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

  • non-harmonic note In part writing, a note that is dissonant with other notes in the same chord.
  • marziale [Italian] Martial, with a military feeling.
  • canticle A sacred hymn or song.
  • villanelle [French] A French term used in the 16th century for pastoral poems or songs. The term was later revived, and applied to compositions by later composers.
  • Charleston A fast syncopated American dance popular in the 1920s.
  • rhapsody A one-movement work that is episodic yet integrated, free-flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, colors and tonalities.
  • tailgate A slang term for a trombone Glissando in Dixieland jazz.
  • tritone A dissonant interval consisting of three whole steps.
  • über [German] “Above”, “over”.
  • sgarbato [Italian] Rude, unkind, impolite.
  • piece A term for any composition that is a complete work in itself. This could be a self-contained movement of a larger composition, such as an aria of an opera, or the entire composition.
  • deux [French] “Two”.
  • Italian overture The baroque precursor of the classical symphony, evolved during the 17th and 18th centuries; it is characterized by its three movement form, consisting of a fast, a slow, and a fast movement.
  • lamentoso [Italian] Like a lament, plaintive.
  • giocoso [Italian] Jolly, merry, playful.