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

  • foot joint The last section of a flute, played farthest towards the right.
  • frequency Rate of vibration of a string or column of air, which determines pitch. Usually measured in Hertz (Hz).
  • pitch Highness or lowness of a tone, depending on the frequency (rate of vibration).
  • vite [French] Fast.
  • jazz A musical style created mainly by African-Americans in the early twentieth century that blended elements drawn from African musics with the popular and art traditions of the West.
  • empfindungsvoll [German] Feelingly.
  • white noise Sounds containing every audible frequency at approximately the same intensity.
  • strict counterpoint The strict application of the rules of part writing.
  • figured bass A method of indicating an accompaniment part by the bass notes only, together with figures designating the chief chords to be played above the bass notes.
  • l'istesso tempo [Italian] Literally, “the same tempo”. An indication that directs that the beat remains constant when the meter changes.
  • rumba [Spanish] A dance originating in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Spanish colonizers and of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves.
  • movement Complete, self-contained part within a larger musical work.
  • motet Polyphonic vocal genre, secular in the Middle Ages but sacred or devotional thereafter.
  • comma [Italian] Difference in pitch between a note derived from pure tuning and the same note derived from some other tuning method.
  • pesante [Italian] “Heavy”, slow or with importance.