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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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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Some random terms

  • bel canto [Italian] Literally “beautiful singing”. Elegant Italian vocal style, characterized by florid melodic lines and delivered by voices of great agility, smoothness and purity of tone.
  • tailgate A slang term for a trombone Glissando in Dixieland jazz.
  • one hundred and twenty-eighth note A note having the time duration of one hundred twenty-eighth of the time duration of a whole note.
  • dolente [Italian] Sorrowful.
  • articulation The manner in which adjacent notes of a melody are connected or separated. Woodwind and brass instruments generally articulate by tonguing, the use of the tongue to break the airflow into the instrument.
  • salsa [Spanish] A contemporary Latin American dance music principally of Afro-Cuban tradition.
  • double whole note A note twice as long as a whole note. Mainly used in pre-1650 music.
  • recitative A flexible style of vocal delivery employed in opera, oratorio, and cantata and tailored to the accents and rhythms of the text.
  • gigue [French] A lively baroque dance in compound meter originating from the British jig, imported into France in the mid-17th century. It usually appears at the end of a suite.
  • meno [Italian] “Less”.
  • texture The interweaving of melodic (horizontal) and harmonic (vertical) elements in the musical fabric. Texture is generally described as monophonic (single line), heterophonic (elaboration on a single line), homophonic (single line with accompaniment), or polyphonic (many voiced).
  • compound interval An interval greater than an octave.
  • fourth An interval of four diatonic scale tones, counting the first and last tone.
  • symphonie concertante [French] A musical genre of the late 18th and early 19th centuries that resembles a concerto for two to four solo instruments. It is a composition in two or three movements of a lighthearted character, usually in a major key. The genre features a few solo instruments and orchestra.
  • staggered breathing A technique used in musical ensembles by wind instruments to create the effect of a continuous sound with no breaks for performers to breathe. The effect is created by making sure that in each section no performer is breathing at the same time, so that it seems like no one is breathing at all.