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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Some random terms

  • disco Commercial dance music popular in the 1970s, characterized by strong percussion in a quadruple meter.
  • contrary motion Simultaneous motion of two voices, one of which is in opposition to the other, with one voice rising in pitch while the other one falls in pitch.
  • Gregorian chant Monophonic melody with a freely flowing, unmeasured vocal line; liturgical chant of the Roman Catholic Church.
  • florid Rich, embellished.
  • comp Jazz term used to describe the accompaniment backing up a soloist.
  • Wiederholung [German] Repetition.
  • progressive rock A subgenre of rock that reached its peak in the early 1970s and attempted to blend the visceral style of rock music with outside influences: classical, jazz, folk, and world musics, for example.
  • improvisation Creation of a musical composition while it is being performed.
  • gig A term commonly applied to a musical engagement of one night's duration only.
  • mutig [German] Courageous, spirited.
  • A440 The standard tuning of the A above middle C at 440 Hz.
  • libero [Italian] Literally, “free”. A directive to perform in a free, unrestrained style.
  • pop Term born as an abbreviation of popular music, that since the 1950s has been used in the sense of a musical genre, originally characterized as a lighter alternative to rock and roll.
  • acoustics The science that deals with the study of sound. Also, the art of optimizing sound in a room or other enclosed space, considering reverberation and other acoustical qualities.
  • chromatic scale A scale consisting of all 12 semitones.