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

  • staccato [Italian] A style of playing notes in a detached, separated, distinct manner, as opposed to legato.
  • accablé [French] Overwhelmed.
  • syncopation Deliberate upsetting of the meter or pulse of a composition by means of a temporary shifting of the accent to a weak beat.
  • soul A style of composition developed in America in the 1960s conveying strong emotion. This style of music is characterized by dramatic delivery of the vocal line, commonly including wails, sighs, cries, falsetto, whispers, etc.
  • close The ending of a composition or passage.
  • diminution A Renaissance and Baroque ornamentation which consists of the restatement of a melody in which the note values are shortened, usually by half.
  • microtone Musical interval smaller than a semitone, prevalent in some non-Western musics and in some twentieth century art music.
  • concertino [Italian] The small group of solo instruments used in a concerto grosso in contrast to the whole body of the orchestra.
  • pianoforte [Italian] A dynamic marking (fp) directing the performer to attack the written note at the dynamic level of piano (soft) followed by an immediate increase in volume to forte (loud).
  • maestoso [Italian] Majestic.
  • paraphrase In the Renaissance, a melody borrowed from another source (usually chant) and then elaborated freely. In the 19th century, a virtuoso composition using popular melodies, usually from operas, in an elaborated manner.
  • Rinaldi numbers A numbering system identifying compositions by Antonio Vivaldi.
  • lacrimoso [Italian] Tearful.
  • gracieusement [French] Gracefully.
  • symphonie concertante [French] A musical genre of the late 18th and early 19th centuries that resembles a concerto for two to four solo instruments. It is a composition in two or three movements of a lighthearted character, usually in a major key. The genre features a few solo instruments and orchestra.