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

  • sonata [Italian] An instrumental genre in several movements for a soloist or an ensemble. The original usage for the term "sonata" implied a composition that was to be played rather than sung. Later, the term "sonata" came to be understood as a four movement piece: slow, fast, slow, fast, as was used in the church sonata (sonata da chiesa), or allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue, as was used in the chamber sonata (sonata da camera). As the sonata developed, it became longer and adopted the sonata-allegro form for the first movement, which was generally fast. The following movement was generally somewhat slower, and the number of movements varied, but was generally about three.
  • pivot [French] A chord that is placed in a transition between two keys, serving a different function in each key and providing smooth movement between them.
  • compound interval An interval greater than an octave.
  • con furia [Italian] “With fury”.
  • common chord A chord that appears in more than one key. Frequently used in modulation.
  • heptatonic scale Any scale of seven tones.
  • anacrusis One or more unstressed notes preceding the first downbeat in a bar.
  • Zwischenspiel [German] An interlude played between the verses of a hymn.
  • encore [French] “Again”.
  • air A short song, melody or tune, for voice or instrument.
  • pantonality Term used to describe music that is not in one tonality or key, but shifts freely among many or all keys.
  • postlude A composition that concludes a larger composition. Also, a composition performed at the end of a church service as the congregation leaves.
  • mit [German] “With”.
  • windway The pathway or duct in the mouthpiece of a edge-blown aerophone that directs the air stream over the fipple and onto the labium where the air is split and vibrates to produce a sound.
  • cover Recording that remakes an earlier, often successful, recording.