Dictionary of Music - Birding America

CC 1 One of the musical tones (see PITCH NAMES),the first note in the scales of C major and C minor. Acomposition based on one of these scales is said to bein the key of C major or C minor, the key signatures(see KEY SIGNATURE) for these keys being no sharpsor flats, and three flats, respectively. The note onehalf tone below C is C-flat or B, the note one halftone above C is C-sharp or D-flat (see ENHARMONICfor an explanation; for the location of these notes onthe piano, see KEYBOARD). 2 Two ornamented versionsof the letter C are used as time signatures. Oneis the C used to indicate common or 4/4 meter. Theother has a vertical line drawn through it to indicateeither 2/2 or 4/2 meter (see the example below). 3 Anornamented version of the letter C is used to form afamily of clefs (see tenor and alto clefs, under CLEF).—C instrument An instrument that sounds at thepitch of the music written for it (in contrast to a transposinginstrument), especially one of a group such asthe trumpets, containing instruments that do notsound at the written pitch.fig. 41 p/u from p. 58cabaça (kä bä′sä) Portuguese: “gourd.” A Braziliangourd-rattle (adapted from African versions)used in dance bands. It consists of a gourd coveredwith a bead-strung netting, and sometimes alsofilled with pebbles or bits of shell. It is sounded byshaking.cabaletta (kä bä let′ä) Italian. 1 Originally, inoperas of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,a short aria with a persistent rhythm that wasrepeated with improvised ornamentation. A famousexample is Rosina’s aria in Act I of Rossini’s II Barbieredi Siviglia (“The Barber of Seville,” 1816),“Una voce poco fa” (“One voice does little”). 2 Inmid- and late nineteenth-century Italian opera, theterm was used for the concluding section of a longaria or duet, usually in rapid tempo and with mountingexcitement, whereas the first section of such apiece, in moderately slow tempo, was calledCAVATINA. An example is the final section of Violetta’saria “Sempre libera” (“Always free”) fromAct I of Verdi’s La Traviata (1853).cabaret (ka bə ra′) French: “little bar.” A kind ofnightclub entertainment featuring songs, piano music,and other short presentations. The modern cabaret,addressed to avant-garde artists and writers, datesfrom 1881, when the Chat Noir opened in Paris. InGermany the first cabaret, the Überbrettl of Berlin(1901), was addressed to the political left as well asthe artistic avant-garde. Cabaret songs are most oftenballads whose text, whether satirical or erotic or sentimental,is as important as the music and frequentlyare half-spoken and half-sung. Notable composerswho contributed such music included Erik Satie,Schoenberg, and Kurt Weill. Although in the late1900s cabaret was often indistinguishable from a55