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

  • canticle A sacred hymn or song.
  • quintet A piece for five singers or instrumentalists. Also, a group of such musicians.
  • glee An English part song for three or more voices originating in the 17th century.
  • non troppo [Italian] Not too much.
  • 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.
  • shape note Music notation system originating in nineteenth century American church music in which the shape of the note heads determines the pitch; created to aid music reading.
  • boogie-woogie A style of piano-based blues that became very popular in the late 1930s and early 1940s, but originated much earlier, and was extended from piano, to three pianos at once, guitar, big band, and country and western music, and even gospel. Whilst the blues traditionally depicts a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly associated with dancing.
  • canzona [Italian] A 16th-century multipart vocal setting of a literary canzone, or a 16th- and 17th-century instrumental composition.
  • tutti [Italian] “All”. A directive to perform with all instruments together.
  • bene [Italian] “Well” or “good”.
  • MIDI Acronym for “Musical Instrument Digital Interface”; technology standard that allows networking of computers with electronic musical instruments.
  • deciso [Italian] Decided, bold.
  • vif [French] A tempo directive meaning “lively”.
  • très [French] “Very”, “much”.
  • pietoso [Italian] Pitiful, merciful, compassionate.