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

  • 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.
  • scherzando [Italian] Literally, “joking”. A directive to perform in a lively, playful, animated manner.
  • seventh An interval of seven diatonic degrees, counting the first and last degree.
  • a cappella [Italian] Choral or vocal music performed without instrumental accompaniment.
  • geistvoll [German] Spirited, brilliant; with great sound.
  • calmando [Italian] Getting calm or quiet.
  • fortepiano [Italian] A dynamic marking (fp) directing the performer to attack the written note at the dynamic level of forte (loud) followed by an immediate decrease in volume to piano (soft).
  • pantonality Term used to describe music that is not in one tonality or key, but shifts freely among many or all keys.
  • pivot [French] A chord that is placed in a transition between two keys, serving a different function in each key and providing smooth movement between them.
  • ad libitum [Latin] Literally, “at will”. At the discretion of the performer. At pleasure, changing the tempo of a particular passage. Sometimes, a part that may be omitted if desired.
  • virelai [French] A Medieval and Renaissance form of French poetry and song, written in an ABBA form with a courtly text.
  • Konzertstück [German] An informal “concert piece”, usually in one movement, for solo instruments and orchestra.
  • doloroso [Italian] Sorrowful, painful.
  • mosso [Italian] Moved, agitated.
  • bluegrass A form of American country music, inspired by the music of immigrants from the United Kingdom and Ireland as well as jazz and blues. In bluegrass, as in jazz, each instrument takes its turn playing the melody and improvising around it, while the others perform accompaniment.