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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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

  • improvisation Creation of a musical composition while it is being performed.
  • threnody A poem, a song, or an instrumental composition that expresses lament for the dead.
  • custos [Latin] (Plural: custodes.) A symbol that appears at the end of a staff line with a single voice). It anticipates the first note of the following line and thus helps the player or singer to manage line breaks during performance. Custodes were frequently used until the 16th century.
  • oral tradition Music that is transmitted by example or imitation and performed from memory.
  • a cappella [Italian] Choral or vocal music performed without instrumental accompaniment.
  • lebhaft [German] Lively.
  • triste [Italian] Sad.
  • 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.
  • resolution In partwriting, the resolving of a dissonant sound to a consonant sound in the following chord. Also, the conclusive ending to a musical statement.
  • vocal cords The vocal organs in the human being which produce sound.
  • crown The cap at the end of the head joint of a flute that unscrews to expose the cork, and which helps keep the head joint cork positioned at the proper depth of insertion.
  • quintet A piece for five singers or instrumentalists. Also, a group of such musicians.
  • partita [Italian] In the 18th and 19th century, a multi-movement composition consisting of dances and non-dance movements or entirely of non-dance movements.
  • werden [German] To become.
  • sixth An interval of six diatonic degrees, counting the first and last degree.