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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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

  • molto [Italian] “Very”, “much”.
  • double flat An accidental sign consisting of two flat symbols, that lowers a note by two semitones.
  • key signature The sharps or flats appearing at the beginning of each staff indicating the key of the music.
  • precisamente [Italian] Precisely, exactly.
  • theme and variations A style of composition that first presents a basic theme and then develops and alters that theme in successive statements.
  • strain A division of a composition between two double bars. It can also be referred to as a section. A strain will typically contain a primary or secondary melody of the larger composition that is often repeated.
  • canzone [Italian] Literally, “song”. An Italian or Provençal song or ballad. It is also used to describe a type of lyric which resembles a madrigal. Sometimes a composition which is simple and songlike is designated as a canzone, especially if it is by a non-Italian.
  • gracieusement [French] Gracefully.
  • disco Commercial dance music popular in the 1970s, characterized by strong percussion in a quadruple meter.
  • arpeggio [Italian] Broken chord in which the individual tones are sounded one after another instead of simultaneously.
  • risoluto [Italian] Bold, resolute.
  • off-beat A rhythm that emphasizes the weak beats of a bar.
  • backbeat A style of rhythmic accentuation that puts accents on even beats. In common time this means having accents on beats 2 and 4.
  • canticle A sacred hymn or song.
  • phrasing The clear rendering in musical performance of the phrases of a melody.