As with any discipline, music requires its own vocabulary, which you will need to learn as you develop your compositional technique. You should use these terms in your journals, concert reviews, etc. (as appropriate) to demonstrate your familiarity with and understanding of this vocabulary. Students continuing as composition majors will be expected to know these terms for the Freshman Barrier Examination.
rhythm — beat — meter — tempo — irregular note divisions — polyrhythm (cross-rhythm) — binary/ternary meter — simple/compound meter — additive/divisive meter — mixed meters — hemiola — polymeter — temporal (metric) modulation — polytempo
metric notation — improvisational notation — proportional (spatial) notation — graphic notation
American Experimentalists — American Traditionalists — “American Five” — “Boulangerie” — uptown/downtown — New York School — Bang on a Can
Dada — prepared piano — I Ching — silence — indeterminacy/chance — aleatory — mobile — open (variable) form — moment form
extended techniques — multiphonics — timbral trill — alternate fingering — fluttertongue — circular breathing — half valve — cuivré — overpressure (scratch tone) — snap pizzicato — col legno battuto — dead stroke — International Phonetic Alphabet
minimalism — process music — tape loop — ostinato — phasing — additive process
pitch-class sets — operations: transposition, inversion, retrograde, rotation — pitch-class equivalency — prime form — best normal order — interval vector — Z-relation — invariance — complementary sets
futurism — theremin— musique concrète — Elektronische Musik (electronic music) — electroacoustic music — tape recorder — sine wave oscillator — frequency modulation (FM) synthesis — mixer — synthesizer — MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) — computer music — interactive composition — algorithmic composition — stochastic music — IRCAM
intermedia/multimedia — performance art — conceptual music — biomusic — anti-music — noise music
sound mass — micropolyphony — “clocks and clouds” — timbral modulation — spatial music