Dictionary of Music - Birding America

moderato 245misura, alla (äl′lä mē soo — ′rä) Italian. Also, misurata(mē soo — rä′tä). A direction to perform in stricttime.misura, senza (sen′dsä mē soo — ′rä). A directionto play with metric freedom, without strict regard tonote values or regular accent.misurataSee under MISURA, ALLA.mit (mit) German: “with.” For musical termsbeginning with mit, such as mit Empfindung, seeunder the next word (EMPFINDUNG).mixSee under EDITING.mixed canonSee under CANON.mixed chorus A chorus that includes both men’sand women’s voices.mixed media Also, multimedia. A term looselyused for a musical performance that combinesacoustic and/or live electronic sound with tapedmaterial, special lighting effects, film, dance, gesture,or other means of artistic expression. Amongthe first to promote such performances was composerJohn Cage in the 1960s, when they weresometimes called “happenings.” His Musicircus(1967), for example, involved numerous composersand performers, two jazz bands, light shows,refreshment stands, balloons, and the audience. IannisXenakis created works of tape sound and laserlight, and a work by composer Pierre Henry, lightartist Nicolas Schöffer, and choreographer AlwinNikolais, Kyldex I (1973), combines electronicmusic, light show, and abstract dance. Even morecomplex was The Cave (1993), by composer SteveReich and video artist Beryl Korot, which combinedcomputer technology synchronizing live musicians,digitally sampled speech, and multichannel video.The genre of PERFORMANCE ART usually involvesmixed media. See also ELECTRONIC MUSIC.mixed voices Men’s and women’s voices (asopposed to men’s voices or women’s voices alone,termed EQUAL VOICES).Mixolydian (mik′′sə lid′ē ən) mode The authenticmode beginning on G. See under CHURCH MODES.mixture stop An organ stop that consists ofseveral rows of pipes tuned to various harmonics(overtones) of the basic pitch of each note on thekeyboard, and used to add richness to the tone. Seealso under ORGAN.M.M. The abbreviation for Maelzel metronome(see under METRONOME), used to designate the exactspeed at which a composition or section is to be performed.mobile form A type of ALEATORY composition inwhich sections of the music are performed in anyorder the performer(s) select. The techniqueattracted a number of composers in the 1950s and1960s, notably Boulez, Stockhausen, and Berio.mode A pattern of pitches within the octave thatmakes up the basic melodic material of a composition.A sequence of these tones in ascending order ofpitch (from lowest pitch to highest) is called aSCALE. In European and American music a mode issimply a sequence of half tones and whole tones; inmusic where intervals smaller than the half tone arecommonly used, a mode involves such microtonesas well. Related to modes but generally more specificare melody types (see MELODY TYPE).From the seventeenth through the nineteenthcenturies, two modes have dominated Westernmusic, the MAJOR and the MINOR, which are distinguishedprincipally by the number of half tonesbetween the first and third notes of their scales. Priorto that, the eight CHURCH MODES governed melodicmaterial. In practice, the terms mode and modaloften still refer to these medieval modes, as well asto non-Western modes and melody types, all ofwhich differ from one another in the arrangement ofhalf tones and whole tones in their scales. See alsoRHYTHMIC MODES.moderato (mô′′de rä′tô) Italian. A direction toperform at a moderate tempo, neither fast nor slow,ranging from about 108 to 120 quarter notes perminute.