Multilingual Music Glossary

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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

  • innocentemente Innocently.
  • petite reprise [French] Repetition of the last few measures of a piece after a larger repetition. The starting point of the section to be repeated is usually indicated with a small “segno”.
  • chromatic scale A scale consisting of all 12 semitones.
  • détaché [French] Not slurred.
  • Anlaufen [German] To open, to increase in volume.
  • rest A symbol standing for a measured break in the sound with a defined duration.
  • leading note The major seventh of a scale, so called because it lies a semitone below the tonic and “leads” towards it.
  • scale A series of notes in ascending or descending order that presents the pitches of a key or mode, beginning and ending on the tonic of that key or mode.
  • presque [French] “Almost”.
  • inquieto [Italian] Restless, uneasy, agitated.
  • divisi [Italian] Literally, “divided”. A directive in ensemble music that instructs one section to divide into two or more separate sections, each playing a separate part. Often these separate parts are written on the same staff.
  • schnell [German] Fast.
  • non-transposing instrument An instrument which is notated in the same key on paper that it sounds when played.
  • brace A symbol that looks like an archer's bow, used to connect two or more different staves that are to be played at the same time by the same instrument (e.g. a piano, a organ or a harp). This should not be confused with the bracket, that provides a visual connection between independent parts of a system.
  • Kantorei [German] The musicians of a Protestant German court.