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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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

  • tone A sound of definite pitch and duration, as distinct from noise. Tone is a primary building material of music.
  • sottovoce [Italian] Almost whispering.
  • leap Any movement from one note to another through means of an interval that is greater than a second.
  • volando [Italian] Flying.
  • postlude A composition that concludes a larger composition. Also, a composition performed at the end of a church service as the congregation leaves.
  • soprano [Italian] The highest female voice.
  • strathspey A lively Scottish dance in 4/4 time related to the reel. A characteristic of this dance is the peculiar rhythmic pattern of a dotted eighth note followed by a sixteenth, known as the Scotch snap.
  • natural minor scale A scale similar to the major scale, but with the third, sixth and seventh degrees lowered by a semitone.
  • paso doble [Spanish] Literally, “double step”. A Spanish dance in a brisk duple meter, typically 2/4 time.
  • vibrato [Italian] Small fluctuation of pitch and/or volume, used to add expression and vocal-like qualities to instrumental music.
  • backfall A descending appoggiatura.
  • 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.
  • con disperazione [Italian] Desperately.
  • parody A humorous or satirical composition which exaggerates the features of some other composition.
  • severità [Italian] Strictness, severity.