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

  • Köchel Verzeichnis [German] The numbering system identifying compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
  • eight note A note having the time duration of one eighth of a whole note.
  • pitch Highness or lowness of a tone, depending on the frequency (rate of vibration).
  • maestoso [Italian] Majestic.
  • open fifth A chord comprised of the tonic and the fifth, with no third present.
  • ancora [Italian] “Still”, as in “still more slowly”.
  • zu [German] Shown as zu2, zu3, etc., it is a directive to indicate the number of musicians to perform the indicated passage of music.
  • duct flute A type of flute, whose pitch is produced by an air column moving through a channel, or duct, and directed to strike a sharp edge or lip causing the air column to split and vibrate. Several types of duct flutes include recorder, flageolet, penny whistle, whistle flute and slide whistle.
  • middle C First C below the 440 Hz A. It is the note on the ledger line halfway between the bass and treble clef on the grand staff. It is the lowest C that a concert flute can make.
  • Konzertstück [German] An informal “concert piece”, usually in one movement, for solo instruments and orchestra.
  • doloroso [Italian] Sorrowful, painful.
  • piano [Italian] Softly, quietly.
  • affannoso [Italian] With anxious expression.
  • cantus firmus [Latin] “Fixed melody”, usually of very long notes, often based on a fragment of Gregorian chant that served as the structural basis for a polyphonic composition, particularly in the Renaissance.
  • backfall A descending appoggiatura.