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

  • system The collection of staves, two or more, as used for writing down of keyboard, chamber, choral, or orchestral music.
  • melodic minor scale A minor scale where the sixth and seventh tones are raised by a semitone when the scale is ascending. When the scale is descending, the melodic minor scale is the same as the natural minor scale.
  • walking bass In baroque music, a bass line that moves steadily in a rhythm contrasting to that of the upper parts.
  • genre Term used to identify a general category of music that shares similar performance forces, formal structures and/or style.
  • retransition In sonata-allegro form, the last part of the development which leads to the tonic of the main key and usually emphasizes it.
  • modulation Moving from one key to another.
  • schnell [German] Fast.
  • cakewalk Traditional, syncopated African-American form of music and dance which originated among slaves in the Southern United States.
  • foot joint The last section of a flute, played farthest towards the right.
  • bracket In a score, a vertical bracket that groups together the staves relative to the instruments of a section, like the woodwinds or the strings.
  • recital A performance given by a soloist or a small ensemble.
  • pietoso [Italian] Pitiful, merciful, compassionate.
  • gig A term commonly applied to a musical engagement of one night's duration only.
  • unter [German] “Below”, “under”.
  • traurig [German] Sad.