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

  • facile [Italian] “Easy”.
  • niente [Italian] Literally, “nothing”. With almost no sound.
  • grave [Italian] The slowest tempo in music, usually slower than 40 BPM.
  • anonymous A person whose name is unknown.
  • volume Degree of loudness or softness of a sound.
  • compound harmony Regular harmony with an added octave in the bass.
  • melodrama A spoken dialogue that is accompanied by music.
  • fluttertonguing Wind instrument technique in which the tongue is fluttered or trilled against the roof of the mouth.
  • Minnelied [German] A love song composed in the Minnesang tradition.
  • whole tone scale A scale built entirely of whole tone intervals. Used commonly by the French impressionists.
  • monophony Music that is written for only one voice or part.
  • sgarbato [Italian] Rude, unkind, impolite.
  • string quintet Standard chamber ensemble made up of either two violins, two violas and cello, or two violins, viola and two cellos.
  • rumba [Spanish] A dance originating in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Spanish colonizers and of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves.
  • expression The blend of feeling and intellect brought to a performance by the performer.