Classical music scores are filled with a wealth of instructions, many of them in Italian, indicating the composer's intentions for how the piece should be performed. They add hugely to our understanding of a composer's wishes and to our sense of how music should sound. However, these hundreds of terms can be daunting for anyone unversed in musical terminology. Here is a useful glossary of some of the key musical terms and definitions you are likely to come across. Read on for our comprehensive musical terms dictionary.
Musical terms
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Musical terms dictionary: musical terms beginning with A
Accelerando
From the Italian, 'accelerando' means 'speeding up', and denotes that the performers should start to play faster.
Accidental
An accidental in music is a sharp (♯) or flat (♭) sign on a musical score that indicates a temporary change from the given key signature.
Adagio
From the Italian, meaning ‘slow’, Adagio instructs the conductor and performers to play the music slowly.
Allegro
Another Italian term, meaning 'lively'. Music with the instruction Allegro should be played at a brisk, upbeat pace. The first movements of many Classical and Romantic symphonies, for example, carry an Allegro marking.
Andante
Andante is Italian for 'walking' and means, you've guessed it, that the music should be played at a walking pace – neither slow nor fast. Example: the second movement of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40.
Aria
Meaning ‘air’ in Italian, an aria is a song, which can have instrumental or orchestral accompaniment, and is usually normally part of a larger work. Most common in opera, arias also occur in oratorios and cantatas. There are also stand-alone concert arias.
Atonal
Music that lacks a tonal centre, or key. The 20th century was a particularly rich time for atonal music – including many works by composers from the Second Viennese School, such as Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern.
Musical terms dictionary: musical terms beginning with B
Bar
Also known as a measure, a bar is a section of music divided from its neighbours by vertical lines, known as barlines. The length of a bar, measured in number of note values, is normally indicated by the time signature – 4/4, 6/8, etcetera.
Barcarolle
‘Barca’ in Italian means boat, and a barcarolle is a boating song – typically one sung by Venetian gondoliers. Mendelssohn, Chopin, Fauré and Offenbach all composed barcarolles.
Baritone
One of the classical voice types, the baritone is the middle section of the male vocal range, between tenor (upper range) and bass (lower range), though typically overlapping at either or both ends. We thought hard and came up with a list of the best baritones of all time.
Baroque
The Baroque period in art and music dates approximately from 1600 to 1750. Most famous Baroque composers include Monteverdi, Purcell, Rameau, Bach, Vivaldi and Handel.
Bel canto
A term from the world of opera, bel canto is a style of operatic writing designed designed to show off the beauty of the voice.
Bolero
A Spanish dance, set to music most memorably by Ravel.
Musical terms dictionary: musical terms beginning with C
Cadenza
Italian for ‘cadence’, a cadenza is essentially an ornamental passage for a soloist, usually in a fairly free rhythmic style, and often allowing for some virtuosic playing. During a cadenza, the accompaniment will rest, or play a sustained note or chord.
Many cadenzas are designed to be improvised by the soloists, such as those in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1.
Cantata
A choral piece that may have either sacred or secular lyrics, a cantata features both solo voices and instrumental accompaniment. Bach wrote many famous cantatas, including 'Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme' (‘Sleepers awake’) and 'Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern' ('How lovely shines the morning star').
Capriccio
From the Italian 'caprice' and also evoking our word ‘capricious’, a ‘caprice’ is a high-spirited, generally short piece of music, such as Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol.
Chamber music
A piece of chamber music will typically contain parts for anything between two and nine players - although, as there are also chamber orchestras, the dividing lines between chamber music and orchestral music can become somewhat blurry.
Common chamber forms include the sonata (typically for piano plus one other instrument, e.g. violin), trio (typically piano, cello, violin), string quartet, and piano quintet (piano plus string quartet).
Chanson
Meaning 'song' in French, chanson denotes a whole tradition of French song, from Medieval times to 20th-century exponents such as Yves Montand and Edith Piaf.
Chord
A musical layering of two or more notes played simultaneously. Famous examples include Wagner's 'Tristan Chord' and the '“'Rite of Spring chord', an E♭ chord sounding over an F♭ major chord, heard during the 'Dance of the Adolescents' in Stravinsky's epoch-making ballet The Rite of Spring.
Chromatic
A chromatic scale uses 12 notes, and the chromatic notes are those notes that do not belong to the diatonic scale in which the music is being played. To take a simple example, the scale of C major uses only the white notes on the piano: so all the black keys (the sharps and flats) will be the chromatic notes here.
More broadly, chromatic music colours or embellishes the tones of the major and minor scales. Composers particularly noted for their use of chromaticism include Bruckner, Franck, Richard Strauss, Wagner, and Scriabin.
Clef
Meaning ‘key’ in French, a clef is a musical symbol that provides the ‘key’ to reading the notes on a musical stave. The presence of a treble, alto or bass clef helps the performer decode the score.
Coda
Another Italian term, coda means 'tail', and refers to the tail end of a piece of music, usually unrelated to the main structure if the work.
Coloratura
Meaning 'colouring' in Italian, coloratura refers to the colour, or decorative style, that certain singers employ. Coloratura sopranos sing in a highly ornamented style. Dame Joan Sutherland was a famous example.
Concerto
A concerto features a soloist and an ensemble (typically, though, not always, an orchestra). Piano concertos and violin concertos are the most famous examples; Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is one of the most famous concertos in the repertoire.
Concerto grosso
The concerto grosso was a common form of orchestral music during the Baroque era of music, around 1600-1750, although the form has also inspired other composers since then, particularly during the Neoclassical period. In the 20th century, composers including Bohuslav Martinu, Alfred Schnittke and Philip Glass wrote their own modern interpretations of the concerto grosso form.
The concerto grosso is most notable for the contrast it presents between a small group of soloists (the concertino) and an accompanying full orchestra (the ripieno).
Contralto
The contralto is the lowest female voice type, pitched between the mezzo-soprano and male tenor ranges. Composers have often given contralto roles something of a matronly attitude.
Contralto falls within the alto range and is the lowest range of female voices, while mezzo-sopranos are somewhere between altos and sopranos, not being able to hit the lowest notes of the former range nor the highest notes of the latter.
Counterpoint
A style of composition in which voices interweave like the strands in a cable, or pull against each other like the arc and cord of a fully tensed bow.
Countertenor
Male singers who are able to manipulate their vocal cords to sing in the higher registers – i.e., those above the range of a tenor – are known as countertenors. Countertenors are, give or take, able to sing the same range of notes as female contralto and mezzo-soprano singers.
Well known countertenors include Reginald Mobley (who performed at the Coronation) and Iestyn Davies.
Crescendo
You’ll often hear something like, ‘the noise built to a crescendo’, or ‘the argument reached a crescendo’. This is common – but wrong. In music, the crescendo is the growing, not the point to which one grows; it is the ascent towards the summit, not the summit itself.
Musical terms dictionary: musical terms beginning with D
Descant
A descant is a treble line that runs in counterpoint to the principal melody. It was in the 20th century that the word ‘descant’ became associated with high soprano (or ‘treble’) lines soaring above hymns – especially at carol concerts.
Diminuendo
Italian for 'diminishing', diminuendo is a dynamic instruction meaning to gradually play quieter – so, the opposite of crescendo above.
Dynamics
When we talk about the dynamics in a piece of music (or a performance), we’re referring to the spectrum of volume – the variations in loudness from its quieter and louder moments. Plenty of works feature broad dynamic range – a few examples are Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, most Mahler and Shostakovich symphonies, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 ‘Pathétique’ and Sibelius Symphony No. 5.
Musical terms beginning with E
Ensemble
A group of people performing instrumental and/or vocal works. A choir, an orchestra (full or chamber orchestra), a string quartet - all are examples of ensembles.
Etude
French for 'study', an étude is an instrumental piece that has been composed specifically to improve or test certain techniques. Chopin and Liszt both composed challenging études for the piano.
Musical terms dictionary: musical terms beginning with F
Flat
A flat symbol (♭) indicates that the note that comes after it should be lowered by a semitone. Flat can also mean that a note is out of tune, sounding lower than it should in this case.
Forte
Italian for 'strong', forte is a musical term that means ‘loud’. Forming part of a piece’s dynamic range, forte is usually abbreviated to a lowercase letter ‘f’ on a musical score and placed below the stave (or staff) it applies to. It may appear at the beginning of a score or later in a piece, to signify that that section of music should be played with an increase in volume, compared with other sections.
Fugue
A fugue is music written for several imitative parts which, entering at staggered stages, join together to create a harmonic whole. Since the Middle Ages, and the first flowering of notated music, composers have striven beyond simple tune-plus-accompaniment.
Musical terms dictionary: musical terms beginning with G
Gavotte
An old French dance in quadruple metre. To establish the feel of the gavotte, listen to the third movement, ‘Gavotta’, from Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony. Prokofiev spells it out with almost didactic clarity.
It’s a dance in four beats to a bar, but with a longish up-beat: two full beats to be exact. Prokofiev makes the rhythmic pattern unmissable by having only violins and violas on the up-beat – dada-dada – then bringing in the full woodwind and strings on the down-beat – DA-da da-da.
Giocoso
Meaning 'playful' or 'cheerful' in Italian, a 'giocoso' instruction means that the piece or section should be played in a jolly, upbeat manner.
Glissando
A glissando is a musical 'slide'. The term 'glissando' comes from the French glisser, which literally means 'to slide'. The performer will slide from one pitch to the next.
As famously produced by The Clangers’ space-mouse-like creatures’ distinctive up-and-down piping sounds. Not to be confused with Portamento, see below.
Gregorian chant
A form of sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek), Gregorian chant has been employed within the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. From the start, Gregorian chant has had two key distinguishing features:
- It is unaccompanied, meaning that there are no musical instruments accompanying the singing
- It is monophonic, which means that there is just one melodic line followed by all the singers. This contrasts with later religious and secular music, in which the different voices (soprano, alto, etcetera) may sing different, although harmonising, vocal lines.
Musical terms dictionary: musical terms beginning with H
Harmony
In music, a harmony refers to two or more complementary notes played or sung at the same time. For example, a choir may sing in harmony, with one section singing the melody while other sections sing the accompanying harmony.
As another example, when playing the piano, the right hand will most likely play the melody (the main recognisable tune), while the left hand will simultaneously play complementary notes or chords that work with the key and melody, and therefore create the harmony.
Humoresque
As its name indicates, a humoresque is a piece of music with a humorous feel. Notable compositions bearing the 'humoresque' moniker have been written by Schumann, Dvořák and Rachmaninov.
Hymn
A song of religious worship. Here are our nominations for the best hymns of all time.
Musical terms beginning with I
Intonation
When we speak or sing, we use intonation (the rise and fall between higher and lower pitches) to generate different notes or convey different moods with our voice. However, if you’ve ever listened to someone singing or practising the violin and felt the need to stick your fingers in your ears, it’s likely due to poor intonation, leading to the music sounding out of tune.
Intonation is all to do with the frequency of sound – how flat or sharp a note is – and therefore relates to the accuracy of pitch.
Musical terms beginning with K
Key
A key in music is the principal group of notes that gives any piece of music its harmonic building blocks. The main notes used in a song are usually all from one particular scale, and this is where we name the song’s key from.
The key that most music learners come across first is the key of C major. That’s because the scale of C major uses no sharp or flat notes – it simply goes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. That means no need to use the black notes on the keyboard – only the white ones.
Musical terms dictionary: musical terms beginning with L
Ländler
A dance in triple time, once popular in Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland, the ländler form comes up in the fast movements of some Bruckner and Mahler symphonies, and a few Schubert piano sonatas.
Largo
From the Italian for ‘wide’ or 'broad', the instruction ‘largo’ simply means that the music should be played at a slow (or ‘broad’) tempo. Typically, at around 45-50 beats per minute (bpm).
Legato
This one comes from the Italian for 'joined', and it instructs the conductor and performers that a series of notes should be played smoothly, or joined up, rather than disconnected (see ‘staccato’, below).
Leggiero
(Italian: 'lightly'). 'Leggiero' on a musical score is an instruction to play lightly and without force.
Leitmotif
A short, recurring musical phrase, usually associated with a character, idea, event or object. A leitmotif is, if you like, the musical equivalent of branding. Wagner used the technique extensively in his music dramas.
Lento
(Italian: 'slow'). You may have seen the word 'lento' written at the start of a score and wondered what it means – it’s the term used in music to indicate a piece should be played with a very slow tempo (around 40-45 bpm, slower than adagio and even largo).
Libretto
Italian for 'little book', a libretto is the text of an opera or vocal work (as opposed to the music), and was traditionally printed in a small book.
Lied / lieder
German for 'song'), a lied (singular) or lieder (plural) is a song in the German tradition. Schumann, Brahms, Wolff, Mahler and Richard Strauss all composed extensively in the lieder form. Perhaps the master lieder composer was Schubert, with his masterful song cycles such as the bleakly evocative Winterreise ('Winter's journey').
- The best Lieder of all time
- The best recordings of Mahler's Rückert Lieder
- What to listen to after Schubert's Winterreise
Musical terms dictionary: musical terms beginning with M
Madrigal
A vocal composition originating in 14th-century Italy. Madrigals are usually of a secular nature, and became very popular in the Renaissance and early Baroque periods.
Major
A scale which corresponds on the piano to all the white notes, C to C. A C major triad chord consists of the notes: C, E, and G. Generally, major keys sound 'happy' while minor keys sound 'sad'.
Melody
Perhaps the most recognisable element that makes up music, a melody is a distinctive series of notes played in a fixed sequence.
Melodies are typically simple to remember and reproduce. For example, 'Happy Birthday', 'God Save the King' and 'Frère Jacques' all have instantly recognisable melodies (or tunes) that are also easy to hum along to.
Minuet
A minuet is an elegant dance in triple time, originally popular in 17th- and 18th-century France.
Mode
Modes are a series of seven musical scales, each derived from the diatonic scale – meaning they have seven notes and include two intervals that are semitones (half steps) and five intervals that are tones (whole steps). We can't quite do full justice to them here, so read Stephen Johnson's excellent explanation of musical modes to get the full picture.
Motif
Within a piece of music, a motif is the term used to describe a short section with a distinct identity (a complete musical ‘idea’ or ‘thought’) that is found throughout, and is characteristic of, the whole composition – the piece’s ‘calling card’.
Motifs can be harmonic, melodic or rhythmic (or they may contain a combination of these elements) and are considered to be the smallest of the ‘building blocks’ – the recognisable, reoccurring themes and phrases – that make up a composition.
Musical terms beginning with N
Natural
This refers, simply, to a note which is neither sharp nor flat.
Neoclassical
Favoured by early/mid-20th-century composers including Stravinsky, Ravel, Martinů and Hindemith, Neoclassicism looked back to the Classical and Baroque eras for inspiration. Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances and Hindemith's Mathis der Maler symphony are all, in their slightly different ways, examples of a Neoclassical style.
Nocturne
As the name suggests, a nocturne is a piece of classical music with something of a nocturnal atmosphere. Chopin was greatly taken by the form, composing 21 Nocturnes for solo piano.
Musical terms dictionary: musical terms beginning with O
Obbligato
Italian for 'obligatory', the term obbligato is used to indicate a crucial part of the piece that is not to be omitted or tampered with. Now is not the time to get experimental and start improvising with the tempo and dynamics, nor should you suddenly decide that elaborate piano solo in the middle of the piece isn’t really necessary. Obbligato means you are obliged to play the score as it is written… or else!
Obbligato is therefore the opposite of the direction ‘ad lib’, where the player is able to freestyle and improvise.
Octave
An octave is the term used to describe the run of eight notes included in a scale, going between two notes with the same name. Using the musical key of C major as an example, there is another C both an octave below and an octave above middle C, and so on: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.
Octet
Like quartet, an octet is both an ensemble of performers (in this case, eight), and a piece of music written for that ensemble - e.g. Schubert's or Mendelssohn's Octets.
Ondes Martenot
The Ondes Martenot is an electronic instrument invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot. It has been used by composers including Honegger, Schmitt, Ibert and, perhaps most famously, Messiaen.
The Ondes Martenot is made up of two units: the main section is made up of a keyboard and pull-wire operated by a ribbon controller for the index finger. The keys are capable of slightly shifting, which has the effect of moving the pitch. Sliding the ribbon with the index finger creates glissando sweeps and expressive portamentos.
The left-hand uses the other unit of the instrument, which has controls accessed from a pull-out drawer that adapt articulation, dynamics and tone.
Operetta
A form of light opera, both in terms of its subject matter and music. Unlike opera, operetta usually contains dialogue. Operetta is not the same thing as comic opera, even though operetta is, or at least aspires to be, comic.
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large-scale work for orchestra and voices, usually sacred in nature. Oratorios are narrative in the same way as opera, but are performed without staging, costume, action or scenery.
Ostinato
Meaning 'obstinate', ostinato describes a repeated musical phrase or rhythm. Example: ‘When I am laid in earth’ from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Dido’s line aspires and plunges, aspires and sighs with the fluid drama of her emotions. Underneath, the unchanging passacaglia bass circles inexorably, like fate.
Overture
Drawing, in a nice change, on the French rather than Italian, an overture is an introductory movement to an opera or substantial work. In opera, the overture usually contains examples of the major musical themes that will appear throughout the work – a type of trailer for what is to come.
Musical terms dictionary: musical terms beginning with P
Partita
A partita is a suite of dances, usually written for a solo instrument.
Passacaglia
A passacaglia is a musical form that originated in Spain in the 17th century and is often based on a ground bass and written in triple metre. It was initially written to accompany a type of Spanish dance.
Pentatonic scale
The simple way of describing a pentatonic scale is as a music scale that contains five notes. Many musicians initially learn seven-note heptatonic scales when they first pick up a new instrument, and pentatonic scales are based on these, but they omit the fourth and seventh notes in the major scales and the second and sixth in the minor scales.
Pianoforte
Italian for 'soft loud' and soon colloquially known as the 'piano', the pianoforte was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1698 and developed during the following century.
Pitch
Pitch is the frequency of the vibration of a sound - or a measurement of how high or low a musical note is. For a fuller explanation, read Stephen Johnson's insightful article on pitch.
Pizzicato
Italian for 'plucked', pizzicato is an instruction for musicians playing stringed instruments, such as the violin. It tells these musicians that they should use their fingers to pluck the strings, rather than play them using a bow.
Polyphony
Polyphony describes the simultaneous use of two or more melodies (or voices) within a composition. This could be anything from a simple canon (or round) to something much more complex.
Portamento
Inagine you progress from glissando – that distinctive sliding note – mentioned above, to producing the notes of an identifiable tune, sliding rapidly between them. If so, then what you performed is probably better described as ‘portamento’.
Presto
This is Italian for 'fast', and it means that the music should be played at a quick tempo. The final movement, 'Saltarello', of Mendelssohn's exuberant Symphony No. 4 'Italian' is played presto.
Musical terms beginning with Q
Quartet
A group of four players (typically, but not always, a string quartet), or a piece of work composed for four players (ditto).
Musical terms dictionary: musical terms beginning with R
Rallentando
Italian for 'becoming slower', rallentando is an instruction that the music should gradually start to slow down. Opposite of accelerando above.
Recitative
Most often used in opera and oratorio, recitative is a type of singing in which the soloist adopts the rhythm and delivery of ordinary speech to move the plot forward. The vocalist takes inspiration from by the free rhythm of the words, so the instrumental accompaniment is fairly minimal.
Ritardando
(Italian: 'becoming slower'). Often abbreviated as 'rit.', ritardando is an instruction to gradually play slower. Like rallentando above, then, and actually quite hard to distinguish between the two.
Rococo
In architecture and visual art, the rococo denoted a light, decorative French style. In music, the term refers to a period (roughly 1740-1780) characterised by highly decorative, elaborately ornate music.
Rondo
A rondo is a piece of music where a passage continually reoccurs. Read Stephen Johnson's typically clear and concise explanation of rondo form to get the full picture...
Rubato
Italian for 'stolen', rubato (or 'tempo rubato', stolen time, to give it its full name) is an instruction to (temporarily) ignore the strict tempo previously instructed. A rubato instruction is effectively inviting the performer to be a little creative and flexible with the rhythm and pace: speeding up or slowing down is invited, to add to the overall effect or to emphasise certain key passages.
Musical terms dictionary: musical terms beginning with S
Scale
A scale is the sounding of a sequence of notes (in order) within an octave. A scale will begin on the tonic (or key note) after which the scale is named. So, for example, the C Major scale is: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, with each note played in turn.
Serialism
Serialism is a compositional technique pioneered by Arnold Schoenberg using all 12 notes of the western scale – all within a fixed set of rules.
As a replacement for the old ‘system’ of tonality, Schoenberg invented a way of maintaining all 12 notes of the chromatic scale in constant, ordered rotation: a ‘12-note row’.
Sonata
From the Italian: 'sonare', to sound, a sonata classical music, sonata means the piece is performed by an instrument typically a piano or another instrument accompanied by a piano – rather than being something that is performed vocally (the term 'cantata' is used to describe a piece that is sung).
Sonata form
Sharing much meaning with, but slightly distinct from sonata above, sonata form is simply a way of organsiing a musical movement into three distinct phases: exposition, development and recapitulation. Get to the bottom of sonata form with Stephen Johnson's clear, accessible explanation.
Soprano
The highest of the classical voice types.
Staccato
A form of playing in which a note is played in a detached fashion, rather than running into the notes preceding or following it. As Stephen Johnson puts it, 'Staccato notes or words walk on tip-toe or jab you emphatically in the solar plexus.'
Stave / staff
Also known as a staff, a stave is the collection of lines onto which notes are placed on a musical score. Each stave comprises five lines, creating four spaces in between them.
Symphony
A large-scale orchestral work, usually in four movements, in which at least one is in sonata form (see above). Typcially, the four movements of a symphony will be: Opening movement; Scherzo; Slow movement; Finale.
Musical terms dictionary: musical terms beginning with T
Tempo
Italian for 'time', tempo is the speed at which a piece of music is to be played. Tempo indications appear either at the beginning of a piece, or within it. Sometimes tempo is indicated by strict beats-per-minute, or using terminology which can be more flexible.
Tenor
The tenor range comes between countertenor and baritone, and is this the highest section of the typical adult male range.
Toccata
From the Italian 'toccare', meaning to touch, a toccata is the musical term for an instrumental composition that gives the musician chance to show off their range of skills. Here is one very famous Toccata (and Fugue) by Bach:
Tonality
In simple terms, tonality is the key in which a piece of music is written. It is also used to describe music that is written using conventional keys and harmony.
Tremolo
Tremolo means 'trembling' in Italian, and this musical instruction asks for a single note to be repeated very quickly, producing a kind of shivering or trembling sound - and a keen sense of anticipation, which is why it's often a very effective opening to a work. Various Bruckner symphonies begin with a very atmospheric tremolo on the violins.
Trill
A musical ornament, consisting of the rapid sounding of two notes in quick succession.
Musical terms beginning with U
Unison
When two or more performers(musicians or singers) produce the same note at the same time.
Musical terms beginning with V
Vibrato
Vibrato is the effect produced when the instrument (or human voice) is vibrated, producing a trembling effect not unlike, but subtly different from, tremolo above.
Vivace
Means 'lively' in Italian, and denotes that the music should proceed at a brisk pace. SLightly faster than Allegro, but slower than Presto.
Musical terms beginning with W
Waltz
A dance in triple time: 1-2-3, 1-2-3, etcetera. Famous Waltzes include the 'Waltz of the Flowers' from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, and 'An der schönen blauen Donau' ('The Blue Danube') by Johann Strauss II / the Younger.