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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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

  • morbidezza [Italian] Softness, tenderness.
  • passing note In part writing, A non-harmonic note that appears between two notes in stepwise motion. Usually it is a link between a melodic interval of a third in one of the voices.
  • troppo [Italian] Too much.
  • geistvoll [German] Spirited, brilliant; with great sound.
  • art song A vocal music composition, usually written for one singer with piano or orchestral accompaniment.
  • string quartet An ensemble consisting of two violins, viola, and cello, or a work composed for such an ensemble.
  • SATB An abbreviation used to denote the number of voice parts in a vocal composition. It implies that the composition has one soprano part, one alto part, one tenor part, and one bass part. Common variants of this are: SSATTB (Soprano in two-parts, Alto, Tenor in two-parts , and Bass), SSATB, SSA, TTBB, etc.
  • affabilità [Italian] Literally, “affability”. A directive to perform with ease and elegance, in a pleasing and agreeable manner.
  • transposition Shifting a melody up or down in pitch, while keeping the same relative pitches.
  • opera seria [Italian] Italian opera of the 18th and 19th centuries that was either heroic or tragic.
  • soul A style of composition developed in America in the 1960s conveying strong emotion. This style of music is characterized by dramatic delivery of the vocal line, commonly including wails, sighs, cries, falsetto, whispers, etc.
  • canto [Italian] Literally, “singing”. The highest vocal part in choral music.
  • animato [Italian] Animated or spirited.
  • performance directions Words or symbols provided by composers to instruct performers in how their music is to be played, including articulation, dynamics, expression, and phrasing.
  • tessitura [Italian] The most musically acceptable and comfortable range for a given singer or, less frequently, musical instrument.