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

  • mainstream Music which is currently popular and in demand.
  • Eingang [German] An introduction, preface or prelude.
  • theme The musical basis upon which a composition is built. Usually a theme consists of a recognizable melody or a characteristic rhythmic pattern.
  • spiritual A style of music invented by Afro-American slaves. Spirituals are generally religious songs with elements of African rhythms, Biblical texts, and American accents. Usually the text is concerned with earthly tribulations and heavenly justice and reward.
  • slur A curved line drawn over or under a series of notes, indicating that those notes should be played legato.
  • incipit [Latin] The beginning of a musical composition.
  • French model A flute with pointed French-style arms and open-hole finger keys, as distinguished from the plateau style with closed holes.
  • meno [Italian] “Less”.
  • nicht [German] “Not“.
  • cantabile [Italian] Songful, in a singing style.
  • tempo giusto [Italian] A directive to perform in exact, strict time.
  • cent A logarithmic unit used in measuring the difference between two pitches in an equal-tempered scale. One cent is one one-hundredth of an equal-tempered semitone.
  • 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.
  • countertenor A male voice of unusually high range, generally achieved through falsetto. The countertenor has the range of either the female alto or soprano.
  • andantino [Italian] A moderate tempo marking, which can be faster or slower than andante.