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 2480 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

  • doppel [German] “Double”.
  • symphonie concertante [French] A musical genre of the late 18th and early 19th centuries that resembles a concerto for two to four solo instruments. It is a composition in two or three movements of a lighthearted character, usually in a major key. The genre features a few solo instruments and orchestra.
  • Lombard rhythm A rhythm associated primarily with baroque music, generally consisting of a stressed sixteenth note followed by a dotted eighth note.
  • sentimento [Italian] Feeling, emotion.
  • suite [French] A work made up of a series of contrasting dance movements, generally all in the same key.
  • anonymous A person whose name is unknown.
  • root position The position of a chord when the base pitch of the chord is in the lowest voice.
  • ad libitum [Latin] Literally, “at will”. At the discretion of the performer. At pleasure, changing the tempo of a particular passage. Sometimes, a part that may be omitted if desired.
  • opus [Latin] A number, often assigned by a publisher, used to classify a particular work of a composer.
  • triple meter A metrical pattern having three beats to a measure.
  • fortissimo-piano [Italian] A dynamic marking (ffp) indicating that the marked note should be attacked very loudly, instantly diminishing to a much softer volume.
  • Trommelbass [German] Literally, “drum-bass”. A bass line that contains steady, constant, repeated notes.
  • dolcissimo [Italian] Very sweet, very soft.
  • crescendo [Italian] A directive to smoothly increase the volume.
  • post-modern A term adopted around the mid-1970s to describe our current eclectic, experimental age.