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

  • melody Succession of single tones or pitches perceived by the mind as a unity.
  • vocal music music that is written or arranged to be performed by human voices.
  • dal niente [Italian] Literally, “from nothing”. Out of silence.
  • bergamasca [Italian] A kind of Renaissance clumsy rustic dance.
  • mambo [Spanish] Dance of Afro-Cuban origin with a characteristic quadruple-meter rhythmic pattern.
  • recoupe [French] A dance of the French Renaissance.
  • cut off An arm and hand motion by a conductor that indicates to an ensemble that they stop performing. This is normally done at the end of a composition, at the end of a movement or section, or on a fermata.
  • quieto [Italian] Calm, serene.
  • Minnelied [German] A love song composed in the Minnesang tradition.
  • strophic form Song structure in which every stanza of the text is sung to the same musical tune.
  • double sharp An accidental sign (‛x’) that raises a note by two semitones.
  • inversion The position of a chord when the fundamental is not the lowest note. Also, the inversion of the order of the notes of an interval, obtained by raising or lowering either of the notes the necessary number of octaves.
  • Kammer [German] Chamber, room.
  • bore The diameter of the tube of a woodwind or brass instrument. The shape of the bore in part dictates the timbre or tone color of the instrument.
  • Klavier [German] A keyboard instrument; usually, a piano.