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

  • donna [Italian] Literally, “woman”, or “lady”. In opera, each of the principal female singers.
  • allegro [Italian] Literally, “cheerful”. A quick tempo marking, usually around 120–168 BPM.
  • program music Music intended to evoke extra-musical ideas, images in the mind of the listener by musically representing a scene, image or mood. By contrast, absolute music stands for itself and is intended to be appreciated without any particular reference to the outside world.
  • 15ma [Italian] A directive to perform two octaves higher than written.
  • Charleston A fast syncopated American dance popular in the 1920s.
  • über [German] “Above”, “over”.
  • salsa [Spanish] A contemporary Latin American dance music principally of Afro-Cuban tradition.
  • fiddle A name for the violin, especially when used to perform folk music.
  • a cappella [Italian] Choral or vocal music performed without instrumental accompaniment.
  • légèrement [French] Lightly.
  • interlude Any piece of music played or sung between the movements of a larger composition.
  • recital A performance given by a soloist or a small ensemble.
  • ionian In the system of modes, the ionian mode is the one based on C; therefore, it is the modern major scale.
  • windway The pathway or duct in the mouthpiece of a edge-blown aerophone that directs the air stream over the fipple and onto the labium where the air is split and vibrates to produce a sound.
  • fipple The block, typically of wood, that forms the floor of the windway of an edge-blown aerophone.