Nachtmusik (German: night-music) is best
known from
Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik, A Little Night Music, a
serenade.
Nationalism
Term describing the movement in the mid-19th
century in which composers felt compelled
to infuse nationalistic features into their music, so that it would declare
its nationality.
Natural
A natural is a note that is neither a
sharp nor a
flat. The adjective is used to describe the natural horn or
natural trumpet,
without valves.
Neoclassical style in music indicates a
20th century
eclectic return by some composers to various styles and forms
of earlier
periods, whether classical or baroque. The style is
exemplified in the
score for the ballet Pulcinella by Stravinsky or by the same
composer’s
opera The Rake’s Progress.
Neapolitan Chord
A chromatically altered chord built on the
lowered
second scale degree. It is a major chord, generally
found in first
inversion and functions as a pre-dominant chord, resolving to
the Dominant.
It is most commonly found in minor keys. In a major key
it would
contain a lowered second scale degree (b2) and a lowered sixth
scale degree
(b6). It derives its name from an important group of
18th century
opera composers who were associated with the city of Naples.
Neighbor
Tone
A nonharmonic
tone
also known as an auxiliary tone. It is a tone a step
above (upper
neighbor) or a step below (lower neighbor) a consonant (chord)
tone.
Upper neighbors generally resolve down by step and lower
neighbors resolve
up by step. Upper and lower neighbors are sometimes
combined to form
double neighbors, to which the term "cambiata" is also
sometimes applied.
Single neighboring tones may be either be strong or weak
metrically.
Neoromantic
In recent usage, a designation for the
general style
employed by certain mid-20th-century composers who write in a
lyrical fashion
and employ many musical traits associated with Romanticism,
although with greater freedom in chord construction, more
liberal use of
dissonance and more varied rhythms.
Neumes
The notational signs of the Middle Ages
(8th - 14th
centuries), which were used for writing down plainsong.
The term
means chiefly the signs used for the music of the Roman
Catholic Church
(Gregorian chant) but
is also
used for other systems of a similar character, such as the
Byzantine, Mozarabic,
or Armenian neumes.
A nocturne is a night-piece, music that
evokes a
nocturnal mood. It was developed as a form of solo piano music
by the Irish
pianist and composer John Field in the early 19th century,
leading to its
notable use by Chopin. The title has been used more recently
by other composers
for both instrumental and vocal compositions.
Music that purportedly has no tonal
center.
Nontonal music differs from tonal music in that intervals
between parts
do not manifest dissonant or consonant qualities and hence do
not follow
prescribed resolution patterns.
Notation
Notation is the method of writing music
down, practices
of which have varied during the course of history. Staff
notation is the
conventional notation that makes use of the five-line staff or
stave, while
some recent composers have employed systems of graphic
notation to indicate
their more varied requirements, often needing detailed
explanations in
a preface to the score. Notation is inevitably imprecise,
providing a guide
of varying accuracy for performers, who must additionally draw
on stylistic
tradition.
Note
A note in English is either a single sound
or its
representation in notation. American English refers to a
single sound as
a tone, following German practice.