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

  • strict counterpoint The strict application of the rules of part writing.
  • pienezza [Italian] “Fullness”.
  • tristezza [Italian] Sadness.
  • backbeat A style of rhythmic accentuation that puts accents on even beats. In common time this means having accents on beats 2 and 4.
  • shape note Music notation system originating in nineteenth century American church music in which the shape of the note heads determines the pitch; created to aid music reading.
  • rounded binary Compositional form with two sections, in which the second ends with a return to material from the first; each section is usually repeated.
  • Biamonti Catalog [Italian] A chronological catalog of Ludwig van Beethoven's compositions, compiled by Giovanni Biamonti.
  • harmony Tones sounding simultaneously.
  • ballade [French] A one-movement musical piece with lyrical and dramatic narrative qualities, usually having a text dealing with courtly love.
  • con passione [Italian] “With passion”.
  • spinto [Italian] A term describing a lyric voice, usually that of a soprano or tenor, that can also achieve powerful, dramatic effects. Also, a part written for a voice of such character.
  • pianoforte [Italian] A dynamic marking (fp) directing the performer to attack the written note at the dynamic level of piano (soft) followed by an immediate increase in volume to forte (loud).
  • new age Style of popular music of the 1980s and 1990s, characterized by soothing timbres and repetitive forms that are subjected to shifting variation techniques.
  • burlesco [Italian] Jocular, in a playful style.
  • chromatic scale A scale consisting of all 12 semitones.