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

  • ancora [Italian] “Still”, as in “still more slowly”.
  • seconda volta [Italian] “Second time”; may refer to the second ending of a repetition.
  • tacet [Latin] Literally, “he is silent”. An indication that a performer is to be silent for some time.
  • misterioso [Italian] Mysterious.
  • cover Recording that remakes an earlier, often successful, recording.
  • comodetto [Italian] Diminutive form of comodo.
  • larigot [French] A shepherd's flute or pipe.
  • presque [French] “Almost”.
  • al fine [Italian] An indication to repeat a composition either from the beginning (da capo), or from the dal segno symbol, to the place marked fine (Italian for “end”).
  • mainstream Music which is currently popular and in demand.
  • non-harmonic note In part writing, a note that is dissonant with other notes in the same chord.
  • weniger [German] “Less”.
  • funk American musical style that originated in the 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, soul jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music.
  • allegrissimo [Italian] A fast tempo marking, faster than allegro.
  • 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.