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

  • harmony Tones sounding simultaneously.
  • Empfindung [German] Feeling, sentiment.
  • con slancio [Italian] With energy.
  • alla breve [Italian] A time marking indicating a quick duple meter, with the half note rather than the quarter note getting the beat (2/2 rather than 4/4).
  • formalism The tendency to elevate the formal aspects above the expressive value in music, as in Neoclassical music.
  • vivo [Italian] Lively.
  • adagio [Italian] A slow tempo marking, usually around 66–76 BPM.
  • larghissimo [Italian] An extremely slow tempo, slower than largo.
  • monotone A single sustained, unvarying tone, or a succession of notes of the same tone. Often used in the recitation of liturgical texts.
  • eclogue A rustic poem usually having to do with shepherds, springtime and love. In Romantic piano music, a light, lyrical, uncomplicated composition.
  • clef In musical notation, a symbol at the beginning of a staff that determines the pitches of the lines and spaces. The most common clefs are treble, for indicating pitches mostly above middle C, and bass, for indicating pitches mostly below middle C.
  • prestissimo [Italian] Extremely fast tempo marking, usually around 200 BPM.
  • dal segno [Italian] A directive to go back to a specific place of a composition, marked by a sign.
  • responsorial singing Singing, especially in Gregorian chant, in which a soloist or a group of soloists alternates with the choir.
  • brioso [Italian] Vivacious, spirited, lively.