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

  • moins [French] “Less”.
  • dynamics The softness or loudness of a sound or note.
  • doucement [French] Softly.
  • lament A song of mourning the dead or of leave-taking. The funeral lament is one of the most common, dating back to antiquity.
  • pentatonic scale A scale of five tones. Commonly, these tones correspond to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th of a major scale.
  • affabilità [Italian] Literally, “affability”. A directive to perform with ease and elegance, in a pleasing and agreeable manner.
  • verse A single line in a metrical composition, e.g. a poem. However, the word has come to represent any division or grouping of words in such a composition, which traditionally had been referred to as a stanza.
  • transposition Shifting a melody up or down in pitch, while keeping the same relative pitches.
  • round Perpetual canon at the unison in which each voice enters in succession with the same melody.
  • staff Series of five horizontal lines upon and between which the musical notes are written, thus indicating, in connection with a clef, their pitch.
  • elegy A funeral song; a mournful or plaintive composition.
  • modérément [French] “Moderately”.
  • rinforzare [Italian] To reinforce.
  • concertmaster The term used to address the principal first violinist of an orchestra.
  • appoggiatura [Italian] Ornamental note, usually taking half of the duration of the main note it precedes.