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

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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If you are looking for a symbol, check out our Guide to Musical Symbols.

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

  • affannato [Italian] Anguished.
  • nach [German] “After”.
  • doucement [French] Softly.
  • acoustics The science that deals with the study of sound. Also, the art of optimizing sound in a room or other enclosed space, considering reverberation and other acoustical qualities.
  • breath mark Indication of where to breathe in vocal and wind instrument parts. It may look like a large comma or apostrophe or like a tick/checkmark (✓), and is always written above the staff.
  • triste [Italian] Sad.
  • spiritoso [Italian] Spirited, lively.
  • quadruple counterpoint Counterpoint in four parts.
  • absolute music Music that is not explicitly “about” anything. In contrast with program music, absolute music has no words and no references to stories or images or any other kind of extra-musical idea.
  • ska A music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, combining elements of Caribbean music with American jazz and rhythm and blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the offbeat.
  • lentamente [Italian] Slowly.
  • elegy A funeral song; a mournful or plaintive composition.
  • di molto [Italian] “By much”.
  • genre Term used to identify a general category of music that shares similar performance forces, formal structures and/or style.
  • secco [Italian] Literally, “dry”. A directive to perform in an unornamented, cold manner. It usually implies that the notes should be of short duration.