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

  • leggerissimo [Italian] Very light, very delicate.
  • Eingang [German] An introduction, preface or prelude.
  • moderato [Italian] A moderate tempo, faster than andante but slower than allegretto, usually around 100–120 BPM.
  • stromentato [Italian] Accompanied.
  • recitativo secco [Italian] Recitative accompanied only by continuo.
  • choral prelude Short baroque organ composition in which a traditional melody is embellished.
  • bossa nova [Portuguese] Brazilian dance related to the samba, popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
  • perdendo [Italian] Losing volume.
  • terraced dynamics Expressive style typical of some early music in which volume levels shift abruptly from soft to loud and back without gradual crescendos and decrescendos.
  • sinfonia [Italian] A term brought into use in the late Renaissance with a variety of specific meanings, generally implying a composition similar to a canzona or a prelude. By the 18th century the term had a similar implication as the term sonata. During the 18th century it came to be used for a three movement composition, until it gradually took on the meaning of our modern term symphony.
  • sopra [Italian] “Above”.
  • sharp An accidental symbol that raises the pitch of a note by a semitone.
  • Ausdrucksvoll [German] Expressive.
  • un peu [French] A little.
  • masque [French] English genre of aristocratic entertainment that combined vocal and instrumental music with poetry and dance, developed during the 16th and 17th centuries.