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

  • grace note Ornamental note, often printed in small type.
  • new wave Subgenre of rock popular since the late 1970s, highly influenced by simple 1950s-style rock and roll; developed as a rejection of the complexities of art rock and heavy metal.
  • retrograde Backward statement of a melody.
  • Dixieland An early style of jazz originating in the early 20th century in New Orleans with a simple, cheerful character.
  • polyharmony Two or more streams of harmony played against each other; common in twentieth century music.
  • lullaby A cradle song. A song sung to a child to soothe him to sleep or a gentle, quiet song.
  • head voice The highest register of the voice, excluding falsetto.
  • seconda volta [Italian] “Second time”; may refer to the second ending of a repetition.
  • lentement [French] Slowly.
  • misterioso [Italian] Mysterious.
  • nonet A composition for nine instruments.
  • quadruple meter Metrical pattern with four beats to a measure.
  • sottovoce [Italian] Almost whispering.
  • pasticcio [Italian] A composition assembled from passages taken from numerous other sources by various composers.
  • upbeat The last beat of any measure, usually a weak beat.