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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Some random terms

  • sans [French] “Without”.
  • non troppo [Italian] Not too much.
  • transposition Shifting a melody up or down in pitch, while keeping the same relative pitches.
  • glee club Originally, a club designed for the singing of glees, originating in 1787 and dissolved in 1857. In modern usage, a glee club is a club usually, but not necessarily, exclusive to males, organized for the singing of vocal compositions.
  • diabolus in musica [Latin] Literally, “the devil in music”. A medieval name for the tritone.
  • woodwind A family of blown wooden musical instruments. Today some of these instruments are actually made from metal. The woodwind instruments commonly used in a symphony orchestra are flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon.
  • ionian In the system of modes, the ionian mode is the one based on C; therefore, it is the modern major scale.
  • disco Commercial dance music popular in the 1970s, characterized by strong percussion in a quadruple meter.
  • chromaticism Use of tones extraneous to a diatonic scale (major or minor).
  • Zungenstoss [German] Tongue thrust.
  • ripieno [Italian] The larger of the two ensembles in the concerto grosso.
  • frottola [Italian] A secular song that was popular in Italy in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, direct predecessor of the madrigal.
  • villereccio [Italian] Rustic, rural.
  • tutti [Italian] “All”. A directive to perform with all instruments together.
  • metronome Device used to indicate the tempo by sounding regular beats at adjustable speeds.