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

  • brillante [Italian] Bright, brilliant.
  • staff Series of five horizontal lines upon and between which the musical notes are written, thus indicating, in connection with a clef, their pitch.
  • quasi [Italian] “Almost”.
  • phrasing The clear rendering in musical performance of the phrases of a melody.
  • zu [German] “Too” (excessively).
  • blue note In blues or jazz, a note that for expressive purposes is sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than usual.
  • ledger line Short, horizontal line added to the top or the bottom of a staff for the reception of a note too high or too low to be represented on the staff.
  • moderato [Italian] A moderate tempo, faster than andante but slower than allegretto, usually around 100–120 BPM.
  • mambo [Spanish] Dance of Afro-Cuban origin with a characteristic quadruple-meter rhythmic pattern.
  • melodic minor scale A minor scale where the sixth and seventh tones are raised by a semitone when the scale is ascending. When the scale is descending, the melodic minor scale is the same as the natural minor scale.
  • root The fundamental note of a chord.
  • cantio [Latin] A religious, monophonic, Latin song of the later Middle Ages.
  • Klavier [German] A keyboard instrument; usually, a piano.
  • simple meter A meter in which the main beats are subdivided into twos, such as 2/4 or 3/4.
  • fine [Italian] Literally, “end”. An indication of where a composition ends when there is a repeat.