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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If you are looking for a symbol, check out our Guide to Musical Symbols.

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

  • passepied [French] A baroque dance in triple meter.
  • dolcissimo [Italian] Very sweet, very soft.
  • key signature The sharps or flats appearing at the beginning of each staff indicating the key of the music.
  • Leichen-musik [German] Funeral music.
  • lusingando [Italian] Caressing, flattering.
  • giocoso [Italian] Jolly, merry, playful.
  • affettuoso [Italian] Tender, loving, affectionate.
  • heptatonic scale Any scale of seven tones.
  • whole note The note with the longest duration in currently used Western music notation.
  • klingen [German] To resonate.
  • performance directions Words or symbols provided by composers to instruct performers in how their music is to be played, including articulation, dynamics, expression, and phrasing.
  • ancora [Italian] “Again”.
  • mezzo piano [Italian] Moderately soft. Not quite so soft as piano.
  • jarabe [Spanish] Traditional Mexican dance form with multiple sections in contrasting meters and tempos.
  • big band A type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. A big band typically consists of approximately 12 to 25 musicians and contains saxophones, trumpets, trombones and a rhythm section.