Multilingual Music Glossary

# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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Found a word you don't know? No problem. Look it up in the Music Glossary!

We are currently providing explanations for 2484 terms from 12 languages, including English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Latin…

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Please note: a music glossary is just like a dictionary. It contains explanations to musical terms. If you are looking for a piece, please go here instead: search tunes.

Some random terms

  • lentamente [Italian] Slowly.
  • no chord A directive placed over a note (or a series of notes) signifying that the note(s) should be performed without accompaniment. Typically found in popular music notation.
  • divertimento [Italian] Instrumental composition intended for entertainment, usually in a number of movements. The term is used particularly in the second half of the 18th century.
  • leap Any movement from one note to another through means of an interval that is greater than a second.
  • Motown A style of music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the late 1960s.
  • seconda volta [Italian] “Second time”; may refer to the second ending of a repetition.
  • sprezzatura [Italian] A term used in 17th century Italy describing a free style of performing compositions that ignored strict tempo and rhythm, embracing freedom of tempo and expressiveness.
  • passepied [French] A baroque dance in triple meter.
  • shape note Music notation system originating in nineteenth century American church music in which the shape of the note heads determines the pitch; created to aid music reading.
  • planctus [Latin] Medieval style of song and poetry of a lamenting character.
  • sheet music A generic term to mean any piece of paper with the notation of a composition printed on on it.
  • gypsy scale A scale resembling the harmonic minor scale, but with an augmented fourth. It is called the Gypsy scale because of its exotic sound and its use in Hungarian music.
  • voice Either human voice or a melodic layer or part of a polyphonic composition.
  • jive A form of blues popular in the 1940s.
  • calmo [Italian] Calm.