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 2457 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

  • con slancio [Italian] With energy.
  • interlude Any piece of music played or sung between the movements of a larger composition.
  • villanelle [French] A French term used in the 16th century for pastoral poems or songs. The term was later revived, and applied to compositions by later composers.
  • trepak A Russian dance in quick duple meter.
  • sin' al fine [Italian] Literally, “to the end”. Usually attached to another directive, implying that whatever the other directive stated should be carried out to the end of the composition.
  • arioso [Italian] A short, melodious composition in the style of an aria.
  • ode A composition written in commemoration and celebration of a particular event, object, or person. Especially popular in England.
  • rock A loosely defined genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the mid 1950s, characterized by a hard, driving duple meter and amplified instrumental accompaniment.
  • voce piena [Italian] “Full voice”.
  • jig A vigorous dance originating in the British Isles in the 15th century or earlier, usually in compound meter.
  • verse A single line in a metrical composition, e.g. a poem. However, the word has come to represent any division or grouping of words in such a composition, which traditionally had been referred to as a stanza.
  • parody A humorous or satirical composition which exaggerates the features of some other composition.
  • R. Either Raabe or Rinaldi.
  • quadruplum [Latin] Polyphony having four voices. Also, the highest of these voices.
  • pitch Highness or lowness of a tone, depending on the frequency (rate of vibration).