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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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

  • obbligato [Italian] Literally, “obligatory”. Important part of a music that that should not be omitted.
  • tronco [Italian] A directive to perform a certain passage short or “cut off”.
  • fiddle A name for the violin, especially when used to perform folk music.
  • allegrezza [Italian] Cheerfulness, happiness, joyfulness.
  • ambitus [Latin] A range of pitches for a given voice in a part of music. It may also denote the pitch range that a musical instrument is capable of playing.
  • tie A curved line drawn over or under the heads of two notes of the same pitch indicating that they should be played as a single note.
  • articulation The manner in which adjacent notes of a melody are connected or separated. Woodwind and brass instruments generally articulate by tonguing, the use of the tongue to break the airflow into the instrument.
  • bar Each of the lines drawn perpendicularly across the staff to divide it into measures. In common usage the term may also mean measure.
  • tema [Italian] Theme, subject.
  • attacca [Italian] A musical directive for the performer to begin the next section of a composition immediately and without pause.
  • saltando [Italian] Proceeding in leaps or skips.
  • cavatina [Italian] Originally, a short song of simple character, without a second strain or any repetition of the air. It is now frequently applied to a simple melodious air, as distinguished from a brilliant aria or recitative, and often forms part of a large movement or scena in oratorio or opera.
  • incipit [Latin] The beginning of a musical composition.
  • intontito [Italian] Dull, numbed, dazed, stunned.
  • key On a woodwind instrument, the keys are the metal disks that close or open soundholes by means of levers operated by the performer's fingers.