Now updated for CSW19. New words, if any, and new inflections of existing words, are shown in red.
| acciaccatura | a grace-note performed quickly before an essential note of a melody > ACCIACCATURAS or ACCIACCATURE |
| agoge | in Greek music, tempo; sequence in melody. |
| agogic | accenting a musical note by slightly dwelling on it. |
| agogics | the accentuation of a musical note by slightly dwelling on it > AGOGICS. |
| alt | a high tone; a halt or rest. |
| amusis | the inability to distinguish differences in musical pitch. |
| amusic | suffering from amusia, the inability to distinguish differences in musical pitch. |
| anacrusis | one or more unstressed notes immediately preceding the first bar line > ANACRUSES. |
| appoggiatura | a short note placed before a longer one. |
| arpeggiate | to perform or write in arpeggios. |
| arpeggio | the sounding of the notes of a chord in (usu. rapid upward) succession, not simultaneously. |
| atonal | not referring to any scale or tonic, NONTONAL. |
| atonality | the state of being ATONAL. |
| atonally | in an ATONAL manner. |
| backbeat | one of the normally unstressed beats in a bar, used as a secondary syncopated beat. |
| bassline | the lowest line in a piece of jazz or popular music, provided by a bass instrument or electronically. |
| battuta | the measuring of time by beating. |
| beatless | without a beat. |
| bebung | a tremolo effect produced on the clavichord. |
| bitonal | using two musical keys simultaneously. |
| bitonality | the use of two musical keys simultaneously. |
| bravura | spirit and dash in execution > BRAVURE or BRAVURAS. |
| breakbeat | in house music, a short sample of drum beats taken from old soul or jazz records. |
| breve | an obsolescent note, twice as long as the longest now generally used (the SEMIBREVE). |
| cadenza | a (sometimes improvised) flourish or passage for a solo instrument or voice, usu. near the close or between the divisions of a movement. |
| chord | a group of notes to be played together; (verb) to play a chord. |
| chordal | of or pertaining to a chord. |
| chording | the playing, singing, or arrangement of chords. |
| chromatic | (noun) a chromatic note. |
| clef | a character placed on the stave by which the absolute pitch of the following notes is fixed. |
| concertante | exhibiting or needing great skill and brilliancy; alternating tutti passages and passages for a group of soloists. |
| continuo | the bass part as written for a keyboard instrument. |
| contralto | the part sung by the highest male or lowest female voices; the alto or counter tenor > CONTRALTI or CONTRALTOS. |
| crotchet | a note in music, equal to half a MINIM. |
| demisemiquaver | a 1/32 note in music. |
| descant discant | a variation upon a melody, hence, metaphorically, a comment on a given theme; (verb) to comment on a theme. |
| diapente | the interval of the fifth. [Gk. dia, through + pente, five]. |
| diaphony | a dissonance; also, two-part polyphony. |
| diastaltic | of intervals, extended; of style, bold. |
| diastem | in Greek music, an interval, esp. one forming a single degree of the scale. |
| diatonic | using only the 8 tones of a major or minor scale without chromatic deviations. |
| diazeuctic | relating to DIAZEUXIS, the separation of two tetrachords by a whole tone. |
| diazeuxis | the separation of two tetrachords by a whole tone > DIAZEUXES. |
| ditone | the Greek major third, which comprehend two major tones (the modern major third contains one major and one minor whole tone). |
| doh | a musical note. |
| downbeat | the first or most heavily accented beat of a measure (indicated by a conductor's downward beat). |
| ecbole | a digression; (Mus.) the sharpening of a tone. |
| fa | a musical note, as in sol-fa. |
| fah | a musical note. |
| fermata | a pause in music > FERMATAS or FERMATE. |
| finalis | a type of tone in mediaeval music > FINALISES. |
| fioritura | a florid embellishment introduced into a melody by a singer or player > FIORITURE. |
| gamme | a musical scale. |
| gamut | the complete range of something, e.g. the full range of notes which a voice or instrument can produce. |
| gorgia | an improvised virtuoso passage in 16th and 17th century singing. |
| halftone | a semitone. |
| harmonic | a musical tone with a frequency that is a multiple of the fundamental frequency. |
| hemiola hemiolia | in mediaeval music, a perfect fifth. |
| heptachord | a system of seven sounds. |
| heptatonic | of a musical scale, containing seven notes. |
| hexachord | a series of six notes, with a semitone between the third and fourth, the other intervals being whole tones. |
| hypate | in Greek music, the lowest string of the lyre, or its tone. |
| hypodorian | relating to a mode in ancient Greek music. |
| hypolydian | relating to a mode in ancient Greek music. |
| klang | a complex tone, composed of fundamental and harmonics. |
| klangfarbe | tone-colour; timbre. |
| la | a musical note > LAS. |
| lah | a musical note. |
| large | an obsolete note in music. |
| lichanos | in ancient Greek music, the string or the note struck by the forefinger > LICHANOSES. |
| longa | a long note > LONGAS. |
| me | a musical note > MES. |
| mediant | the third tone of a scale, about midway between tonic and dominant. |
| melisma | a melody; a melodic ornamentation > MELISMAS or MELISMATA. |
| melismatic | in florid style, especially of singing one syllable on a number of notes. |
| mese | in Greek music, the middle string of the lyre; its note. |
| mi | a musical note > MIS. |
| microtone | an interval less than a semitone. |
| minim | a note with the time value of half a semibreve or two crotchets. |
| mordent | a rapidly alternating a tone with one half-tone lower; a reverse trill. [Ger. fr. Ital. mordente]. |
| nete | the highest note of a lyre. [Gk. nete or neate (chorde), literally, lowest (string)]. |
| neum neume | a succession of notes sung to one syllable. |
| neumatic neumic | relating to a NEUME. |
| nontonal | not tonal. |
| nonuplet | a group of nine notes to be performed in the time of eight or six. |
| octaval | relating to an OCTAVE. |
| octave | a set of eight notes. |
| offbeat | an unaccented beat; any of the normally unaccented beats in a bar, as the second or fourth beat in common time. |
| ostinato | a short melody or phrase that is constantly repeated in the same pitch, a RIFF > OSTINATOS. |
| overtone | a harmonic or upper partial. |
| paramese | the string or tone above the MESE. |
| paranete | the string or tone next below the NETE, the highest note of a lyre. |
| parhypate | in Greek music, the lowest note but one in a TETRACHORD. |
| partitura | a score in music > PARTITURAS. |
| pentatonic | consisting of five tones or notes. |
| plagal | of a Gregorian mode, having the final in the middle of the compass instead of at the bottom, as the last two chords of most hymns. |
| plinky | Of a high pitched sound from a stringed instrument when plucked > PLINKIER, PLINKIEST. |
| polytonal | of music, having many keys. |
| polytonality | two or more tonalities in a composition. |
| pralltriller | a musical ornament comprising a MORDENT plus an added upper note. |
| presa | a musical symbol used in a canon etc. to mark the entry of a voice or instrument > PRESE. |
| pycnon | a term in ancient Greek music; in mediaeval music, a semitone. |
| quaver | a 1/8 note in music; (verb) to tremble, quiver. |
| re | a musical note > RES. |
| ribattuta | the slow beginning of a TRILL > RIBATTUTAS. |
| riff | a short rhythmic phrase repeated constantly; (verb) to play such a phrase. |
| schisma | in music, an interval equal to half the difference between twelve perfect fifths and seven octaves > SCHISMAS. [Gk. schisma a split, rent]. |
| semibreve | the longest generally used note, having twice length of minim and half that of breve. |
| semiquaver | a 1/16 note in music, half a quaver. |
| semitonal semitonic | of or pertaining to a SEMITONE. |
| semitone | half a tone, one of the lesser intervals of the musical scale, as from B to C. |
| septimole | a group of seven notes to be played in the time of four or six. |
| sextolet | a group of six notes performed in the time of four. |
| sharp | (verb) to raise in music by a semitone. |
| si | an earlier form of TI, a musical note > SIS. |
| so | in such a way; (noun) a musical note > SOS. |
| soh | a musical note. |
| sol | a musical note; an old French coin. |
| subchord | part of a chord. |
| subdominant | the fourth degree of the diatonic scale, e.g. F in the scale of C. |
| submediant | the sixth degree of the diatonic scale, e.g. A in the scale of C major. |
| suboctave | the octave below. |
| subtonic | the seventh tone of a diatonic scale, immediately below the tonic. |
| superdominant | the SUBMEDIANT or 6th tone of the diatonic scale. |
| supertonic | the note next above the keynote; the second of the scale. |
| syncopation | a shift of accent in a musical passage that occurs when a normally weak beat is stressed. |
| tablature | an old notation for lute music etc. |
| tala | a traditional rhythmic pattern in Indian music. [Skr. 'hand-clapping']. |
| talea | a recurring rhythmic pattern in mediaeval motets > TALEAE. |
| te | = TI, a musical note > TES. |
| tenuto | sustained; a sustained note or chord > TENUTI. |
| tetrachord | a scale series of four sounds, of which the extremes, or first and last, constituted a fourth. These extremes were immutable; the two middle sounds were changeable. |
| tonality | the sum of relations between the tones or notes of a scale or key; a particular scale or key. |
| tremulate | to sound with a tremolo effect. |
| trill | a rapid alternation of two notes a tone or semitone apart, commonly ending with a turn; (verb) to perform a trill. |
| trillo | a TRILL > TRILLOES. |
| triplex | triple time > TRIPLEXES. |
| trite | in Greek music, the third string of the lyre; (adj.) banal, commonplace > TRITER, TRITEST. |
| tritone | a superfluous or augmented fourth. |
| undecimole | a group of eleven notes, in the time of eight. |
| unison | identity of pitch. |
| unisonal unisonant unisonous | being in unison. |
| upbeat | an unaccented beat in music. |
| ut | a musical note > UTS. |
| zoppa zoppo | having a syncopated or temporarily changing accent of a beat. [Ital. 'limping']. |