In music and music theory augmentation is the lengthening or widening of rhythms, melodies, intervals, chords. The opposite is diminution (diminished). Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Music Wikicities has a wiki about Music: Music Look up Music in Wiktionary, the free dictionary All Music Guide: includes a comprehensive and flexible Genre and Style system MusicWiki: A Collaborative Music-related encyclopedia Science of Music: Multimedia exploration of the... Music theory is a set of systems for analyzing, classifying, and composing music and the elements of music. ... Rhythm (Greek ρυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ... }} Wiktionary has a definition of: Melody In music, a melody is a series of linear events or a succession, not a simultaneity as in a chord. ... In music theory, an interval is the distance in pitch between two notes, the lower and higher members of the interval. ... In music and music theory a chord (from the middle English cord, short for accord) is three or more notes sounding simultaneously, or near simultaneously over a period of time. ... Diminution, from Italian diminuimento, is a musical term used to mean different things in the context of melodies and intervals or chords. ...

A melody or series of notes is augmented if the lengths of the notes are prolonged. A melody originally consisting of four quavers (eighth-notes) for example, is augmented if it later appears with four crotchets (quarter-notes) instead. This technique is often used in contrapuntal music. It gives rise to the "canon in augmentation", in which the notes in the following voice are longer than those in the leading. The music of Johann Sebastian Bach provides examples of this application. Counterpoint is a very general feature of music (especially prominent in much Western music) whereby two or more melodic strands occur simultaneously - in separate voices, either literally or metaphorically (if the music is instrumental). ... Canon can mean: A rule adopted by an ecumenical council of the Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches. ... Johann Sebastian Bach, 1748 portrait by Elias Gottlob Haussmann Johann Sebastian Bach (March 21, 1685[1] (O.S.) – July 28, 1750[2] (N.S.)) was a German composer and organist of the Baroque period, and is universally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. ...

An interval is augmented if it is widened; an augmented chord is one which contains an augmented interval. Thus an augmented fifth, for example, is a half step wider than the perfect fifth, and an augmented chord is a major chord whose fifth has been raised a half step. In general, an augmented chord is any chord which contains an augmented interval. ... A fifth may mean any of three things: 1. ... A half step is either: the interval of a minor second in music, or the half step (dance move) in dance. ... The musical interval of a perfect fifth is the relationship between the first note (the root or tonic) and the fifth note in a major scale. ... Generally speaking, a major chord is any chord which has a major third above its root, as opposed to a minor chord which has a minor third. ...