Multilingual Music Glossary

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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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Some random terms

  • isorhythmic motet Medieval and early Renaissance motet based on a repeating rhythmic pattern throughout one or more voices.
  • pastorale [Italian] Pastoral, country-like.
  • zusammen [German] Literally, “together”. A directive to perform a certain passage of music together with other musicians in the section. Typically found after a divisi.
  • affannoso [Italian] With anxious expression.
  • codetta [Italian] Literally, “little tail”. A passage similar to a coda, but on a smaller scale, concluding a section of a work instead of the work as a whole.
  • plainte [French] A song or instrumental composition with a slow, lamenting character.
  • sheet music A generic term to mean any piece of paper with the notation of a composition printed on on it.
  • head joint The top section of a flute, with the tone hole where the player initiates the sound by blowing air across the opening.
  • harmonic minor scale A minor scale where the seventh tone is raised by a semitone, both ascending and descending.
  • popular music Music of the common people.
  • madrigal Renaissance secular work originating in Italy for voices, with or without instruments, set to a short, lyric love poem.
  • symphonic poem A piece of orchestral music in one principal self-contained section called a “movement” in which a program from a poem, a story or novel, a painting, or another source is illustrated or evoked.
  • wind ensemble An instrumental ensemble consisting of woodwind, brass and percussion instruments.
  • villanella [Italian] A Renaissance polyphonic vocal form, usually with a simple tune in the top voice, and somewhat homophonic, regular rhythms in the lower voices.
  • sonatina [Italian] A form popular in the late classical era that consisted of a short or “light” sonata; often the sonatina contained an exposition and recapitulation without the development section. The form has been revived in the 20th century by various composers.