Musical Terms List
Accelerando
Accelerando (Italian: becoming faster) is a term in general use to show that the music should be played at
an increasing speed.
Adagio
Adagio (Italian: slow) is an indication of tempo and is sometimes used to describe a slow movement, even
when the indication of speed at the start of the movement may be different. The diminutive form adagietto
is a little faster than adagio.
Alla
The Italian alla means 'in the manner of' (= French: ˆ la) and may be found in titles like that of Mozart's
'Rondo alla turca', Rondo in the Turkish Style.
Allegro
Allegro (Italian: cheerful, lively) is generally taken as fast, although not as fast as vivace or presto.
Allegretto is a diminutive, meaning slightly slower than allegro. These indications of speed or tempo are
used as general titles for pieces of music headed by instructions of this kind. The first movement of a
classical sonata, for example, is often 'an Allegro', just as the slow movement is often 'an Adagio'
Assai
Assai (Italian: very) appears often in indications to performers of the speed of a piece of music, as in
allegro assai, very fast, or allegro assai moderato, very moderately fast.
Baroque
Once used as a term of critical disapproval, the word 'baroque' is now used in music to designate a period
of musical history from about 1600 to about 1750, although any such periodisation in history can only be a
rough guide. In musicology the term was borrowed from the history of art and architecture. In music the
baroque era may conveniently be divided into three fifty-year periods, Early Baroque, Middle Baroque and
Late Baroque. The first of these is typified by the Italian composer Monteverdi, the Middle Baroque by
composers such as Henry Purcell in England or Lully in France and the Late Baroque by Johann Sebastian
Bach, Handel and Vivaldi.
Brio
Brio (Italian: vivacity, fire or energy) appears as an instruction to performers as, for example, in allegro con
brio, fast with brilliance and fire, an indication used on a number of occasions by Beethoven.
Cadenza
A cadenza, based often on an extended and embellished final cadence, at least in classical concertos, is a
passage originally improvised by a performer in which virtuoso ability might be shown. Cadenzas are now
more often written by the composer, although some modern performers continue to improvise. In classical
concertos the cadenza often leads to the last section of a movement
Cantabile
Cantabile (Italian: in singing style) appears often at the beginning of movements as in andante cantabile - at
walking speed and in a singing style.
Chaconne
A chaconne (= Italian: ciaconna; earlier English: chacony) is in origin a dance popular in Spain in the early
17th century. It came to signify a form in which there are a series of variations over a short repeated bass or
chordal pattern. Famous examples of the form are found in Bach's Chaconne for unaccompanied violin in
his D minor Partita or the earlier Chacony in G minor by Henry Purcell.
Chorale
A chorale is a German Lutheran hymn-tune, a number of which were composed or arranged by Luther
himself and adapted in later centuries to various harmonies, the most famous of all by Johann Sebastian
Bach. The word is also used in America to signify a choir or chorus.
Concerto
A concerto is a piece of instrumental music that contrasts a solo instrument or a small group of solo
instruments with the main body of the orchestra. In the earlier 17th century the word had a more general
significance, but in the early 18th century it came to mean primarily a work as described above.
Crescendo
Crescendo (Italian: growing, becoming louder) is frequently used as a dynamic instruction to performers.
Da capo
Da capo (Italian: from the beginning), abbreviated to the letters D.C. at the end of a piece of music or a
section of it, means that it should be played or sung again from the beginning (De capo al fine) or from the
beginning up to the sign (Da capo al segno). A da capo aria, often found in the later baroque period, is an
aria in three sections, the third an ornamented repetition of the first.
Diminuendo
Diminuendo (Italian: becoming less) is used as a direction to performers to play softer.
Exposition
The exposition in sonata-allegro form is the first section of the movement, in which the principal thematic
material is announced. In the exposition of a fugue (a fugal exposition) the voices (= parts) enter one by
one with the same subject: the exposition ends when all the voices have entered.
Forte
Forte (Italian: loud) is used in directions to performers. It appears in the superlative form fortissimo, very
loud. The letter f is an abbreviation of forte, ff an abbreviation of fortissimo, with fff or more rarely ffff
even louder.
Gigue
The gigue (= Italian: giga; English: jig) is a rapid dance normally in compound duple metre (the main beats
divided into three rather than two). The gigue became the accepted final dance in the baroque instrumental
suite.
Giocoso
Giocoso (Italian: jocular, cheerful) is sometimes found as part of a tempo instruction to a performer, as in
allegro giocoso, fast and cheerful. The same Italian adjective is used in the descriptive title of Mozart’s
opera Don Giovanni, a dramma giocoso
Grave
Grave (Italian: slow, solemn) is used as an indication of tempo and mood, meaning slow and serious
Grazioso
Grazia (grace) forms the Italian adjective grazioso, used as an indication of expression and of tempo,
particularly in the 18th century.
Harmoniemusik
Harmoniemusik is music for wind band. In its more limited sense the term is used to signify music for wind
bands or wind ensembles in the service of the nobility from the middle of the 18th century to the end of the
third decade of the 19th century, and their popular counterparts. The Harmonie, the band itself, which
varied in number from a duo to the often found sextet or octet or to a much larger number of players, had
its counterpart in France and in England, as well as its successors among emigrants to the United States of
America.
Intonation
Intonation is the exactness of pitch or lack of it in playing or singing. Collective intonation is that of a
group of instruments, where slight individual variations in pitch can be lost in a generally more favourable
effect.
Jig
The jig (= French: gigue; Italian: giga), a lively dance in compound time, became the usual final dance of
the baroque dance suite.
Key signature
The key signature is the sharps or flats, or absence of either, at the beginning of a piece of music, indicating
the sharps, flats and naturals belonging to the key of the music.
Larghetto
Larghetto is a diminutive form of Largo (Italian: broad, wide, large) usually a direction of tempo, meaning
slow. Larghetto is slowish, not as slow as Largo.
Largo
Largo (Italian: broad, wide, large and consequently slow) is used as a frequent instruction to performers.
Handel’s Largo, an aria from his opera Serse, is in fact marked Larghetto, although this does not seem to
affect its speed in popular performance.
Leggero (Leggiero)
Leggero means light (= French: léger) and is used as a direction to performers.
L'istesso tempo
L’istesso tempo, the same speed, is found as an instruction to the player to return to the previous speed of
the music.
Maestoso
Maestoso (Italian: majestic) is used to suggest a majestic manner of performance, either in mood or speed.
Meno
Meno (Italian: less) is used in musical directions to qualify other words as in meno mosso, with less
movement.
Molto
Molto (Italian: much, very) is often found in directions to performers, as in allegro molto or allegro di
molto, molto vivace or molto piano.
Nocturne
A nocturne is a night-piece, music that evokes a nocturnal mood. It was developed as a form of solo piano
music by the Irish pianist and composer John Field in the early 19th century, leading to its notable use by
Chopin. The title has been used more recently by other composers for both instrumental and vocal
compositions.
Obbligato
Obbligato (Italian: obligatory) is often used virtually as a noun in English, in spite of its derivation. It is
used to indicate an additional instrumental part that cannot be omitted, particularly when a solo instrument
adds an accompanying melody in some baroque vocal forms. There is, for example, a well known violin
obbligato to the mezzo-soprano aria Laudamus te, in the B minor Mass of Bach.
Overture
The overture (= French: ouverture; German: Ouvertüre; Italian: sinfonia) is an introductory piece, often
designed to initiate an opera or other dramatic work. The late 17th century French overture of Lully opens
with a slow section in dotted (uneven) rhythm, followed by a fugal section, before the return of the slow
opening. The Italian overture provides the origin of the symphony, with two fast movements framing a
central slow movement. The word Ouvertüre or Ouverture is sometimes used to mean an orchestral suite,
as in the four orchestral suites of Johann Sebastian Bach. In the 19th century the overture became also a
possible independent composition, a concert movement, often with literary or geographical associations, or
an occasional connotation. Early examples of these occur in Mendelssohn’s Overture A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, originally intended as a concert overture, or in the programmatic overtures of Berlioz.
Pentatonic
The pentatonic or five-note scale is formed by the black notes of the keyboard, or the white notes C, D, E,
G and A - two whole tones, a minor third and a whole tone. This form of scale is the basis of folk melodies
in many countries, from China to Scotland, and occasionally occurs, in passing at least, in the work of 20th
century composers. It is an important element in the educational music of Carl Orff and in the choral
method of the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály.
Plainchant
Plainchant is the traditional monodic chant of the Catholic and Eastern Christian liturgies. In Western
Europe plainchant was largely but not completly standardised under Pope Gregory the Great at the end of
the sixth century. This form of chant is free in rhythm, following the words of the liturgical texts, and is
modal, using the scales of the eight church modes. In its long history it has undergone various reforms,
revisions and attempts at restoration.
Polyphony
Polyphony is the writing of music in many parts or in more than one part, with reference in particular to
contrapuntal practices. Monody or monophony are possible opposites.
Presto
Presto (Italian: quick) is used frequently as a direction to performers. An even faster speed is indicated by
the superlative prestissimo or even il più presto possibile, as fast as possible.
Rondo
Rondo (= French: rondeau) form involves the use of a recurrent theme between a series of varied episodes,
often used for the rapid final movement of a classical concerto or symphony.
Sarabande
The sarabande is a slow dance in triple metre, generally found in the baroque instrumental suite. The dance
seems to have been Latin American in origin, imported from Latin America to Spain in the 16th century.
Scherzo
A scherzo is a light-hearted movement found from the early 17th century in various forms, but used by
Beethoven as an alternative to the minuet in symphonies, sonatas and other instrumental forms. Chopin
expanded the form very considerably. The diminutive scherzino or scherzetto is occasionally found, while
scherzando occurs as a direction to performers. The scherzo, like the minuet, is generally used to frame a
trio section of contrasted material.
Sempre
Sempre (Italian: always) is found in directions to performers, as in sempre piano, always soft.
Side-drum
The side-drum or snare drum is military in origin. It is a small drum, played with two wooden sticks, with a
band of gut strings or wires that can be stretched across the under-surface of the drum to add a rattling
effect when it is struck.
Sonata
The title sonata originally designated music that was to be played rather than sung. The baroque sonata
developed in two parallel forms. The first, the sonata da chiesa or church sonata, was generally of four
movements in the order slow-fast-slow-fast, the faster movements fugal in character. The second, the
sonata da camera or chamber sonata, was in essence a dance suite. Sonatas of this kind might be played by
a melodic instrument with basso continuo or with a realised keyboard part, or in the form of trio sonatas,
with two melody instruments and basso continuo, therefore normally involving four players. The classical
sonata, instrumental music again generally in several movements, might involve one or more instruments.
There was in particular a development of the solo keyboard sonata, from Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach to
Beethoven. Duo sonatas, generally using a keyboard instrument and a melody instrument, developed from
an earlier form in which the melody instrument predominated to a form in which the keyboard assumed
greater importance, with an optional accompaniment from a melody instrument. Greater degrees of equality
between the two were achieved in the later violin sonatas of Mozart and the violin sonatas and cello sonatas
of Beethoven.
The 19th century brought an expansion of the sonata and greater freedom in the treatment of existing
forms, often with more considerable technical demands on performers, as in the violin and piano sonatas
and cello and piano sonatas of Brahms.
Sonatina
A sonatina is a little sonata, simpler in structure and shorter in length than a sonata.
Tempo
Tempo (Italian: time) means the speed at which a piece of music is played. Sometimes the exact tempo is
given at the beginning of a piece of music with the number of beats to a minute, as measured by a
metronome. More often tempo indications give the performer more latitude, although the Hungarian
composer Belá Bartók, for example, gives exact timings, often of each section of a work. In much earlier
music the tempo is implicit in the notation or in the type of music.
Toccata
A toccata is an instrumental piece, often designed to display the technical proficiency of a performer and
found particularly in keyboard music from the 15th century onwards. There are notable examples in the
organ music of Johann Sebastian Bach, with some toccatas containing a series of movements.
Tutti
Tutti (Italian: all) is used in orchestral music to distinguish the part of a solo instrument from that of the rest
of the section or orchestra. In English this Italian plural adjective has come to be used as a noun, as in the
phrase ‘an orchestral tutti’, meaning a passage played by the whole orchestra, or at least not specifically by
solo instruments.
Unison
Unison is the simultaneous sounding of the same note by two or more singers or players. Unison songs are
not in different parts, with all singers singing the tune together.
Variations
Variation form involves the repetition of a theme in changed versions. It is possible to vary the melody, its
rhythm and its harmony, or to vary by addition. Early variation forms include the chaconne and the
passacaglia, originally dances based on variations on a simple repeated bass or chordal pattern. Later
examples of variations include Elgar’s well known Enigma Variations and the Handel, Haydn and Paganini
Variations of Brahms.
Vibrato
Vibrato is a technique of vibration used on various instruments and by singers, at one time used sparingly
or not at all, but tending to over-use from performers anxious to conceal poor intonation.
Vivace
Vivace, lively, is commonly used as an indication of tempo.
Waltz
The waltz (= French: valse; German: Walzer), a dance in triple time, became the most popular of all ballroom dances in the 19th century, typified in Vienna by the compositions and performances of the Strauss
family. As a purely instrumental form, the waltz provided an apt vehicle for composers from Chopin to
Ravel.