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

  • suite [French] A work made up of a series of contrasting dance movements, generally all in the same key.
  • backfall A descending appoggiatura.
  • system The collection of staves, two or more, as used for writing down of keyboard, chamber, choral, or orchestral music.
  • très [French] “Very”, “much”.
  • eilen [German] To hasten, to accelerate.
  • family A grouping of instruments which produce sound in the same manner and are constructed in the same way but in different sizes, such as the flute family, the clarinet family, the violin family and so on.
  • 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.
  • moto perpetuo [Italian] Literally, “perpetual motion”. A term used to describe rapidly executed and persistently maintained figuration.
  • calypso A style of Afro-Caribbean music which originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the beginning of the 20th century.
  • progressive rock A subgenre of rock that reached its peak in the early 1970s and attempted to blend the visceral style of rock music with outside influences: classical, jazz, folk, and world musics, for example.
  • tempo giusto [Italian] A directive to perform in exact, strict time.
  • bracket In a score, a vertical bracket that groups together the staves relative to the instruments of a section, like the woodwinds or the strings.
  • cadence A sequence of chords that terminates a musical phrase or section.
  • cue-notes In a separate part, notes belonging to another part with the purpose of hinting when to start playing. Usually printed in a smaller type.