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

  • disco Commercial dance music popular in the 1970s, characterized by strong percussion in a quadruple meter.
  • empfindungsvoll [German] Feelingly.
  • dance Any physical movements done to music.
  • sinfonia [Italian] A term brought into use in the late Renaissance with a variety of specific meanings, generally implying a composition similar to a canzona or a prelude. By the 18th century the term had a similar implication as the term sonata. During the 18th century it came to be used for a three movement composition, until it gradually took on the meaning of our modern term symphony.
  • fourth An interval of four diatonic scale tones, counting the first and last tone.
  • martial music Music with a military feeling.
  • ravvivando [Italian] Animating, brightening up; quickening.
  • virelai [French] A Medieval and Renaissance form of French poetry and song, written in an ABBA form with a courtly text.
  • beat The basic time unit of a piece of music. For example, each tick sounded by a metronome would correspond to a beat.
  • interlude Any piece of music played or sung between the movements of a larger composition.
  • duple meter A rhythmic pattern with the the number of beats per measure being divisible by two.
  • vibrato [Italian] Small fluctuation of pitch and/or volume, used to add expression and vocal-like qualities to instrumental music.
  • vocal cords The vocal organs in the human being which produce sound.
  • interpretation The manner in which a performer carries out a composer's performance directions.
  • binary form Two-part structure of music; usually each part is repeated.