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

  • sonata-rondò [Italian] A form of a composition that displays characteristics of both the rondò and the sonata forms.
  • motteggiando [Italian] Bantering.
  • rumba [Spanish] A dance originating in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Spanish colonizers and of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves.
  • leading note The major seventh of a scale, so called because it lies a semitone below the tonic and “leads” towards it.
  • pensoso [Italian] Thoughtful, pensive.
  • zu [German] “Too” (excessively).
  • ricapitolazione [Italian] Recapitulation.
  • suives [French] Literally, “follow”. A directive to an accompanist to follow the musical interpretation of the soloist.
  • phrase A natural division of the melodic line, comparable to a sentence of speech.
  • serialism A method of composition in which various musical elements such as pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and tone color may be put in order according to a fixed series.
  • agilità [Italian] A directive to perform with lightness or agility.
  • locrian A mode based upon the seventh tone of the major scale.
  • modérément [French] “Moderately”.
  • R. Either Raabe or Rinaldi.
  • inline G On a flute, the standard position of the left-hand G (third-finger) key: in line with the first and second keys.