| Aleatory | Music in which various elements of a composition are, in varying degrees, determined by chance. Can manifest itself in one of two ways in music the compositional process itself may be indeterminate in one way or another, or the performer may be given the opportunity to make decisions during the performance of the piece. Also referred to as indeterminacy.
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| Amplitude Envelope | Gives musical shape to an oscillator's static tone by imparting an attack, decay, sustain, and release phase to the tone's overall loudness profile.
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| Analog-to-Digital Converter | Device that encodes an analog signal as a series of discrete numbers by reading its wave form at precisely spaced intervals of time.
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| Computer Music | Music created with the aid of a computer.
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| Digital-to-Analog Converter | Device that converts numbers into a continuous voltage stream that drives a loudspeaker.
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| Electronic Music | Music generated synthetically or manipulated by means of a device such as a synthesizer or a computer.
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| Electronic Oscillator | An electronic circuit that uses an amplifier and filter to generate a repeating signal.
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| Experimental Music | Music that is composed in such a way as to make its performance unpredictable.
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| Graphic Notation | A notational style that uses nontraditional symbols to represent musical information.
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| Hyperinstrument | An instrument that uses a computer to augment musical expression and creativity.
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| Just Intonation | A system of tuning in which the intervals are represented using wholenumber ratios.
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| Micropolyphony | The use of dense chords in which all of the voices move in independent chromatic lines through the sound mass, giving the music a complex, cluster-like surface.
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| Minimalism | Music characterized by the use of restricted pitch materials, static harmony, and rhythmic devices such as repetition, ostinato, polyrhythm, a steady pulse, and phasing.
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| MIDI | Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Originally developed to allow the keyboard of one synthesizer to drive the tone generator of another and allow a single performer (or computer) to drive multiple tone generators, audio processors, drum machines, and so forth. Through the use of a sequencer (a software application that stores sequences of MIDI data rather than the sounds themselves) a composer can easily change MIDI note, key velocity, tempo, or controller information of a previously encoded performance.
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| Musique Concrète | A technique wherein natural sounds are recorded and then worked with directly, being subjected to modifications that fall into five broad categories altered playback speed, reversed tape direction, cutting and splicing of tape, creation of a tape loop, and tape delay (other timbral manipulations are also used).
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| New Vocalism | Refers to the use of non-traditional or experimental vocal techniques (sometimes used to refer to the techniques based on the talents of a particular performer).
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| Phasing | Rhythmic process in which two or more voices that have the same material begin in unison, but after a time begin to play at different tempos, moving in and out of alignment with one another, creating different resultant patterns as the different copies of the same pattern create new rhythmic relationships with one another.
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| Postminimalism | Music that seems to have its roots in the minimalist traditions of the 1960s and 1970s, but is not as strict in its application of typical minimalist techniques.
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| Prepared Piano | A piano that has had various objects and material placed on or between its strings in order to change the instrument's timbre.
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| Process Music | Compositional approach in which an audible musical process structures both the note-to-note details and the overall form of the piece.
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| Proportional Notation | A notational style indicating approximate durations through the spacing of events.
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| Quarter Tone | An interval that divides the octave into 24 equal parts.
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| Sampler | A device that has the ability to record, store, edit, and play back audio information.
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| Sawtooth Wave | A jagged nasal tone that contains all harmonics.
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| Sequencer | A software application that stores sequences of MIDI data and allows a composer to change MIDI note, key velocity, tempo, or controller information of a previously encoded performance.
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| Sine Wave | A sound devoid of overtones or harmonics that is similar to the sound of a tuning fork or open flute.
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| Square Wave | A clarinet-like tone that contains only odd-numbered harmonics.
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| Stochastic Music | Music in which the pitch, intensity, and duration are determined by mathematical procedures such as the laws of probability theory.
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| Synthesizer | An electronic instrument that allows composers to combine and sequence source signals more efficiently than traditional tape techniques and offers them more control over the parameters of sound.
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| Tape Loop | A portion of recorded tape that is repeated over and over again.
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| Tape Music | Music that exists in the medium of magnetic tape.
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| Telharmonium | A large electronic keyboard instrument developed by Thaddeus Cahill that used telephone network technology to transmit sounds.
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| Theremin/Ondes Martenot | Examples of early electronic instruments that used electronic oscillators as tone generators.
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| Third Stream | A movement started after World War II that blends elements of jazz and contemporary music.
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| White Noise Generator | A device with an essentially random waveshape that produces a "hissing" sound consisting of frequency components that are equally distributed across the audible frequency spectrum.
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