I need more information about this and might need to see the music to venture a guess. Generally a fermata is used to indicate and indefinite hold. Is this at the end of a piece? If so, I would guess that the rest is there to fill the measure. Otherwise, without the fermata and the end of a piece, the tempo keeps moving. I would guess that the written instruction "let vibrate" should be followed and that the rest is there as a simple short hand method to fill the measure. 

If I had and saw the music, I would make a musical decision on how I would play it. If the composer has left her intentions unclear, it is up to the performer to choose how best to make music.

What are tonic and dominant notes?

Hello Alisha,

The tonic is the first degree of the scale and the key note, the name of the key. In C Major the tonic is C. The dominant is the fifth degree of the scale. The terms tonic and dominant refer most often to the chords built on the first and fifth degrees of the scale. The tonic chord in C is C E G. The dominant chord in C Major and in C minor is G B D. These terms help define the important harmonic locations within a key. When you are on the tonic chord you are at home base. When you arrive at the dominant you are pulled back to the tonic. The progression Dominant to Tonic is used to establish the key center of the tonic.

Question:

[Is there a technical name for a passage in which, for example, the stresses or rhythmic pattern in one voice suggest triple time while the stresses or pattern in another voice suggest duple or quadruple time? Both parts have the same pulse. Some polyphonic choral music uses this to great effect, typically asserting passeges in triple rhythm in one voice against other voices in a prevailing quadruple rhythm. I don't think this is the same as hemiolae.

Example: One voice has repeated pattern of half-note, quarter-note while another has half-note, quarter-note, quarter-note.]

Hello Frank,

This topic is discussed by Joseph Schillinger in "The Schillinger System of Musical Composition" Da Capo Press. In short, Rhythmic Interference is a larger scale slowed down phenomena similar to the interference that occurs between wave forms. For example, the intervals have frequency ratios such as 3:2 with the Perfect fifth. Interference is a term used to describe the interaction of the sound waves. Rhythmic interference can be used in composition in a similar way.

Schillinger's students include George Gershwin, Glen Miller, and many others. I mention these because it is easy to think of their famous tunes that use this technique.

Check out your University Library or use inter-library loan to locate Volume 1. And by the way, check out MusicGoals Rhythm while you are at it. You can experiment with this using the Ostinato Tool. Just create an ostinato with a different length than the measure. Use Practice mode and create a 2 part drill with a custom ostinato. Make a custom ostinato using the Ostinato Tool. Repeat your custom ostinato to make it longer than one measure. This will let you create random examples against your ostinato. Otherwise use the Rhythm tool to write out your idea.

Be sure to invite me to your ceremony when you win the Grammy.

What is the technical term for When a major chord is played with a minor chord in a piece of music or in a song?

Hello Ryan,

If you were to play a C Major and a C minor chord together at the same time you would create a dissonance. The clash between the 3rds, Major and minor form the interval of a minor second. The minor second creates a dissonance.

However if you were to play a C Major chord and a G minor above it, you would create a dominant 9th chord. In this case the two triads combine to form a new chord. Depending of which two chords are combined other chords or dissonances may occur.

Another term you may sometimes see is "dischord" which is another term for dissonance.