Dictionary of Music - Birding America

notation 261noh (nō) Japanese. A very ancient type of Japaneseplay with music. Noh dramas are generally performedin costume and masks, with scenery. Theyfeature reciting, solo and choral singing, and instrumentalaccompaniment. The subject and manner ofperformance of noh plays are guided by strict ruleslaid down centuries ago. Even the particular scalesystem to be used is prescribed, as are numerousrhythmic patterns maintained by the drums. Onlyone melody instrument is used, a kind of flute.noise A random combination of many possiblepitches (or frequencies; see under SOUND). In contrastto the regular vibrations of air that producemusical pitches, noise is produced by irregularvibrations. White noise, often used in early electroniccompositions, resembles the hiss one hearswhen an FM radio is tuned between stations, andcontains an even distribution of all frequencies. Colorednoise is weighted, that is, some frequencies areemphasized and others reduced.non (nôn) Italian: “not.” A word used in musicalterms such as allegro ma non troppo (“fast but nottoo fast”).nondiatonic Describing music that is not constructedon the basis of major or minor scales. Alsosee ATONALITY.NoneSee under OFFICE.nonet (nō net′). 1 An ensemble of nine instrumentsor nine voices. In the late 1940s trumpeterMiles Davis formed a jazz nonet made up of Frenchhorn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, alto and baritone saxophone,piano, bass, and drum. 2 A composition fornine instruments or nine voices. Since each singer orinstrument has a separate part, the nonet is a form ofchamber music; occasionally, however, one of thevoice-parts will double another, perhaps in a differentoctave. —instrumental nonet A nonet forinstruments. Examples include Schubert’s Einekleine Trauermusik (“A Short Funeral March”) fornine wind instruments, Webern’s Concerto for NineInstruments, op. 24, Martinů’s Grand Nonet, op. 31,and Copland’s Nonet for strings.nonharmonic tone In classical harmony, anynote that is foreign to the harmony at the pointwhere it appears. Such notes are used mainly to addinterest to the melody, harmony, or both. Nonharmonictones are classified according to the way inwhich they are related to the surrounding chords.However, scholars do not entirely agree in their terminology;what one authority calls an “accentedpassing tone” may be called “cambiata” by anotherand “appoggiatura” by a third. (See also ANTICIPA-TION; APPOGGIATURA; CAMBIATA; NEIGHBORINGTONE; PASSING TONE; SUSPENSION.)nontonalA newer word for atonal; see ATONALITY.noodling A slang term used by jazz musiciansand others for the random playing of fast passages,scales, arpeggios, etc., usually for warming up.North German schoolSee under PRECLASSIC.nota cambiata (nô′tä käm byä′tä) Italian.Another term for CAMBIATA.notation Any system used for writing downmusic, showing the pitches to be sounded, how longeach should be held in relation to the others, andsometimes also other aspects of musical tones. Solong as music was an art that was passed down byrote from teacher to pupil, there was no need fornotation. Similarly, in some modern music (electronicmusic, musique concrète), there is no need forsymbols to stand for sounds; the sounds themselves,recorded on tape or disk, are sufficient. During the1,500 or more years between these periods, from thetime musicians began to perform music other thanwhat they learned by ear until the mid-twentiethcentury, when composition and performance becamea single process (at least for some composers), varioussystems of writing were devised. Beginning inthe Renaissance with the development of complexpolyphonic music where numerous voice-partsmove independently of one another, the performershad to be able to read their parts. Thus, although performersof simple popular music could still rely ontheir ear, performers of complex art music had to beable to read music. This difference, too, endured