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

  • castrato Male singer who was castrated during boyhood to preserve the soprano or alto vocal register, prominent in seventeenth and early eighteenth century opera.
  • prestissimo [Italian] Extremely fast tempo marking, usually around 200 BPM.
  • Reigenlied [German] Medieval dance form in triple meter, characterized by repeated notes and phrases.
  • chromaticism Use of tones extraneous to a diatonic scale (major or minor).
  • duct flute A type of flute, whose pitch is produced by an air column moving through a channel, or duct, and directed to strike a sharp edge or lip causing the air column to split and vibrate. Several types of duct flutes include recorder, flageolet, penny whistle, whistle flute and slide whistle.
  • ganz [German] Whole, entire, all.
  • Kammer [German] Chamber, room.
  • mosso [Italian] Moved, agitated.
  • vocal music music that is written or arranged to be performed by human voices.
  • festivo [Italian] Merry, festive.
  • martial music Music with a military feeling.
  • con tenerezza [Italian] “With tenderness”.
  • bourrée [French] An old French dance in use during the Baroque period, very rapid and hearty, usually in 2/4 or 2/2 time.
  • diatonic scale A seven note musical scale, consisting of five whole steps and two half steps.
  • reduction A simplified arrangement of a composition.