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

  • formalism The tendency to elevate the formal aspects above the expressive value in music, as in Neoclassical music.
  • brace A symbol that looks like an archer's bow, used to connect two or more different staves that are to be played at the same time by the same instrument (e.g. a piano, a organ or a harp). This should not be confused with the bracket, that provides a visual connection between independent parts of a system.
  • semitone The interval of a minor second.
  • perfect Term applied to the intervals of a unison, octave, fourth, and fifth when they are exactly in tune and not augmented nor diminished.
  • replica [Italian] Repetition.
  • binary measure A measure containing two beats.
  • part song A vocal composition for two or more voices, usually unaccompanied.
  • galliard [French] Lively triple-meter French court dance.
  • senza [Italian] “Without”.
  • Manualiter [German] Organ compositions that are to be performed on the manual alone, i.e. without the pedals.
  • slur A curved line drawn over or under a series of notes, indicating that those notes should be played legato.
  • post-modern A term adopted around the mid-1970s to describe our current eclectic, experimental age.
  • quarter note A note having the time duration of one fourth of a whole note.
  • cantoris [Latin] Literally, “of the cantor”. In Anglican church music, referring to the half of the choir sitting on the cantor's side of the church.
  • ripieno [Italian] The notes added when realizing the figured bass of a basso continuo.