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

  • canzone [Italian] Literally, “song”. An Italian or Provençal song or ballad. It is also used to describe a type of lyric which resembles a madrigal. Sometimes a composition which is simple and songlike is designated as a canzone, especially if it is by a non-Italian.
  • double exposition In a concerto, a twofold statement of the theme, once by the orchestra and once by the soloist.
  • lesto [Italian] Quick, swift.
  • ancora [Italian] “Still”, as in “still more slowly”.
  • dispersed harmony Harmony in which the notes which form the various chords are widely dispersed.
  • calypso A style of Afro-Caribbean music which originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the beginning of the 20th century.
  • neoromantic A compositional style of the 20th century embodying the techniques and characteristics of the romantic period.
  • leap Any movement from one note to another through means of an interval that is greater than a second.
  • tacet [Latin] Literally, “he is silent”. An indication that a performer is to be silent for some time.
  • triad A chord made up of three notes.
  • rhythm and blues An American music style popular between the 1940s and 1960s. Generally played by a lead vocalist or instrumentalist, a rhythm section, and an ensemble of voices, wind instruments, or guitar. Most R&B is vocal, in quadruple time, and in a major key, but characterized by blue notes.
  • suono [Italian] Sound.
  • cantoris [Latin] Literally, “of the cantor”. In Anglican church music, referring to the half of the choir sitting on the cantor's side of the church.
  • concert A public musical performance.
  • 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.