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

Hint: Don't worry about accents over letters, just skip them.

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…

You may browse the glossary alphabetically, or directly search for a term by using the search box above.

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

  • pentatonic scale A scale of five tones. Commonly, these tones correspond to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th of a major scale.
  • sheet music A generic term to mean any piece of paper with the notation of a composition printed on on it.
  • musico [Italian] Term applied to any musician in the 17th and 18th centuries.
  • deux [French] “Two”.
  • wind ensemble An instrumental ensemble consisting of woodwind, brass and percussion instruments.
  • chamber music Ensemble music for two to about ten players, with one player to a part and usually without a conductor, intended for performance in a room or chamber as opposed to a church or larger building.
  • canto [Italian] Literally, “singing”. The highest vocal part in choral music.
  • music Broadly speaking, sounds organized to express a wide variety of human emotions.
  • alt [German] Term used to indicate the tones of the first octave above the treble staff (G5 to F6), which are said to be “in alt”.
  • allegrezza [Italian] Cheerfulness, happiness, joyfulness.
  • troppo [Italian] Too much.
  • ohne [German] “Without”.
  • perfect pitch The ability of certain people to identify a given pitch without reference to any other pitch.
  • woodwind quintet Standard chamber ensemble consisting of one each of the following: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn (not a woodwind instrument).
  • virtuoso [Italian] Performer of extraordinary technical ability.