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

Hint: Don't worry about accents over letters, just skip them.

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

  • calma [Italian] Calm.
  • pesante [Italian] “Heavy”, slow or with importance.
  • alterezza [Italian] Pride or haughtiness.
  • agilità [Italian] A directive to perform with lightness or agility.
  • cantor [Latin] Solo singer or singing leader in Jewish and Christian liturgical music.
  • bridge A passage connecting two sections of a composition.
  • polonaise [French] Stately Polish processional dance in triple meter.
  • Empfindung [German] Feeling, sentiment.
  • canción [Spanish] A popular genre of Latin American music, particularly in Cuba, where many of the compositions originate.
  • 15mb [Italian] A directive to perform two octaves lower than written.
  • bizzarro [Italian] Odd, whimsical, irregular.
  • vocal cords The vocal organs in the human being which produce sound.
  • con fuoco [Italian] Literally, “with fire”. A directive to play with vehement energy or fervid emotion.
  • grave [Italian] The slowest tempo in music, usually slower than 40 BPM.
  • envoi [French] A short final stanza of a ballade which serves as a summary or dedication.