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

  • traditional music Music that is learned by oral transmission and is easily sung or played by most people.
  • prologue The introduction or preface to a dramatic work. The prologue usually tells the audience the background to the story about to be presented.
  • melody Succession of single tones or pitches perceived by the mind as a unity.
  • pastorale [Italian] Pastoral, country-like.
  • bar Each of the lines drawn perpendicularly across the staff to divide it into measures. In common usage the term may also mean measure.
  • incalzando [Italian] In a pressing or chasing manner.
  • coloratura soprano [Italian] A type of operatic soprano who specializes in music that is distinguished by agile runs and leaps.
  • ancora [Italian] “Still”, as in “still more slowly”.
  • mambo [Spanish] Dance of Afro-Cuban origin with a characteristic quadruple-meter rhythmic pattern.
  • nocturne [French] A composition to be played at night in the open air. Also used by composers for piano and orchestral pieces that suggest some aspect of the night and are usually solemn and contemplative.
  • teneramente [Italian] Tenderly.
  • double [French] During the Baroque period, a repetition or variation of an air or a dance that adds extra notes and/or ornaments.
  • seventh An interval of seven diatonic degrees, counting the first and last degree.
  • plus [French] “More”.
  • ritardando [Italian] Gradually delaying the tempo.