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

  • Stimmung [German] Mood. Also, tuning.
  • quickstep A dance popular in the 1920s in duple meter. Also, a fast march.
  • affabilità [Italian] Literally, “affability”. A directive to perform with ease and elegance, in a pleasing and agreeable manner.
  • funk American musical style that originated in the 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, soul jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music.
  • baton The stick used by the conductor to define the beat of the music. Also, a light metal rod used for keeping time, twirling and juggling in marching band performances.
  • scena [Italian] A term used to describe the stage, scene or act of an opera. Also, a term for a set of vocal movements in a theatrical production, usually including a recitative, arioso, and aria.
  • mancando [Italian] A directive for the volume to grow quieter and die away.
  • stanza [Italian] The division of a poem that consists of a series of lines arranged together. This is usually in the form of a recurring pattern of meter and rhyme.
  • chromaticism Use of tones extraneous to a diatonic scale (major or minor).
  • lentement [French] Slowly.
  • fado [Portuguese] A type of street song and dance of Portugal, usually accompanied by a guitar.
  • tune An air or melody, a succession of sounds that has definite character and shape and is pleasing to the ear.
  • mestizia [Italian] Sadness.
  • meter The basic scheme of note values and accents which remains unaltered throughout a composition or a section of it.
  • madrigal choir Small vocal ensemble that specializes in a cappella secular works.