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

  • comic opera A sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.
  • phrasing The clear rendering in musical performance of the phrases of a melody.
  • Anlaufen [German] To open, to increase in volume.
  • line A general term for a discrete voice or part in a vocal or instrumental composition.
  • no chord A directive placed over a note (or a series of notes) signifying that the note(s) should be performed without accompaniment. Typically found in popular music notation.
  • 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.
  • gig A term commonly applied to a musical engagement of one night's duration only.
  • non-harmonic note In part writing, a note that is dissonant with other notes in the same chord.
  • music drama Wagner's term for his operas.
  • con malinconia [Italian] With melancholy.
  • monothematic Work or movement based on a single theme.
  • fandango [Spanish] A lively folk and flamenco couple-dance, usually in triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars and castanets or hand-clapping.
  • common time 4/4 time.
  • rustico [Italian] Rustic, rural.
  • tempo giusto [Italian] A directive to perform in exact, strict time.