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

  • root The fundamental note of a chord.
  • gigue [French] A lively baroque dance in compound meter originating from the British jig, imported into France in the mid-17th century. It usually appears at the end of a suite.
  • genre Term used to identify a general category of music that shares similar performance forces, formal structures and/or style.
  • grave [Italian] The slowest tempo in music, usually slower than 40 BPM.
  • tune An air or melody, a succession of sounds that has definite character and shape and is pleasing to the ear.
  • con semplicità [Italian] “With simplicity”.
  • medley A piece of music that is composed of melodies of other compositons strung together.
  • cut off An arm and hand motion by a conductor that indicates to an ensemble that they stop performing. This is normally done at the end of a composition, at the end of a movement or section, or on a fermata.
  • verve [French] A high degree of energy, excitement or spirit. Often referred to as the artistic inspiration and special feeling of excitement that is used by artists to realize the expression of ideas in performance or composition.
  • allargando [Italian] Growing broader, slowing down.
  • Trommelbass [German] Literally, “drum-bass”. A bass line that contains steady, constant, repeated notes.
  • musical Genre of twentieth century musical theater, especially popular in the United States and Great Britain; characterized by spoken dialogue, dramatic plot interspersed with songs, ensemble numbers and dancing.
  • recitativo accompagnato [Italian] Recitative accompanied by the entire orchestra.
  • spianato [Italian] leveled, even, smooth.
  • similar motion In part-writing, similar motion is the situation in which two voices of the composition move in the same direction, either ascending or descending, but they do not necessarily cover the same interval.