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

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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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

  • national anthem A song, usually an anthem, a fanfare, a march, or a hymn, that is used as a national symbol.
  • closed-hole A flute finger key which is fully covered.
  • decay The time that it takes for a note to die away once the musician has stopped producing the sound.
  • whole note The note with the longest duration in currently used Western music notation.
  • comp Jazz term used to describe the accompaniment backing up a soloist.
  • relative key The major and minor keys that share the same key signature.
  • dolcissimo [Italian] Very sweet, very soft.
  • performer The musician that brings a composition to reality.
  • trio [Italian] A composition for three performers.
  • sonata-rondò [Italian] A form of a composition that displays characteristics of both the rondò and the sonata forms.
  • concertante [Italian] A part that calls for some element of solo performance, as in a classical concerto.
  • Kirkpatrick numbers The numbering system identifying compositions by Domenico Scarlatti.
  • figure A short musical phrase.
  • wind ensemble An instrumental ensemble consisting of woodwind, brass and percussion instruments.
  • moto perpetuo [Italian] Literally, “perpetual motion”. A term used to describe rapidly executed and persistently maintained figuration.