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

  • autograph A manuscript in the composer's own hand.
  • mancando [Italian] A directive for the volume to grow quieter and die away.
  • ternary form A three-part musical structure (ABA) based on statement (A), contrast (B) and repetition (A).
  • mordent An ornament indicating that a note is to be played in a single rapid alternation with the note above or below.
  • flat An accidental symbol that lowers the pitch of a note by a semitone.
  • al niente [Italian] Literally, “to nothing”. Fade to silence.
  • intermezzo [Italian] Short lyric piece or movement, often for piano. Also, a comic interlude performed between acts of an eighteenth century opera seria.
  • funk American musical style that originated in the 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, soul jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music.
  • Manualiter [German] Organ compositions that are to be performed on the manual alone, i.e. without the pedals.
  • sharp An accidental symbol that raises the pitch of a note by a semitone.
  • yodel A style of singing or calling that involves switching the registers of the voice rapidly from head voice to chest voice (or falsetto and natural voice). Although this type of singing is typically associated with the high warbling of the Swiss and Tyrolean mountaineers, forms of yodeling can be found in several cultures, including African, Persian, and cowboy singers in the United States.
  • calma [Italian] Calm.
  • encore [French] “Again”.
  • arpeggio [Italian] Broken chord in which the individual tones are sounded one after another instead of simultaneously.
  • crossover Recording or artist that appeals primarily to one audience but becomes popular with another as well.