Multilingual Music Glossary

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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

  • sospirando [Italian] Sighing.
  • rumba [Spanish] A dance originating in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Spanish colonizers and of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves.
  • Kantorei [German] The musicians of a Protestant German court.
  • syllabic The style of chant which sets one note to each syllable of text.
  • dolce [Italian] Sweet, soft, with tender emotion.
  • motet Polyphonic vocal genre, secular in the Middle Ages but sacred or devotional thereafter.
  • Raabe numbers A numbering system identifying compositions by Franz Liszt.
  • secular Nonreligious.
  • open-hole A flute finger key with a perforated center, allowing the use of techniques such as pitch bending or glissando.
  • mode A series of notes into which the octave is divided according to specific systems. These systems or modes are used as the basis for composing music. Examples of modes are the major and minor scales.
  • concertino [Italian] The small group of solo instruments used in a concerto grosso in contrast to the whole body of the orchestra.
  • prologue The introduction or preface to a dramatic work. The prologue usually tells the audience the background to the story about to be presented.
  • Rococo [French] A term applied to French compositions of the 18th century, implying light, airy, graceful, and ornamented style, in response to the rigid, severe lines of the previous era.
  • opéra comique [French] French comic opera that is not necessarily sung throughout.
  • spiccato [Italian] Very separated, detached.