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

Hint: Don't worry about accents over letters, just skip them.

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…

You may browse the glossary alphabetically, or directly search for a term by using the search box above.

If you are looking for a symbol, check out our Guide to Musical Symbols.

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

  • wind instrument Any instrument that produces sound by means of a column of air.
  • scat singing A vocal jazz style that consists of improvised nonsense syllables sung to an an improvised melody, usually over an instrumental accompaniment.
  • furioso [Italian] “Furious”.
  • ripresa [Italian] A refrain or repeat.
  • gig A term commonly applied to a musical engagement of one night's duration only.
  • giocoso [Italian] Jolly, merry, playful.
  • cadenza [Italian] An improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a free rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display.
  • contralto [Italian] The lowest female voice.
  • sixty-fourth note A note having the time duration of one sixty-fourth of a whole note.
  • decibel A logarithmic unit for measuring the intensity of sound, corresponding to the listener's perception of loudness.
  • French model A flute with pointed French-style arms and open-hole finger keys, as distinguished from the plateau style with closed holes.
  • key On a woodwind instrument, the keys are the metal disks that close or open soundholes by means of levers operated by the performer's fingers.
  • timbre [French] The quality of a sound; that component of a tone that causes different instruments (for example a flute and a violin) to sound different from each other while they are both playing the same note.
  • fifth An interval of five diatonic degrees, counting the first and last degree.
  • strophic form Song structure in which every stanza of the text is sung to the same musical tune.