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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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

  • ictus [Latin] The instant when a beat occurs.
  • gigue [French] A lively baroque dance in compound meter originating from the British jig, imported into France in the mid-17th century. It usually appears at the end of a suite.
  • ricercare [Italian] Literally, “search”. Term used in the Renaissance originally meaning a keyboard or lute composition of an introductory nature, similar to a prelude, but later meaning a free composition more resembling a fantasia or a fugue. Both forms of the ricercare were characterized by complexity and an esoteric nature.
  • jive A form of blues popular in the 1940s.
  • ruggiero [Italian] A musical scheme which is at times harmonic and at times melodic. It is seen in 16th and 17th century music, for both vocal and instrumental pieces and improvisations.
  • gig A term commonly applied to a musical engagement of one night's duration only.
  • radical bass An bass line produced by linking the fundamentals of the chords in a progression.
  • soave [Italian] Soft, sweet, gentle.
  • reel Moderately quick dance in duple meter danced throughout the British Isles; the most popular Irish traditional dance type.
  • soul A style of composition developed in America in the 1960s conveying strong emotion. This style of music is characterized by dramatic delivery of the vocal line, commonly including wails, sighs, cries, falsetto, whispers, etc.
  • tonality The organization of a composition around a tonic.
  • burlesque [French] A humorous composition, usually involving parody or grotesque exaggeration.
  • secular Nonreligious.
  • arrangement A rewriting of a piece of existing music with additional new material, or a fleshing-out of a compositional sketch. If a musical adaptation does not include new material, it is more accurately termed a transcription or orchestration.
  • vocalization The singing of vocalises.