Palm Court Music - Patter song
Pause - Piano Duet
Palm Court Music - a term originating during the Victorian era which describes the music performed by ensembles or palm court orchestras in grand hotels and some ocean liners such as the Virginian and RMS Titantic
Pan - percussion instrument made from an oil drum used in Caribbean steel bands; a mythological character of ancient Greece known as the 'God of Wild'
Panpipe - a wind instrument originating from around 600 B.C. constructed of a set of joined pipes of graduated lengths; an early predecessor of the flute
Panflute - a wind instrument originating from around 600 B.C. constructed of a set of joined pipes of graduated lengths; an early predecessor of the flute
Paradiddle - a basic side-drum rudiment of four semiquavers
Paraphrase - a 16th to 18 century work based on variations of existing melodies through improvisations in which the base melody is still somewhat recognizable
Parlando - (Italian) ""; a vocal effect of the Italian Renaissance opera in which the vocalist sings in a speaking manner
Part - the music of a single instrument or voice
Partitur - German term for a full orchestral score with each part written on separate staves
Part-song - a homophonic form of 19th century secular English choral music written for multiple vocalists; religious choral music of several voices
Pas de deux - (French) "step of two"; a ballet dance duet for two, usually a male and female performing dance steps together
Paso Doble - (Spanish) "double-step"; a lively Spanish march-like dance
Passacaglia - (Italian) "to walk"; an instrumental of early 17th century Spain of theme variations over a basso-ostinato or repeated bass-line
Passage - a general term applied to a musical section of a larger composition
Passing Note - an unrelated note connecting two chords
Passion - (Latin) "having suffered"; a musical setting based on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as told by his disciples, usually performed on Easter or Passover
Pasticcio - (Latin) "pie or pastry"; an 18th century opera or instrumental work with multiple composers, often based on existing works of another composer
Pastiche - (Italian) "pie "; a musical work meant to compliment the works of another composer
Pastoral - an 18th century Italian genre of a rural setting, originally based on the shepherds' life and their use of music, often with a panflute, to lead their flocks
Pastorale - (Italian) "shepherd song"; a Baroque musical movement of larger works in thirds over a drone bass (a stringed instrument) based upon a rural setting or theme
Pastorela - (Occitan) "young shepherdess"; a lyrical genre used by the Troubadours of 13th century Europe giving therise of the French pastorella
Pastorella - (Italian) "shepherdess"; a rural set musical piece sung by the traveling Troubadours, usually performed during the Christmas season
Patter Song - (Greek) "syllablic song"; a staple of comic opera and musicals, a fast tempo work with rapid rhythmic patterns in which one note is assigned to one lyric syllable, originating in Greek comic pieces of the Renaissance and earlier periods
Pause 1 - musical notation instructing the performer to extend a note's time value; made longer; hold sign; see also fermata
Pause 2 - a stop of the sound during performance; notation of '//' indicating a stop in the music at the end of a section or passage; see also caesura
Pavan - a slow, stately dance originating in 16th century Italy; also pavane
Pavillon en l'air - (French) "pavillion"; instruction to raise the bell of the instrument for the emphasis of sound acoustics; raise the bell to be heard
Peine - (French) "scarcely"; direction to play lightly; lower the volume
Peking Opera - a 14th century style of Chinese opera with music, singing, speech, mime, and acrobatics
Penillion - (Welsh) "string music"; a form of Welsh bardic song of vocal improvisation over a melody, sung by choir or a soloist accompanied by harp
Penny Whistle - a simple small type of flute with four to seven finger holes, often used in traditional Irish folk music
Pentatonic - (Greek) "five toned"; musical scale with five notes per octave; one of the two five tone scales with semitones (hemitonic) or without (anhemitonic)
Percussion - the group of drum consorts; family of instruments in which sound is produced by striking a resonating surface with a hand, mallet, or stick
Perdendosi - (Italian) "dying away"; direction to fade away the music or a note, gradually diminishing the volume until silent;
Perfect Pitch - a person's ability to determine or sing a note's pitch with no prior sounding of that pitch; absolute pitch
Pesado - (Spanish, Portuguese) "heavy"; the practice of slowing the tempo for a heavy emotional effect in the music, often used in the romantic languages
Pesant(e) - (French, Italian) "heavy"; instruction and practice of diminishing a former tempo thereby creating a heavy or dragging feeling in the music
Phase Music - a musical form that uses out of phase music (phasing) as a primary technique in composing; see phasing
Phasing - a practice of two performers simultaneously singing or playing the same composition while one speeds up and slows down, thus moving in and out of phase with the other; see also phase music
Philharmonic - (Greek) "loving, harmonic"; a full scale orchestra; symphony; the group formed in 1813 London in order to initiate improvements in musical standards, known as The Royal Philharmonic Society
Piacevole - (Italian) "pleasant, agreeable"; play in a pleasant manner; pleasingly
Piangendo - (Italian) "crying, weeping"; instruction to play in a sorrowful plaintive manner; play mournfully
Piano - (Italian) "softly"; instruction written above the staff to play softer or decrease the volume and intensity of the sound; p
Pianoforte - (Italian) "soft loud"; any piano dating from its invention in the early 18th up to the early 19th century which became obsolete with its latter 18th and 19th century improved counterpart; originally called fortepiano
Piano Duet - a musical piece written for two pianists on the same instrument; a composition written for two pianists on separate instruments
