Multilingual Music Glossary
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…
You may browse the glossary alphabetically, or directly search for a term by using the search box above.
If you are looking for a symbol, check out our Guide to Musical Symbols.
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
- bas
Low in pitch. - leggerissimo
Very light, very delicate. - modal Having to do with modes; this term is applied most particularly to music that is based upon the Gregorian modes, rather than to music based upon the major, minor, or any other scale.
- disjunct A melodic line that moves by leaps and skips rather than in steps.
- sopra
“Above”. - serein
Serene, calm. - stromentato
Accompanied. - clavier
Any keyboard instrument. - arpeggio
Broken chord in which the individual tones are sounded one after another instead of simultaneously. - largamente
With a broad, full sound. - mancando
A directive for the volume to grow quieter and die away. - triplet Three notes of equal length that are to be performed in the duration of two notes of equal length.
- polyharmony Two or more streams of harmony played against each other; common in twentieth century music.
- scale A series of notes in ascending or descending order that presents the pitches of a key or mode, beginning and ending on the tonic of that key or mode.
- hemiola In modern musical parlance, a metrical pattern in which two bars in simple triple time are articulated as if they were three bars in simple duple time.