Multilingual Music Glossary

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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

  • Kantor [German] Music director of a Lutheran church, and usually the director of music at a school or institution attached to the church as well.
  • dominant The fifth degree of a diatonic scale.
  • passacaglia [Italian] Baroque form in moderately slow triple meter, based on a short, repeated base-line melody that serves as the basis for continuous variation in the other voices.
  • rigaudon [French] A lively French dance, originally a folk dance but also a court dance and an instrumental form, in duple meter.
  • conjunct Smooth, connected, moving in stepwise motion.
  • claque [French] A group of people employed to stimulate applause and other expressions on the part of the audience.
  • al segno [Italian] A directive to return to the sign.
  • estinto [Italian] Literally, “extinguished”. A directive to perform as soft as possible.
  • Requiem [Latin] A composition to honor the deceased.
  • a due [Italian] For two voices or instruments; a duet. Also used to indicate that two instruments playing from the same part or score are to play in unison, after divisi or a solo passage for one of the instruments.
  • finale [Italian] The last movement in a composition of several movements.
  • downbeat The first beat of a measure, the strongest in any meter.
  • vamp Short passage with simple rhythm and harmony that introduces a soloist.
  • quarter note A note having the time duration of one fourth of a whole note.
  • bagatelle [French] A short piece of music, typically for the piano, and usually of a light, mellow character. The term literally means a “trifle”, as a reference to the innocent character of the piece.