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

  • dramatic soprano A soprano voice type with a heavier tone color and more power throughout her range.
  • Eingang [German] An introduction, preface or prelude.
  • instrument Any device used to create music.
  • oratorio [Italian] Large-scale dramatic genre originating in the Baroque, based on a text of religious or serious character, performed by solo voices, chorus and orchestra; similar to opera but without scenery, costumes or action.
  • radical bass An bass line produced by linking the fundamentals of the chords in a progression.
  • légèrement [French] Lightly.
  • Tafelmusik [German] Literally, “table music”. Music that is performed at feasts and banquets.
  • flageolet [French] A simple recorder with four finger holes, popular in the 17th century in England.
  • neoclassical Term applied to 20th century composers who use the forms and thematic processes of the classical era.
  • dominant The fifth degree of a diatonic scale.
  • alla breve [Italian] A time marking indicating a quick duple meter, with the half note rather than the quarter note getting the beat (2/2 rather than 4/4).
  • paso doble [Spanish] Literally, “double step”. A Spanish dance in a brisk duple meter, typically 2/4 time.
  • quasi [Italian] “Almost”.
  • relative pitch The ability to identify any pitch in reference to a given pitch.
  • villancico [Spanish] A 15th and 16th century form of Spanish poetry that was often set to music.