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 2471 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

  • sehr [German] “Very”, “much”.
  • passepied [French] A baroque dance in triple meter.
  • sonata-rondò [Italian] A form of a composition that displays characteristics of both the rondò and the sonata forms.
  • sordamente [Italian] Softly, gently, or in a muffled or damped style.
  • head joint The top section of a flute, with the tone hole where the player initiates the sound by blowing air across the opening.
  • sospirando [Italian] Sighing.
  • inflection Small alteration of the pitch by a microtonal interval.
  • accompaniment Additional but subordinate music used to support a melodic line. Also, the art of playing along with a soloist or ensemble in a supporting manner.
  • leggiero [Italian] Light, delicate.
  • cut off An arm and hand motion by a conductor that indicates to an ensemble that they stop performing. This is normally done at the end of a composition, at the end of a movement or section, or on a fermata.
  • phrase A natural division of the melodic line, comparable to a sentence of speech.
  • march A military piece characterized by strongly accented duple meter and clear sectional structures.
  • flessibile [Italian] Flexible.
  • new age Style of popular music of the 1980s and 1990s, characterized by soothing timbres and repetitive forms that are subjected to shifting variation techniques.
  • comodetto [Italian] Diminutive form of comodo.