Dictionary of Music - Birding America

phrasing 309petuo (mô′tô per pe′too — ô). A title for pieces performedin rapid tempo and featuring the same rhythmicpatterns repeated over and over.pesante (pe zän′te) Italian. A direction to performin a weighty, impressive, firm manner.petite flûte (pŒ tēt′flYt).COLO.Petrushka (pe troo sh′kə) chordBITONALITY.The French term for PIC-See underpeu (pŒ) French: “little.” A word used in suchmusical terms as un peu (“a little”), and peu à peu(“little by little”).pf 1 The abbreviation for pianoforte (“soft, followedby loud”). 2 An abbreviation for pianoforte,older name for the PIANO (def. 2).phase modulation See under MODULATION, def. 2.phasing.MALISM.Also, phase music. See under MINI-philharmonic A name often used for musicalsocieties and for orchestras. It comes from the Greekwords for “love” and “harmony,” and today isapplied in a very general sense, in such names asNew York Philharmonic Society and Vienna PhilharmonicOrchestra. “Old philharmonic pitch” and“new philharmonic pitch” are two standards of pitchthat are no longer used, having been replaced byCONCERT PITCH.phrase A division of a melody that has beencompared to one line of a poem. It is larger than thesmallest possible division, called a FIGURE or motif,but it is not a complete musical thought, which iscalled a PERIOD. In Western music of the seventeenthto nineteenth centuries a phrase most oftenconsists of four measures, but this number is farfrom fixed.Whereas a figure can serve to unify a compositionsimply by being repeated at various points, aphrase by itself cannot function in this way. Rather,fig. 178 p/u from p. 320it is a group of phrases, balancing one another, thatmakes up the melodic structure of a composition. Inthe accompanying example from a Mozart pianosonata, the section marked A is a figure, the sectionmarked B is a phrase, and the entire excerpt representsa period. Note that the period here consists oftwo phrases equal in length and similar in rhythm.Also, the pattern of pitches is similar, going first up(measures 1 and 5), then down (measures 2 and 6),then up again (measures 3 and 7), and finally downagain (4 and 8). Further, the first phrase ends with afeeling of incompleteness (incomplete cadence) andthe second with a feeling of finality (completecadence; see under CADENCE). See also PHRASING.phrasing The art of performing music so that itsphrases are executed correctly, that is, so that thenotes of a phrase or part of a phrase sound as thoughthey belong together. In practice, phrasing is accomplishedby separating phrases (or sections ofphrases) from one another by means of very shortrests (not long enough to take away noticeably fromthe note values themselves). In singing and in playingwind instruments this is often accomplished bytaking a new breath for each phrase or section of aphrase. On bowed stringed instruments a phrase isusually played with one bow stroke. Scores often areprovided with large slurs (curved lines) to help theperformer identify phrases. The example accompanyingPHRASE also shows some of the other devicesthat assist in defining phrases, such as short slurs,staccato marks, and other accentuation showing howa note is to be attacked, and crescendo anddecrescendo (growing louder and softer). Bringingout these details in order to shape phrases moreeffectively is called articulation. Phrasing is asimportant to musical performance as proper readingis to a play or poem. Without it, music becomes simplya succession of tones of different length and