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

  • zu [German] Shown as zu2, zu3, etc., it is a directive to indicate the number of musicians to perform the indicated passage of music.
  • pentatonic scale A scale of five tones. Commonly, these tones correspond to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th of a major scale.
  • tessitura [Italian] The most musically acceptable and comfortable range for a given singer or, less frequently, musical instrument.
  • allant [French] Going on, lively.
  • lent [French] Slow.
  • haut [French] Literally, “high”. Medieval category of loud instruments, used principally for outdoor occasions.
  • fugue [French] Polyphonic form popular in the Baroque era in which one or more themes are developed by imitative counterpoint.
  • facile [Italian] “Easy”.
  • sentence Term applied to a complete, independent musical idea, usually consisting of two or four phrases, ending with a cadence.
  • duration The length of time that a note is sounded or a rest (silence) is observed.
  • bene [Italian] “Well” or “good”.
  • attacca [Italian] A musical directive for the performer to begin the next section of a composition immediately and without pause.
  • squillante [Italian] Ringing.
  • bar Each of the lines drawn perpendicularly across the staff to divide it into measures. In common usage the term may also mean measure.
  • buffo [Italian] Comic, humorous.