| allegro | (Italian, "cheerful") a fast tempo in music
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| andante | (Italian, "going," i.e. a normal walking pace) a moderate tempo in music
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| bacchante | a female attendant or devotee of Dionysus
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| brass | a family of wind instruments that usually includes the trumpet, French horn, trombone, and tuba
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| caricature | exaggeration of peculiarities or defects to produce comic or burlesque effects
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| coda | (Italian, "tail") a passage added to the closing section of a movement or musical composition in order to create the sense of a definite ending
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| concerto | (Italian, "opposing" or "competing") an instrumental composition consisting of one or more solo instruments and a larger group of instruments playing in dialogue; the classical concerto, which made use of sonata form, usually featured one soloist and orchestra
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| deductive reasoning | a method of inquiry that begins with clearly established general premises and moves toward the establishment of particular truths
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| empirical method | a method of inquiry dependent on direct experience or observation
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| fête galante | (French, "elegant entertainment") a festive diversion enjoyed by aristocrats, a favorite subject in rococo art
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| fortissimo | (Italian, "very loud") a directive indicating that the music should be played very loud; its opposite is pianissimo
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| geocentric | earth-centered
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| haiku | a light verse form consisting of seventeenth syllables (three lines of five, seven, and five)
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| heliocentric | sun-centered
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| inductive reasoning | a method of inquiry that begins with direct observation and experimentation and moves toward the establishment of general conclusions or axioms
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| laissez-faire | a practice in which the government does not interfere or has minimal interference in economic matters to allow freedom of action
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| largo | (Italian, "broad") a very slow tempo; the slowest of the conventional tempos in music
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| percussion | a group of instruments that are sounded by being struck or shaken, used especially for rhythm
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| philosophes | (French, "philosophers") the intellectuals of European Enlightenment
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| salon | (French, "drawing room") an elegant apartment or drawing room
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| satyr | a semi-bestial woodland creative symbolic of Dionysus
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| score | the musical notation for all of the instruments or voices in a particular composition; a composite from which the whole piece may be conducted or studied
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| social contract | an agreement made between citizens leading to the establishment of the state
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| sonata | an instrumental composition consisting of three movements of contrasting tempo, usually fast/slow/fast; written for an unaccompanied keyboard instrument or for another instrument with keyboard accompaniment
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| sonata allegro form | a structural form commonly used in the late eighteenth century for the first and fourth movements of symphonies and other instrumental compositions
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| string quartet | a composition for two violins, viola, and cello, with each playing its own part; a group of four such instrumentalists
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| strings | a family of instruments that usually includes the violin, viola, cello, and double bass (which are normally bowed); the harp, guitar, lute, and zither (which are normally plucked) can also be included, as can the viol, a bowed instrument common in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
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| symphony | an independent instrumental composition for orchestra
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| theme and variations | a form of employing a basic musical idea that is repeated with changes in rhythm, harmony, melody, dynamics, or tone color
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| woodwinds | a family of wind instruments usually consisting of the flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon
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