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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Some random terms

  • sarabande [French] Stately Spanish baroque dance type in triple meter, a standard movement of the Baroque suite.
  • 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.
  • disjunct A melodic line that moves by leaps and skips rather than in steps.
  • Stimmung [German] Mood. Also, tuning.
  • flat An accidental symbol that lowers the pitch of a note by a semitone.
  • woodwind A family of blown wooden musical instruments. Today some of these instruments are actually made from metal. The woodwind instruments commonly used in a symphony orchestra are flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon.
  • ska A music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, combining elements of Caribbean music with American jazz and rhythm and blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the offbeat.
  • wind ensemble An instrumental ensemble consisting of woodwind, brass and percussion instruments.
  • mediant The third note of a diatonic scale.
  • adirato [Italian] Angry, wrathful.
  • tacet [Latin] Literally, “he is silent”. An indication that a performer is to be silent for some time.
  • strisciando [Italian] A directive to perform with a slur, a smooth slide, or a glide from one note to another.
  • prima donna [Italian] Literally, “first lady”. Term used in opera for the principal female singer of the opera or of the opera company.
  • syncopation Deliberate upsetting of the meter or pulse of a composition by means of a temporary shifting of the accent to a weak beat.
  • ballad In jazz and popular music, a short song in a slow tempo, usually with a romantic or sentimental text.