. West Coast Jazz was generally seen as a subgenre of cool jazz | ||||||||
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| westdeutsch | (German) West German | ||||||||
| Weste | (German f.) waistcoat, vest (U.S.) | ||||||||
| Westen | (German m.) west | ||||||||
| a literary and cinematic genre marked by numerous conventions | |||||||||
| Western art music | in an attempt to distinguish between what has, in the West, been termed 'classical music' and classical music traditions of other cultures, academics have introduced the term 'Western art music'. Within this description lies the music of Palestrina, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schoenberg, etc., but excludes jazz, pop or folk musics | ||||||||
| Western concert flute | also called 'concert flute' or 'C flute', the main flute in a modern symphony orchestra, a member of the family of transverse flutes | ||||||||
| Western mouth organ | see 'harmonica' | ||||||||
| Western music | |||||||||
| Western promenade dances | a form of partner dance traditionally danced to country-western music, and which are stylistically associated with American country and/or western traditions | ||||||||
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| West Square Electronic Music Studio | a major centre for electronic music, founded in Kennington, London in 1971 and directed by New Zealand-born composer Barry Anderson (1935-1987) | ||||||||
| Western square dance | also called 'Modern Western square dance', 'contemporary Western square dance', or 'modern American square dance', has, as its basis, a form established during the 1930s and 1940s by Lloyd Shaw, who solicited definitions from callers across the country in order to preserve traditional American folk dance | ||||||||
| Western swing | in the late 1920s and 1930s East Coast musicians described territory bands from the Midwest as 'western swing', but the term mainly came to refer to big bands in country music influenced by jazz, popular from the mid-1930s to early 1950s and still influential today. Unlike some other forms of country music, which may or may not be danced to, Western Swing was conceived of as dance music | ||||||||
| West Germanic | a sub-branch of the Germanic family of languages including Dutch, English, and German, in contrast with the North Germanic sub-branch (including Old Norse, Norwegian, and Icelandic) and the East Germanic sub-branch (which included the now extinct language of Gothic) | ||||||||
| Westminster chime tune | the world's most common chime tune for striking the quarter-hours. It was originally the Cambridge Quarters, the chime at Great St Mary's, Cambridge, where a new clock was installed in 1793. The Revd Dr Joseph Jowett, a law professor, was asked to compose a chime but it is usually supposed that the composition was by his pupil, William Crotch (1775-1847). Crotch was a child prodigy and at the age of 11 was assistant organist at King's College, Cambridge. The tune of the chime is said to be based on a phrase from Handel's aria I know that my Redeemer Liveth. Its association with London's Westminster Palace began in 1859 when Lord Grimthorpe chose Crotch's tune for the new clock and bells in the Palace of Westminster | ||||||||
| these words have become attached to the chime: Lord through this hour, Be Thou our guide So, by Thy power No foot shall slide | |||||||||
| in the Westminster Chime, the notes E, D, C, G are heard a quarter after the hour, followed successively by two phrases of eight notes, three of twelve, and four of sixteen - all on the same bells in different sequences reminiscent of change ringing | |||||||||
| see 'Big Ben' | |||||||||
| West Saxon | the Old English dialect spoken in Wessex | ||||||||
| Wet Spots | a type of damage suffered by hand coloured cards when exposed to water. If a drop of water reaches the surface of such a card, the colourant would dissolve and move toward the droplet's edge. After it dried a light spot bleached of colour with a dark ring around it is left behind | ||||||||
| Wet tuning | on a free-reed instrument, tuning paired reeds which sound for a single note some small interval apart to create an audible beat or vibrato. Thus, if two reeds sounding at once are tuned 4 Hz apart, there will be a 4 Hz 'vibrato' or 'beat' between the two | ||||||||
| WeV | referring to the catalogue which is in preparation of the music of Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) | ||||||||
| Wewetowah | North-American frame drum | ||||||||
| Wexf. | abbreviation of 'Wexford' | ||||||||
