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

Hint: Don't worry about accents over letters, just skip them.

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…

You may browse the glossary alphabetically, or directly search for a term by using the search box above.

If you are looking for a symbol, check out our Guide to Musical Symbols.

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

  • syncopation Deliberate upsetting of the meter or pulse of a composition by means of a temporary shifting of the accent to a weak beat.
  • con tenerezza [Italian] “With tenderness”.
  • languendo [Italian] Languishing.
  • mezzo forte [Italian] Moderately loud. Not quite so loud as forte.
  • comodamente [Italian] Comfortably.
  • polycoral Performance style developed in the late sixteenth century involving the use of two or more choirs that alternate with each other or sing together.
  • elegy A funeral song; a mournful or plaintive composition.
  • woodwind A family of blown wooden musical instruments. Today some of these instruments are actually made from metal. The woodwind instruments commonly used in a symphony orchestra are flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon.
  • perfect pitch The ability of certain people to identify a given pitch without reference to any other pitch.
  • patter song A comic song in opera and operetta, characterized by a moderately fast to very fast tempo with a rapid succession of rhythmic patterns in which each syllable of text corresponds to one note (there are few or no melismatic passages).
  • fiddle A name for the violin, especially when used to perform folk music.
  • minimalist music Contemporary musical style featuring the repetition of short melodic, rhythmic and harmonic patterns with little variation.
  • pentatonic scale A scale of five tones. Commonly, these tones correspond to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th of a major scale.
  • uguale [Italian] Equal, the same.
  • symphony In the early 18th century, any instrumental prelude, interlude, or postlude. In modern usage, the term is applied to a large composition for orchestra, generally in three or four movements. The symphony may also be defined as a sonata for orchestra.