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

Hint: Don't worry about accents over letters, just skip them.

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…

You may browse the glossary alphabetically, or directly search for a term by using the search box above.

If you are looking for a symbol, check out our Guide to Musical Symbols.

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

  • verve [French] A high degree of energy, excitement or spirit. Often referred to as the artistic inspiration and special feeling of excitement that is used by artists to realize the expression of ideas in performance or composition.
  • agitato [Italian] Agitated, excited, restless.
  • double trill A simultaneous trill on two notes, usually in the distance of a third.
  • gig A term commonly applied to a musical engagement of one night's duration only.
  • couplet [French] A term used in the 1600s and 1700s for the intermediate sections of a rondeau.
  • theme The musical basis upon which a composition is built. Usually a theme consists of a recognizable melody or a characteristic rhythmic pattern.
  • etwas [German] “Somewhat”.
  • chromaticism Use of tones extraneous to a diatonic scale (major or minor).
  • rhapsody A one-movement work that is episodic yet integrated, free-flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, colors and tonalities.
  • lenteur [French] “Slowness”.
  • 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.
  • tosto [Italian] Swiftly, rapidly.
  • codetta [Italian] Literally, “little tail”. A passage similar to a coda, but on a smaller scale, concluding a section of a work instead of the work as a whole.
  • genre Term used to identify a general category of music that shares similar performance forces, formal structures and/or style.
  • ober [German] Upper, higher.