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

  • attacca [Italian] A musical directive for the performer to begin the next section of a composition immediately and without pause.
  • 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.
  • madrigal Renaissance secular work originating in Italy for voices, with or without instruments, set to a short, lyric love poem.
  • bracket In a score, a vertical bracket that groups together the staves relative to the instruments of a section, like the woodwinds or the strings.
  • passepied [French] A baroque dance in triple meter.
  • innigster [German] “Sincere”.
  • theme and variations A style of composition that first presents a basic theme and then develops and alters that theme in successive statements.
  • head voice The highest register of the voice, excluding falsetto.
  • pienezza [Italian] “Fullness”.
  • 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.
  • bourrée [French] An old French dance in use during the Baroque period, very rapid and hearty, usually in 2/4 or 2/2 time.
  • impetuoso [Italian] Impetuous, vehement.
  • amaramente [Italian] Bitterly, mournfully, grievingly.
  • direct motion Similar or parallel motion in which two or more parts rise or fall in the same direction simultaneously.
  • relative pitch The ability to identify any pitch in reference to a given pitch.