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…

You may browse the glossary alphabetically, or directly search for a term by using the search box above.

If you are looking for a symbol, check out our Guide to Musical Symbols.

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

  • vivace [Italian] A fast tempo marking, usually around 140 BPM.
  • sgarbato [Italian] Rude, unkind, impolite.
  • piece A term for any composition that is a complete work in itself. This could be a self-contained movement of a larger composition, such as an aria of an opera, or the entire composition.
  • plainte [French] A song or instrumental composition with a slow, lamenting character.
  • habanera [Spanish] Moderate duple meter dance of Cuban origin, popular in the nineteenth century. It is based on a characteristic rhythmic figure.
  • phrasing The clear rendering in musical performance of the phrases of a melody.
  • formalism The tendency to elevate the formal aspects above the expressive value in music, as in Neoclassical music.
  • doppel [German] “Double”.
  • metrical modulation The shifting from one meter to another in the middle of a composition.
  • verse A single line in a metrical composition, e.g. a poem. However, the word has come to represent any division or grouping of words in such a composition, which traditionally had been referred to as a stanza.
  • son [French] Sound.
  • stabile [Italian] Firm.
  • clavier [French] Any keyboard instrument.
  • ode A composition written in commemoration and celebration of a particular event, object, or person. Especially popular in England.
  • monophony Music that is written for only one voice or part.