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

  • symphonic poem A piece of orchestral music in one principal self-contained section called a “movement” in which a program from a poem, a story or novel, a painting, or another source is illustrated or evoked.
  • bossa nova [Portuguese] Brazilian dance related to the samba, popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
  • wind instrument Any instrument that produces sound by means of a column of air.
  • semitone A minor second; the smallest interval in the system of Western music.
  • incalzando [Italian] In a pressing or chasing manner.
  • dramma giocoso [Italian] A kind of comic opera originating around 1750, with sentimental or pathetic plots bordering on tragedy rather than the traditional lighthearted comic plots.
  • soul A style of composition developed in America in the 1960s conveying strong emotion. This style of music is characterized by dramatic delivery of the vocal line, commonly including wails, sighs, cries, falsetto, whispers, etc.
  • melodic minor scale A minor scale where the sixth and seventh tones are raised by a semitone when the scale is ascending. When the scale is descending, the melodic minor scale is the same as the natural minor scale.
  • cakewalk Traditional, syncopated African-American form of music and dance which originated among slaves in the Southern United States.
  • outer voices The highest and the lowest voices in a polyphonic composition.
  • meter The basic scheme of note values and accents which remains unaltered throughout a composition or a section of it.
  • accablement [French] Despondency, oppression.
  • sideman A slang term for a musician in an ensemble who is not the leader of the ensemble.
  • root position The position of a chord when the base pitch of the chord is in the lowest voice.
  • einfach [German] Simple.