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

  • quickstep A dance popular in the 1920s in duple meter. Also, a fast march.
  • morbidezza [Italian] Softness, tenderness.
  • largamente [Italian] With a broad, full sound.
  • leggerissimo [Italian] Very light, very delicate.
  • pianoforte [Italian] A dynamic marking (fp) directing the performer to attack the written note at the dynamic level of piano (soft) followed by an immediate increase in volume to forte (loud).
  • stromentato [Italian] Accompanied.
  • swing A style of jazz playing whose flexible, improvised rhythms resist notation.
  • backfall A descending appoggiatura.
  • prestissimo [Italian] Extremely fast tempo marking, usually around 200 BPM.
  • overtone A constituent frequency of a sound other than the fundamental frequency.
  • tie A curved line drawn over or under the heads of two notes of the same pitch indicating that they should be played as a single note.
  • voice Either human voice or a melodic layer or part of a polyphonic composition.
  • beat A throbbing that is heard when two tones are slightly out of tune.
  • appassionato [Italian] Passionate, with intense emotion or feeling.
  • affettuoso [Italian] Tender, loving, affectionate.