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

  • eight note A note having the time duration of one eighth of a whole note.
  • Anlaufen [German] To open, to increase in volume.
  • polyphony Music written in a combination of several simultaneous voices (parts) of a more or less pronounced individuality.
  • tonic The note upon which a scale or key is based.
  • equal temperament Tuning system dividing the octave into 12 equal semitones.
  • canzona [Italian] A 16th-century multipart vocal setting of a literary canzone, or a 16th- and 17th-century instrumental composition.
  • Minnelied [German] A love song composed in the Minnesang tradition.
  • sacred music Religious or spiritual music, for church or devotional use.
  • metrical modulation The shifting from one meter to another in the middle of a composition.
  • hautbois [French] Oboe.
  • licenza [Italian] A directive to perform a certain passage with some freedom of manner.
  • natural key A key whose signature contains no sharps or flats; basically, C major and A minor.
  • fluttertonguing Wind instrument technique in which the tongue is fluttered or trilled against the roof of the mouth.
  • Nachahmung [German] Imitation.
  • Stück [German] A piece of music.