alfabeto

Borrowed from Italian alfabeto (“alphabet”). Doublet of alphabet.

The monograph should deal not only with modal scales (their range, ambitus, "centonized" gestures, cadences, and structural application in music) but would similarly need to deal with the guitar's alfabeto, the labyrinth of guitar chords, movable chords, transposed chords, the progressions of B quadro and B molle in the alfabeto books, and so forth.

1987, Journal of the Lute Society of America, volumes 17-18, page 127

Composers for harpsichord, lute, viol, and guitar often placed chords or ornaments on notes in the positions of those strummed downward in the alfabeto tablatures, and composers for all instruments gave longer values to many of them.

1987, Betty Bang Mather, Dance Rhythms of the French Baroque: A Handbook for Performance, page 30

In the Italian system, each letter of the alfabeto represents a chord formation on the guitar (the letter A, for example, represents a G-major chord).

1993, Stanley Yates, The baroque guitar, late Spanish style as represented by Santiago de Murcia in the Salvidar manuscript (1732)

(music, historical) An early Italian alphabetic notation system used to describe chords.


progression

en-noun

progression (countable and uncountable, plural progressions)

/pɹəˈɡɹɛʃən/


jungle

jungle (countable and uncountable, plural jungles)

→ Catalan: jungla

→ Czech: džungle

→ Danish: jungle

→ Dutch: jungle

→ French: jungle
→ Romanian: junglă

desctree

→ German: Dschungel, Tschungel
→ Hungarian: dzsungel

→ Esperanto: ĝangalo

→ Italian: giungla

→ Japanese: ジャングル (janguru)

→ Korean: 정글 (jeonggeul)

→ Polish: dżungla

→ Russian: джу́нгли (džúngli)
→ Armenian: ջունգլի (ǰungli)
→ Georgian: ჯუნგლი (ǯungli)

→ Serbo-Croatian: džungla

→ Slovak: džungľa

→ Slovene: džungla

→ Spanish: jungla

→ Swedish: djungel

→ Ukrainian: джу́нглі (džúnhli)

→ Welsh: jyngl

/ˈd͡ʒʌŋ.ɡ(ə)l/

Borrowed from Hindustani جَن٘گَل (jaṅgal) / जंगल (jaṅgal), from Sanskrit जङ्गल (jaṅgala, “arid, sterile, desert”). First appears c. 1776 in a translation by Nathaniel Halhed.

der

you can take the monkey out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the monkey

Always more multiracial than other post-Rave scenes, Hardcore got “blacker” as hiphop, Ragga, dub and Soul influences kicked in, and by 93 it had evolved into Jungle. By this point, Hardcore/Jungle (the terms remain interchangeable) was universally scorned by dance hipsters and banished from the media.

1994 September, Simon Reynolds, “Above The Treeline”, in The Wire

In large part, happycore was the result of an exodus of white ravers from the jungle scene, in reaction to the influx of black youth and the attendant mood change from bonhomie to surliness.

2013, Simon Reynolds, Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture, page 291

electronic dance music
electronic dance music

(music, uncountable) A style of electronic dance music and precursor of drum and bass.


transient

en-adj

transient (comparative more transient, superlative most transient)

more transient (comparative)
most transient (superlative)

From Late Latin transiēnt- (for classical transeunt-), stem of transiēns, present participle of transire (“to go over, to pass”).

مُؤَقَّت

passing or disappearing with time; transitory


tonic

(music) Pertaining to or based upon the first note of a diatonic scale.


tonic

(music) The first note of a diatonic scale; the keynote.

(music) The triad built on the tonic note.


catalogue

/ˈkæt.əˌlɒɡ/

/ˈkæt.əˌlɔɡ/

/ˈkæt.əˌlɑɡ/

From Middle English cathaloge, from Old French catalogue, from Late Latin catalogus, itself from Ancient Greek κατάλογος (katálogos, “enrollment, register”), from καταλέγω (katalégō, “to recount, make a list”), from κατα- (kata-, “downwards, towards”) + λέγω (légō, “to say, to speak, to tell”).

katalog

a systematic list of names, books, pictures etc.

(music) A complete list of a recording artist's or a composer's songs.


rock and roll

/ˈɹɒk ən(d)ˈɹəʊl/

From rock (move back and forth) + and + roll; originally a verb phrase common among African Americans, meaning "to have sexual intercourse"; it was a euphemism that appeared in song titles since at least 1914 (Trixie Smith's "My Man Rocks Me With One Steady Roll").
As a name for a specific style of popular music from the early 1950s, popularized by disc jockey Alan Freed in reference to the euphemistic use in song titles.

This couple performs rock and roll music when he shreds the electric guitar while his girlfriend plays the drums!

(music) A genre of popular music that evolved in the 1950s from a combination of rhythm and blues and country music, characterized by electric guitars, strong rhythms, and youth-oriented lyrics.


paradiddle

/ˈpæɹəˌdɪdəl/

Imitative. May be related to [Attic] Greek, παραδίδωμι (paradídōmi) 1) to give into the hands (of another) 2) to give over into (one's) power or use 2a) to deliver to one something to keep, use, take care of, manage

I mean, as a drummer, you're sitting at a practice pad for hours on end, doing paradiddles and all the exercises you learn for your craft.

2023 December 8, The Big Issue, Melbourne, page 33, column 2

(music) A percussive exercise (one of 26 drum rudiments per the National Association of Rudimental Drummers or one of 40 per the Percussive Arts Society) which involves playing four even strokes in the order ‘right left right right’ or ‘left right left left.’


bashment

en-noun

bashment (countable and uncountable, plural bashments)

(slang, uncountable, music, especially Jamaican) Dancehall music.


tip

From Middle English tip, typ, tippe, probably from an unrecorded Old English *typpa, *typpe, from Proto-Germanic *tuppijô, *tuppijǭ (“tip”), diminutive of *tuppaz (“top”).
Cognates
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tip (“tip”), West Frisian tippe, tip (“tip”), Dutch tip (“tip”), German Low German Tip, Tippel (“tip”), dialectal German Zipf (“tip”) (diminutive Zipfel used in Standard German), Danish tip (“tip”), Swedish tipp (“tip”), Icelandic typpi (“knob, pin, penis”). Compare also Saterland Frisian Timpe (“tip”), West Frisian timpe (“tip”), Old English tæppa, Albanian thep (“tip, point”).

(music) The end of a bow of a stringed instrument that is not held.


set theory

set theory (usually uncountable, plural set theories)

(music) Musical set theory, a systematic approach to describing musical objects and their relationships.


fugue

Borrowed from French fugue, from Italian fuga (“flight, ardor”), from Latin fuga (“act of fleeing”), from fugiō (“to flee”); compare Ancient Greek φυγή (phugḗ). Apparently from the metaphor that the first part starts alone on its course, and is pursued by later parts.

(music) A contrapuntal piece of music wherein a particular melody is played in a number of voices, each voice introduced in turn by playing the melody.


bleep

bleep (countable and uncountable, plural bleeps)

See, there are a huge number of people in this city who look like goths and talk the talk and claim to enjoy much of the same music I do, so it confuses me somewhat that the clubs all play bleep. I would have thought there would be enough people to make something else work.

2005, Jennie Kermode, “What is gothic?”, in alt.gothic (Usenet)

A number of nights now steer away from the EBM of yesteryear. The scene is alive and kicking with plenty of new bands that aren't reliant on synths. All you have to do is look. At InsanitoriuM we have a large, young, crowd that would up and leave if we started playing bleep at them, and we're not alone.

2005, oldgoth, “Theaving Goths”, in uk.people.gothic (Usenet)

(music, slang, uncountable) A broad genre of electronic music with goth and industrial influences, as opposed to traditional gothic rock.


idiomatic

en-adj

idiomatic (comparative more idiomatic, superlative most idiomatic)

more idiomatic (comparative)
most idiomatic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek ἰδιωματικός (idiōmatikós, “related to an idiom”), from ἰδίωμα (idíōma, “idiom”).

uder

(music) Relating to parts or pieces which are written both within the natural physical limitations of the instrument and human body and, less so or less often, the styles of playing used on specific instruments.

idiomatyczny

parts or pieces of or styles of playing music


fi

(music) The solfeggio syllable used to indicate the sharp of the fourth note of a major scale.


pluck

en-verb

pluck (third-person singular simple present plucks, present participle plucking, simple past and past participle plucked or (obsolete) pluckt)

plucks (present singular third-person)
plucking (participle present)
plucked (participle past)
plucked (past)
pluckt (obsolete participle past)
pluckt (obsolete past)

From Middle English plucken, plukken, plockien, from Old English pluccian, ploccian (“to pluck, pull away, tear”), also Old English plyċċan ("to pluck, pull, snatch; pluck with desire"), from Proto-Germanic *plukkōną, *plukkijaną (“to pluck”), of uncertain and disputed origin. Perhaps related to Old English pullian (“to pull, draw; pluck off; snatch”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian plukje (“to pluck”), West Frisian plôkje (“to pick, pluck”), Dutch plukken (“to pluck”), Limburgish plógte (“to pluck”), Low German plukken (“to pluck”), German pflücken (“to pluck, pick”), Danish and Norwegian plukke (“to pick”), Swedish plocka (“to pick, pluck, cull”), Icelandic plokka, plukka (“to pluck, pull”). More at pull.
An alternative etymology suggests Proto-Germanic *plukkōną, *plukkijaną may have been borrowed from an assumed Vulgar Latin *pilūc(i)cāre, a derivative of Latin pilāre (“deprive of hair, make bald, depilate”), from pilus (“hair”). The Oxford English Dictionary, however, finds difficulties with this and cites gaps in historical evidence.
The noun sense of "heart, liver, and lights of an animal" comes from it being plucked out of the carcass after the animal is killed; the sense of "fortitude, boldness" derives from this meaning, originally being a boxing slang denoting a prize-ring, with semantic development from "heart", the symbol of courage, to "fortitude, boldness".

cog

Whereas a piano strikes the string, a harpsichord plucks it.

(transitive, music) To play (a single string on a musical instrument) by pulling and then releasing it, such as on a guitar.

彈撥

music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it


zufolo

(music) A little flute or flageolet, especially that which is used to teach birds.


zoppo

(music) Alternately with and without syncopation.


Americana

/əˌmɛɹɪˈkænə/

/əˌmɛɹɪˈkɑːnə/

/əˌmɛɹɪˈkeɪnə/

The music that became Americana crossed racial lines very early, becoming one of the major integrating forces in America. The chapter shows how artists such as Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers were creating and playing Americana long before we had a name for what they were doing.

2017, Michael Scott Cain, The Americana Revolution, Rowman & Littlefield, page xxx

A quarter-century later, the Band’s music provided a key template for the acts first labeled Americana, including Son Volt, Wilco and Lucinda Williams, as well as for their sonic heirs.]

[2023 August 9, “Robbie Robertson, 80, Dies; Canadian Songwriter Captured American Spirit”, in The New York Times

(music) An amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles.


cadenza

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cadenza.wav

Borrowed from Italian cadenza, from Latin cadentia. Doublet of cadence and chance.

Yes, laugh, as I want to laugh for instance in the concert hall when the orchestra trundles to a stop and the virtuoso at his piano, hunched like a demented vet before the bared teeth of this enormous black beast of sound, lifts up deliquescent hands and prepares to plunge into the cadenza.

(music) A part of a piece of music, such as a concerto, that is very decorative and is played by a single musician.


filk

Originally "filk music" was a typo for "folk music" in a never-published essay on the influence of Science Fiction and Fantasy on folk music. Its first known deliberate use was by Karen Kruse Anderson in Die Zeitschrift für Vollständigen Unsinn (The Journal for Utter Nonsense) #774 (June 1953), for a song written by science-fiction author Poul Anderson.

The blame/credit (choose one) for the first filk song is a little dubious. Like the man who tried to sit on two stools, it falls in the middle, between Poul Anderson who wrote a filk song called Barbarous Allen and Karen Anderson who egged him on and published it in Zed #774.

1955 June, Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson (writing as "Petronius Arbiter Kingsley"), “Filk Song”, in Die Zeitschrift für Vollständigen Unsinn (aka The Zed), number 780, page 13

And the permanent exhibit area offers a filk performance on a small stage so that neophytes can sample more esoteric interests.

2000, Camille Bacon-Smith, Science Fiction Culture, University of Pennsylvania Press, page 38

2006, Robert T. Balder, quoted in Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists, Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing, →ISBN, page 97,
I’m also involved in what is called filk music. This is music for and by fans of Fantasy and Science Fiction. […] Filk is nearly as big a part of my creative life as comics, and I have similarly made many friends among the creative people in that community.

Music can be very important in fan texts and activities. Fans write and perform songs at gatherings about characters from television shows, not unlike the way that folk songs are sung in folk clubs. This can be seen in the name of this fan form: filk song. According to Jenkins [in Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture], filk songs take their cue from commercial culture. They are about the characters from commercial television series, but ‘Filk turns commercial culture back into folk culture, existing as a mediator between two musical traditions. Its raw materials come from commercial culture; its logic is from folk culture’ (1992: 270).

2007, Brian Longhurst, Popular Music and Society, Polity, page 236

(music) About or inspired by science fiction, fantasy, horror, science, and/or subjects of interest to fans of speculative fiction; frequently, being a song whose lyrics have been altered to refer to science fiction; parodying. (However, much filk music is original rather than parodic.)


clamshell

(often attributive) Any object with some other resemblance to either one or both halves of the shell of a clam.

(music) An amphitheater, especially an outdoor amphitheater; the semi-circular acoustic backdrop behind and above the performers.


poppy

en-adj

poppy (comparative poppier or more poppy, superlative poppiest or most poppy)

poppier (comparative)
more poppy (comparative)
poppiest (superlative)
most poppy (superlative)

From pop(ular) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’).

suffix

I thought Sparks were great; they were very poppy for Island Records. They were considered an oddity but you have to remember that at the time Roxy Music, now everyone's seminal band, were seen as very poppy.

2010, Daryl Easlea, “Island Life”, in Talent is an Asset: The Story of Sparks, London, New York, N.Y.: Omnibus Press

(music) Typical of, or in the style of, pop music.


movement

en-noun

movement (countable and uncountable, plural movements)

From Middle English mevement, from Old French movement (modern French mouvement), from movoir + -ment; cf. also Medieval Latin movimentum, from Latin movere (“move”). Doublet of moment and momentum. In this sense, displaced native Old English styring, which led to Modern English stirring.
Morphologically move + -ment.

eye movement desensitization and reprocessing

Beethoven's movements

(music) A large division of a larger composition.

樂章

music: division of a larger musical composition

(music) Melodic progression, accentual character, tempo or pace.


concerto

/kənˈt͡ʃɛɹtoʊ/

From Italian concerto. Doublet of concert.

(music) A piece of music for one or more solo instruments and orchestra.

協奏曲

a piece of music for one or more solo instruments and orchestra


mixture

mixture (countable and uncountable, plural mixtures)

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French misture, from Latin mixtūra (“a mixing”), from mixtus, perfect passive participle of misceō (“mix”); compare mix.


shoulder

From Middle English schuldre, sholder, shulder, schulder, from Old English sculdra, sculdor (“shoulder”), from Proto-West Germanic *skuldru (“shoulder”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *skelduz (“shield”), see shield. Cognate with Old Frisian skuldere (“shoulder”) (West Frisian skouder (“shoulder”)), Middle Low German scholder (“shoulder”), Low German Schuller (“shoulder”), Dutch schouder (“shoulder”), German Schulter (“shoulder”).

inh

you can't put an old head on young shoulders

(of an object) The portion between the neck and the body.

(music) The rounded portion of a stringed instrument where the neck joins the body.


hopper

From Middle English hoppere, alteration of *hoppe (found in grashoppe (“grasshopper”)), from Old English *hoppa (“one who hops, hopper”), equivalent to hop + -er. Cognate with Dutch hopper (“hopper”), Swedish hoppare (“hopper, jumper”), Icelandic hoppari (“hopper”).


chuck

Probably from Old French chuquer, later choquer (“to knock, hit”).

(music) On rhythm guitar or mandolin etc., the muting of a chord by lifting the fretting fingers immediately after strumming, producing a percussive effect.


chuck

en-verb

chuck (third-person singular simple present chucks, present participle chucking, simple past and past participle chucked)

chucks (present singular third-person)
chucking (participle present)
chucked (participle past)
chucked (past)

(music) On rhythm guitar or mandolin etc.: to mute a chord by lifting the fretting fingers immediately after strumming, producing a percussive effect.


authentic

en-adj

authentic (comparative more authentic, superlative most authentic)

more authentic (comparative)
most authentic (superlative)

non-authentic

antonym(s) of “not of the claimed origin”

From Middle English authentik, from Old French autentique, from Latin authenticus, from Ancient Greek αὐθεντικός (authentikós, “principal, genuine”), from Ancient Greek αὐθέντης (authéntēs, “lord, master”).

der

Designating a mode having the final as the lowest note.

Designating a cadence in which the dominant chord precedes the tonic.


viola

en-noun

viola (plural violas or (senses 1 and 2, uncommon) viole)

From Italian viola, from Old Occitan viola (modern Occitan viula), from Medieval Latin vitula (“stringed instrument”), possibly from Frankish *fiþulā (“violin, fiddle”). Doublet of viol. Also possibly a doublet of fiddle.

der

(music) An organ stop having a similar tone.

(music) A 10-string steel-string acoustic guitar, used in Brazilian folk music.

(music) A berimbau viola, the smallest member of the berimbau used in capoeira music.


rush

en-verb

rush (third-person singular simple present rushes, present participle rushing, simple past and past participle rushed)

rushes (present singular third-person)
rushing (participle present)
rushed (participle past)
rushed (past)

Perhaps from Middle English ruschen, russchen (“to rush, startle, make a loud rushing noise”), from Old English hrysċan (“to jolt, startle”), from Proto-West Germanic *hurskijan, from Proto-Germanic *hurskijaną (“to startle, drive”), from *hurskaz (“fast, rapid, quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run, hurry”).
Cognate with Old High German hursken (“to hurry, speed, incite, accelerate”), Old English horsc (“quick, quick-witted, clever”).
etymology note
An alternative etymology traces rush via Middle English rouschen (“to rush”) from Old English *rūscian (“to rush”) from Proto-Germanic *rūskōną (“to rush, storm, be fierce, be cruel”), a variant (with formative k) of Proto-Germanic *rūsōną (“to be cruel, storm, rush”) from Proto-Indo-European *(o)rewə- (“to drive, move, agitate”), making it akin to Old High German rosc, rosci (“quick”), Middle Low German rūschen (“to rush”), Middle High German rūschen, riuschen (“to rush”) (German rauschen (“to rush”)), North Frisian ruse (“to rush”), Middle Dutch ruuscen (“to make haste”), Middle Dutch rūsen (“to rush”) (Dutch ruisen (“to rush”)), Danish ruse (“to rush”), Swedish rusa (“to rush”). Compare Middle High German rūsch (“a charge, rush”). Influenced by Middle English russhen (“to force back”) from Anglo-Norman russher, russer from Old French ruser, rëuser.
Alternatively, according to the OED, perhaps an adaptation of Anglo-Norman russher, russer (“to force back, down, out of place, by violent impact", "to pull out or drag off violently or hastily”), from Old French re(h)usser, ruser (although the connection of the forms with single -s- and double -ss- is dubious; also adopted in English ruse; French ruser (“to retreat, drive back”)), from an assumed Vulgar Latin *refūsāre and Latin refundō (“I cause to flow back”), although connection to the same Germanic root is also possible. More at rouse.

der

(intransitive, music) To play at a faster tempo than one is supposed to or than the other musicians one is playing with, or to inadvertently gradually increase tempo while one is playing.


trance

en-noun

trance (countable and uncountable, plural trances)

French: trance

From Middle English traunce, from Anglo-Norman transe (“fear of coming evil; passage from life to death”), from transir (“to be numb with fear; to die, pass on”), from Latin trānseō (“to cross over”).

der

(uncountable, music) Short for trance music (“genre of electronic dance music”).


bumper

Dutch: bumper

Japanese: バンパー (banpā)

Korean: 범퍼 (beompeo)

Russian: ба́мпер (bámper)

(music) An extra musician (not notated in the score) who assists the principal French horn by playing less-exposed passages, so that the principal can save their 'lip' for difficult solos. Also applied to other sections of the orchestra.


transition

en-noun

transition (countable and uncountable, plural transitions)

/tɹænˈsɪʒən/

/tɹɑːnˈsɪʒən/

From Middle French transition, from Latin transitio.

filtered-popping recursive transition network

(music) A brief modulation; a passage connecting two themes.


telltale

From tell + tale, perhaps dissimilated from earlier taleteller, from Middle English tale tellere (literally “tale teller”).

der

(music) A movable piece of ivory, lead, or other material, connected to the bellows of an organ, whose position indicates when the wind is exhausted.


twee pop

This belatedness is reflected in Kaya Oakes's suggestion that twee pop begins in the early 1990s, post-Nirvana[…]

2016, Pete Dale, Anyone Can Do It: Empowerment, Tradition and the Punk Underground, Routledge

(music) A subgenre of indie pop music with simple melodies and lyrics, usually about love.


wind chimes

(music) A chime constructed from tubes, rods, bells, etc. made of wood, glass, metal or ceramic, suspended outside a building in such a way that they tinkle pleasantly when moved by the wind.

бятърни камбанки

chime made from suspended wooden, metal, etc. tubes, bells and rods that tinkle when moved by the wind


regal

From Middle French régale, possibly from Old French regol (“a gutter, channel”).

(music) A small, portable organ whose sound is produced by brass beating reeds without amplifying resonators. Its tone is keen and rich in harmonics. The regal was common in the 16th and 17th centuries, and has been revived for the performance of music from those times.

(music) An organ stop of the reed family, furnished with a normal beating reed, but whose resonator is a fraction of its natural length. In the 16th and 17th centuries these stops took a multitude of forms. Today only one survives that is of universal currency, the so-called vox humana.


tango

From Rioplatense Spanish tango, probably from a Niger-Congo language (compare Ibibio tamgu (“to dance”)).

(music) A piece of music suited to such a dance.


conduct

en-verb

conduct (third-person singular simple present conducts, present participle conducting, simple past and past participle conducted)

conducts (present singular third-person)
conducting (participle present)
conducted (participle past)
conducted (past)

From Late Latin conductus (“defense, escort”), from Latin conductus, perfect passive participle of condūcō (“bring together”); see also conduce. Doublet of conduit.

der

For a while, Walter Pohlmann, a well-known German conductor, conducted the orchestra in Compound 3. Later, Willi Mets, who had conducted the world-renowned Leipzig Symphony Orchestra, conducted the Compound 3 orchestra.

2006, Michael R. Waters, Mark Long, William Dickens, Lone Star Stalag: German Prisoners of War at Camp Hearne

(transitive, music) To direct, as the leader in the performance of a musical composition.


ornamentation

en-noun

ornamentation (countable and uncountable, plural ornamentations)

(music) Short notes added to a composition to emphasize certain notes and to add style.


canonical

en-adj

canonical (comparative more canonical, superlative most canonical)

more canonical (comparative)
most canonical (superlative)


sitar

From Hindi सितार (sitār) / Urdu ستار (sitār), from Classical Persian سهتار (si-tār, literally “three strings”). Doublet of setar.

der

(music) A Hindustani/Indian classical stringed instrument, typically having a gourd as its resonating chamber.


scream

From Middle English scremen, scræmen, probably from a fusion of Middle Dutch scremen (“to yell; shout”) and Old Norse skræma (“to terrify; scare”); compare Dutch schremen (“to shout; yell; cry”), Swedish skrämma (“to spook; frighten”), Danish skræmme (“to scare”), West Frisian skrieme (“to weep”). Compare also Swedish skräna (“to yell; shout; howl”), Dutch schreien (“to cry; weep”), German schreien (“to scream”). Related to shriek, skrike.

(music) A form of singing associated with the metal and screamo styles of music. It is a loud, rough, distorted version of the voice; rather than the normal voice of the singer.


LP

en-noun

LP (countable and uncountable, plural LPs)

(music, countable) Initialism of long-play.


falsetto

falsetto (countable and uncountable, plural falsettos)

/fɔɫˈsɛɾ.oʊ/

Borrowed from Italian falsetto, from falso (“false”).

(music, countable) A person who sings in falsetto.


raga

raga (countable and uncountable, plural ragas)

Borrowed from Sanskrit राग (rāga, “dye, colour”).

Coordinate term: ragini

‘The song is composed in a raga appropriate to the present hour, which is the evening.’

1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 72

(countable, music) Any of various melodic forms used in Indian classical music, or a piece of music composed in such a form.

রাগ

melodic mode used in Indian classical music


major key

(music) A musical key based upon a major scale.

大調

music: a musical key based upon a major scale


related

en-adj

related (comparative more related, superlative most related)

more related (comparative)
most related (superlative)

(not comparable, music) Synonym of relative.


siren

From Middle English siren, from Old French sereine and Latin Sīrēn, Sīrēna, from Ancient Greek Σειρήν (Seirḗn). The mammalian sense was first attested in French in Dominique Bouhours, Les entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugène, in 1671. The aquatic salamander sense was originally introduced by Linnaeus in 1766, for a genus of his reptiles. Doublet of serin.

(music) A musical instrument, one of the few aerophones in the percussion section of the symphony orchestra (patented as Acme Siren in 1895).


solo

Borrowed from Italian solo, from Latin sōlus, probably related to se (“himself”).

(music) A piece of music for one performer.


solo

(music) Of, or relating to, a musical solo.


solo

en-verb

solo (third-person singular simple present solos or soloes, present participle soloing, simple past and past participle soloed)

solos (present singular third-person)
soloes (present singular third-person)
soloing (participle present)
soloed (participle past)
soloed (past)

→ Portuguese: solar


cyberpunk

en-noun

cyberpunk (countable and uncountable, plural cyberpunks)

From cyber- + -punk, coined by American writer and software developer Bruce Bethke as the title of a 1983 short story, and later popularized by Gardner Dozois.

coin

A more technologically elaborate current of microtonal music can be found at M.I.T and Berklee College of Music, where R. Boulanger works in exotic equal temperaments and non-octave scales (E₆₀ and the 13th root of 3, i.e. the Bohlen-Pierce scale) using the CSOUND acoustic compiler, the Mathews radio drum and various MIDI synthesizers; nearby, E. Mullen performs cyberpunk music in E₁₉ and the 13th root of 3.

2003, Jan Haluska, The Mathematical Theory of Tone Systems, page 109

At Meredith we stayed up all night listening to doof doof cyberpunk music and I saw you cry for the first time, at four in the morning bottle of ice tea and vodka in hand I saw your real face and something changed.

2014, Gemma White, Furniture is Disappearing, page 41

Indeed, 'Mindphaser' (and Tactical Neural Implant more generally) represents a high point of cyberpunk in the industrial music scene.

2017, Tristanne Connolly, Tomoyuki Iino, Canadian Music and American Culture: Get Away From Me, page 182

(music, uncountable) A musical genre related to the punk movement that makes use of electronic sounds such as synthesizers.


arrangement

en-noun

arrangement (countable and uncountable, plural arrangements)

From French arrangement.
Morphologically arrange + -ment

(music) An adaptation of a piece of music for other instruments, or in another style.


version

version (countable and uncountable, plural versions)

From Middle French version, from Medieval Latin versiō, from Latin vertō (“I turn”). Used in English since 16th century.

Out of sound system culture came the instrumental “version” (ubiquitous in late 1960s Jamaica)[…]

2014, Richard James Burgess, The History of Music Production, Oxford University Press, page 168

(music) An instrumental in sound system culture.


relationship

/ɹɪˈleɪ.ʃənˌʃɪp/

[ɹɪˈleɪ.ʃn̩ˌʃɪp]

(music) The level or degree of affinity between keys, chords and tones.


minor key

(music) A musical key based upon a minor scale.

小調

music: a musical key based upon a minor scale


minor scale

(music) Any diatonic scale whose first, third, and fifth scale degrees form a minor triad.


mazurka

Via German Mazurka and Russian мазу́рка (mazúrka), from Polish mazurek (“dance of the Masurian”), the Masurians being the inhabitants of Mazowsze (compare Medieval Latin Mazovia), an ancient cultural region in east-central Poland.

der

(music) A Polish folk dance in triple time, usually moderately fast, containing a heavy accent on the third beat and occasionally the second beat.

(music) A classical musical composition inspired by the folk dance and conforming in some respects to its form, particularly as popularized by Chopin.


monody

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-monody.wav

From Latin monodia, from Ancient Greek μονῳδία (monōidía).

(music) A composition having a single melodic line.


kazoo

(music) A simple musical instrument (a membranophone) consisting of a pipe with a hole in it, producing a buzzing sound when the player hums into it.

mirlitoi

a simple musical instrument consisting of a pipe with a hole in it


spiel

en-noun

spiel (countable and uncountable, plural spiels)

Borrowed from German Spiel (“game, performance”) and/or Yiddish שפּיל (shpil), both from Middle High German spil, from Old High German spil, from Proto-West Germanic *spil.
Cognate with Old English spilian (“to revel, play”). See speel.

bor+

Watt gets his turn on the mic too, delivering an amusingly disjointed rap (following Minutemen tradition, he calls it a spiel) on "Me & You, Remembering."

1991, Ira A. Robbins, The Trouser Press Record Guide, Howell Book House

A typical Last Poets song consisted of a "spiel," an early form of rap where song verses were spoken over conga drum percussions or jazz music.

2007, Jocelyne Cesari, Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States, Greenwood Pub Group

Drawing on the smooth and steady rap style of disco DJs, the proto-rap spiel of the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, various other American and African American oral traditions (including, as mentioned above, radio disc jockey practice) […]

2007, Mickey Hess, Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture, ABC-CLIO, page 17


melisma

en-noun

melisma (countable and uncountable, plural melismas or melismata)

From Ancient Greek μέλισμα (mélisma, “song”), from μελίζω (melízō, “(I) sing, modulate; (I) celebrate in song”), from μέλος (mélos, “song, tune, melody; limb, part; member”).

A choir sang one of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. The mournful melisma accompanied the slow procession to the palace built by Herod the Great, at present untenanted.

1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked

At the top of the hill in the archway of the main house, an eyeless old man sat on a bucket, scratching at a two-stringed gourd, warbling weird melismas on a madman's text.

2007, Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road, Sceptre, published 2008, page 38

(music, countable) A passage of several notes sung to one syllable of text.

melisma

a passage of several notes sung to one syllable of text

A subsequent generation of singers, including Ms. Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé, built their careers around melisma.

2010 December 24, David Browne, “Trilling Songbirds Clip Their Wings”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(music, uncountable) The use of such passages.


symphony

symphony (countable and uncountable, plural symphonies)

→ Burmese: ဆင်ဖိုနီ (hcanghpuini)

→ Japanese: シンフォニー (shinfonī)

→ Khmer: ស៊ីមហ្វូនី (siimfounii)

→ Malay: simfoni

→ Punjabi: ਸਿੰਫਨੀ (simphani)

→ Thai: ซิมโฟนี (sim-foo-nîi)

→ Welsh: symffoni

From Middle English symphonye, from Old French simphonie, from Latin symphonia, from Ancient Greek συμφωνία (sumphōnía). By surface analysis, sym- + -phony. Doublet of sinfonia, symphonia, tsampouna, and zampogna.

doublet

(music) An instrumental introduction or termination to a vocal composition.


voluntary

From Middle English *voluntarie, from Old French volontaire, from Latin voluntārius (“willing, of free will”), from voluntās (“will, choice, desire”), from volēns, present participle of volo (“to will”). Displaced native Old English selfwille (literally “self-willed”).

ncog

(music) A short piece of music, often having improvisation, played on a solo instrument.


rhapsody

The noun is derived from Latin rhapsōdia (“part of an epic poem suitable for uninterrupted recitation”), from Koine Greek ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōidía, “part of an epic poem suitable for uninterrupted recitation; rigmarole”), Ancient Greek ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōidía, “composition or recitation of Epic poetry”), from ῥαψῳδός (rhapsōidós, “composer or performer of Epic poetry”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-íā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Ῥαψῳδός (Rhapsōidós) is derived from ῥᾰ́πτω (rháptō, “to sew”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *werb- (“to bend; to turn”)) + ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “ode; song”) (ultimately from Proto-Hellenic *awoidā́ (“song”)) + -ος (-os, suffix forming o-grade action nouns).
Sense 2.2 (“instrumental composition of irregular form”) probably developed from sense 2.1 (“exaggeratedly enthusiastic or exalted expression of feeling in speech or writing”), and both of these senses may have been influenced by rapture (“extreme excitement, happiness, or pleasure”), the latter being a quality associated with the senses. Sense 2.3 (“literary composition consisting of miscellaneous works”) is borrowed from Middle French rhapsodie (modern French rhapsodie), from Latin rhapsōdia: see above.
The verb is derived from the noun.
cognates
* French rhapsodie (“instrumental composition of irregular form”)
* German Rhapsodie (“instrumental composition of irregular form”)

cog

(music) An instrumental composition of irregular form, often incorporating improvisation.


maraca

From Portuguese, derived from Old Tupi maráka or Guaraní mbaraka.

(music) A Latin American percussion instrument consisting of a hollow-gourd rattle containing pebbles or beans and often played in pairs, as a rhythm instrument.


orchestra

en-noun

orchestra (plural orchestras or (rare) orchestrae)

orchestras (plural)
orchestrae (plural rare)

→ Albanian: orkestër

→ Arabic: أوركسترا (ʔorkestrā)

→ Japanese: オーケストラ (ōkesutora)

→ Korean: 오케스트라 (okeseuteura)

→ Thai: ออร์เคสตรา (ɔɔ-kées-dtrâa)

Borrowed from Latin orchēstra, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ὀρχήστρα (orkhḗstra) (a derivative of ὀρχέομαι (orkhéomai, “to dance”)).

The orchestra plays music for the dancers to dance to in the 19th century-styled dance hall.

It requires quite an orchestra to get a train to start; the guard blows his horn, the stationmaster rings a large bell, and the engine whistles.

1941 February, Voyageur, “The Railways of Greece”, in Railway Magazine, page 67

Musicians play their instruments. I play the orchestra.

2015, Aaron Sorkin, Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs, spoken by Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender)

(music) A large group of musicians who play together on various instruments, usually including some from strings, woodwind, brass and/or percussion; the instruments played by such a group.


signature

/ˈsɪɡnət͡ʃə(ɹ)/

/ˈsɪɡnɪt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

/ˈsɪɡnət͡ʃɚ/

/ˈsɪɡnɪt͡ʃɚ/

/ˈsɪɡnɪt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

Borrowed from Middle French signature, or from Medieval Latin signātūra, future active periphrastic of verb signāre (“to sign”) from signum (“sign”), + -tūra, feminine of -tūrus, future active periphrastic suffix. Displaced native Old English handseten (literally “hand setting”).

nc

(music) Signs on the stave indicating key and tempo, composed of the key signature and the time signature.


forces

(rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) -oːɹsɪz

(non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) -oəsɪz

(music, chiefly plural) The orchestral instrumentation (and voices) used in a musical production.


breaking

en-noun

breaking (countable and uncountable, plural breakings)

(music) A form of ornamentation in which groups of short notes are used instead of long ones.


folk

folk (countable and uncountable, plural folks)

From Middle English folk, from Old English folc, from Proto-West Germanic *folk, from Proto-Germanic *fulką, from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁-gós, from *pleh₁- (“to fill”).
Cognate with German Volk, Dutch volk, Swedish folk and Danish folk. Doublet of volk.


transpose

en-verb

transpose (third-person singular simple present transposes, present participle transposing, simple past and past participle transposed)

transposes (present singular third-person)
transposing (participle present)
transposed (participle past)
transposed (past)

From Middle English transposen, from Old French transposer, from Latin trānspositus, perfect passive participle of trānspōnō (“to put across”), from trāns (“across”) + pōnō (“to put”).

(transitive, music) To rewrite or perform (a piece) in another key.

transportar

music: to write or perform (a piece) in another key


session

→ Japanese: セッション (sesshon)

→ Korean: 세션 (sesyeon)

→ Scottish Gaelic: seisean

From Middle English session, from Old French session, from Latin sessiō (“a sitting”), from sedeō (“sit”).


session

session (third-person singular simple present sessions, present participle sessioning, simple past and past participle sessioned)

sessions (present singular third-person)
sessioning (participle present)
sessioned (participle past)
sessioned (past)

“I downloaded a clip from a drummer, who I now realize is Bernard Purdie, who has sessioned on all kinds of records,” he said.

2009 May 3, Virginia Heffernan, “World Music”, in New York Times

(music) To hold or participate in a jam session with other musicians.


recitation

en-noun

recitation (countable and uncountable, plural recitations)

/ˌɹɛsəˈteɪʃən/

Borrowed from Middle French récitation, from Latin recitatio.

(music) A part of a song's lyrics that is spoken rather than sung.


sustain

From Middle English susteinen, sustenen, from Old French sustenir (French soutenir), from Latin sustineō, sustinēre (“to uphold”), from sub- (“from below, up”) + teneō (“hold”, verb).

To call this music bland is to ignore the down-the-drain vocal fade-aways, the extended sax sustains […]

2011, Chuck Eddy, Rock and Roll Always Forgets, page 265

(music) A mechanism which can be used to hold a note, as the right pedal on a piano.


WS

WS (countable and uncountable, plural WSs)

(music) Initialism of wavetable synthesis; a method used to generate sound by a digital music synthesizer.


mordent

From Italian mordente. Doublet of mordant.

(music) An ornament consisting of a single alternation between a given pitch and the one immediately below it.


footwork

footwork (usually uncountable, plural footworks)

In April, DJ Rashad, a Chicago-based producer and pioneer of the increasingly popular footwork genre, died in a drug-related accident.

2015 November 16, Sukhdev Sandhu, “How dub master Kode9 became the hero of zero”, in The Guardian

(uncountable, music) A subgenre of juke/ghetto house and style of street dance that originated in Chicago in the early 1990s.


vibrate

en-verb

vibrate (third-person singular simple present vibrates, present participle vibrating, simple past and past participle vibrated)

vibrates (present singular third-person)
vibrating (participle present)
vibrated (participle past)
vibrated (past)

From Latin vibrātus, perfect passive participle of vibrō (“agitate, set in tremulous motion”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyp- (“to oscillate, swing”) or *weyb-.


reduction

en-noun

reduction (countable and uncountable, plural reductions)

From Middle English reduccion, a borrowing from Old French reducion, from Latin reductiō, reductiōnem.

(music) An arrangement for a far smaller number of parties, e.g. a keyboard solo based on a full opera.


fagot

Most likely from Italian fagotto, from Latin fascis.

(music, obsolete) A fagotto, or bassoon.


heterophony

heterophony (countable and uncountable, plural heterophonies)

From Ancient Greek ἑτεροφωνία (heterophōnía). By surface analysis, hetero- + -phony.

(music) The simultaneous performance by a number of singers or musicians of two or more versions of the same melody.


claw hammer

claw hammer (countable and uncountable, plural claw hammers)

From claw + hammer, descriptive of the shape of the tool's head.

(music, uncountable) A fingerpicking technique primarily used by banjo players, but also by some guitarists.


wobble

From earlier wabble (“wobble”), probably from Low German wabbeln (“to wobble”). Compare Dutch wiebelen and wobbelen (“to wobble”), German wabbeln (“to wobble”), Old Norse vafla (“to hover about, totter”).

cog

“I Knew You Were Trouble,” one of the year’s great pop songs, begins like a sock-hop anthem, with jaunty guitars. A dubstep wobble arrives about halfway through like a wrecking ball, changing the course not just of the song but also of Ms. Swift’s career.

2012 October 24, Jon Caramanica, “No More Kid Stuff for Taylor Swift”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(music) A low-frequency oscillation sometimes used in dubstep.


pedaliter

(music) Of organ music requiring the use of both the manuals and the pedals


brutal

en-adj

brutal (comparative more brutal, superlative most brutal)

more brutal (comparative)
most brutal (superlative)

From Medieval Latin brutalis (“savage, stupid”), from Latin brūtus (“dull, stupid”).

der

(music, figuratively) In extreme metal, to describe the speed of the music and the density of riffs.

brutal

in heavy metal, to describe the speed of the music and the density of riffs


fusion

en-noun

fusion (countable and uncountable, plural fusions)

fission

antonym(s) of “nuclear reaction in which nuclei combine”

1555, from Middle French fusion, from Latin fūsiōnem (the accusative of fūsiō), from fusus, past participle of fundō (“I pour, I melt”) (see also found). Doublet of foison.

The act of merging separate elements, or the result thereof.

(music) A style of music that blends disparate genres; especially different types of jazz and reggae.


stretto

stretto (countable and uncountable, plural strettos or stretti)

Borrowed from Italian stretto. Doublet of strait and strict.

(music) The presence of two close or overlapping statements of the subject of a fugue, especially towards the end.

(music) An acceleration in the tempo of an opera that produces an ending climax.


stretto

(music) With gradually increasing speed.


stretto

So that over and above the public components – holidays, tourist attractions – there are private meanderings, linked to the climate as if this spell were a stretto passage in the year’s fugue: haphazard weather, aimless loves, unpredicted commitments…

(music) Having gradually increasing speed.


hokum

hokum (usually uncountable, plural hokums)

Uncertain; first attested as US theater slang, possibly a blend of hocus-pocus + bunkum.

[D]uring the 'twenties, jazz developed from an infrequent ‘hokum’ music in a few vaudeville acts to a household commodity.

1956, Marshall W[inslow] Stearns, “The Jazz Age Begins”, in The Story of Jazz, paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1970, page 153

As a result a hybrid music, ‘hokum’, became popular. It owed much to ‘Georgia Tom’ Dorsey, Tampa Red and Big Bill Broonzy, and the first recordings in the idiom appeared around 1929. Many recordings by The Famous Hokum Boys, the Hokum Trio, The Hokum Boys and similar groups were recorded by 1930. Jokey, often bawdy, frequently satirical, they employed rural techniques in an urban setting, gently lampooning country ways through a city sophistication.

1985, Paul Oliver, “Black Music: ‘Sales Tax on It’: Race Records in the New Deal Years”, in Stephen W. Baskerville, Ralph Willett, editors, Nothing Else to Fear: New Perspectives on America in the Thirties, Manchester: Manchester University Press, page 210

ES: That thing that you call double bow, I've heard many different names for it. / JG: Rockin' the bow. / ES: I've heard it called a straight shuffle. I've heard it called hocum. Have you ever heard it called hocum? / JG: Yeah, we call the jazz hocum. You see, anything away from the melody.

1990, The Devil’s Box, Madison, Ala.: Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers’ Association, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 27

Pianist [Thomas A.] Dorsey and guitarist Tampa Red popularized the double-entendre, up-tempo novelty blues style known as hokum blues that was a forerunner of the up-tempo rhythm and blues, whose similarly adult lyrics often had to be bowdlerized when covered by white singers for the white teen market in the 1950s.

2008, “R&B”, in Charles Reagan Wilson, general editor, Bill C. Malone, editors, Music, Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, page 108

Blues and hokum intertwined at least through the mid-1930s, when the hokum bands faded out. [...] Hokum was also absorbed into the jazz tradition.

2013, Larry Birnbaum, “The Jumpin’ Jive”, in Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock ’n’ Roll, Lanham, Md.: The Scarecrow Press, Rowman & Littlefield, page 133

(uncountable, music) A genre of blues song or music, often characterized by sexual innuendos or satire.


acousmatic

From Latin acousmaticus, from Ancient Greek ἀκουσματικός (akousmatikós), from ἀκούω (akoúō, “I hear”).

uder

ἀκουσματικός

(music) Referring to pre-recorded music that is presented in concert using loudspeakers, e.g. some types of computer music.

acousmate

referring to pre-recorded music that is presented in concert using loudspeakers


doubletrack

en-verb

doubletrack (third-person singular simple present doubletracks, present participle doubletracking, simple past and past participle doubletracked)

doubletracks (present singular third-person)
doubletracking (participle present)
doubletracked (participle past)
doubletracked (past)

(music) To mix together two or more audio tracks while doing studio recording.


consecutive

en-noun

consecutive (countable and uncountable, plural consecutives)

From French consécutif, from Medieval Latin cōnsecūtīvus, from Latin cōnsecūtus (“followed up”), from Latin cōnsequor (“to travel”).

The theory suggests, but does not state explicitly, that the prohibition of consecutives is the stricter the nearer the interval in question lies to the fundamental component of a blend.

1919, Henry J. Watt, The Foundations of Music, page 88

In the case of discords, the fixed progression of the dissonant interval serves, to a large extent, as a guide to the progression of the remaining intervals of the harmony; in the case of concords this guidance is lacking, and it must be remembered that, in every progression of two parts, by similar motion, to a perfect concord (Fifth or Octave), there are bound to be hidden, if not apparent, consecutives.

2003, Franck Thomas Arnold, The Art of Accompaniment from a Thorough-bass, page 484

Before adding the inner parts, check that there are no consecutives between S and B – don't forget that these can occur between the last printed notes of the phrase and your added parts, as well as within your own working. Here the risk of consecutives has been minimised by using mainly contrary motion in the bass.

2004, Hugh Benham, A Student's Guide to Harmony and Counterpoint, page 86

(music, countable) A sequence of notes or chords that results from repeated shifts in pitch of the same interval.


tampion

(music) A plug for the upper end of an organ pipe.


semitone

(music) A musical interval equal to an augmented unison or a minor second, depending on the context and tuning system used

(music) Any of the pitches of the chromatic scale


quintet

From French quintette, from Italian quintetto, diminutive of quinto (“fifth”), itself from Latin quintus, related to quīnque (“five”).

(music) A composition (a type of chamber music) in five parts (typically each a singer or instrumentalist, sometimes several musicians)

(music) A group of five musicians, fit to play such a piece of music together


melismatic

en-adj

melismatic (comparative more melismatic, superlative most melismatic)

more melismatic (comparative)
most melismatic (superlative)

From melismata + -ic, also contrued as melisma + -tic.

Because slower metrical types are more melismatic and ornamented than primary-meter, their melodic-passages in both xipi and erhuang are more melismatic and complex than those of primary-meter.

1991, Elizabeth Wichmann, Listening to Theatre: The Aural Dimension of Beijing Opera, University of Hawaii Press, page 92

1998, Barbara Newman, Introduction, Barbara Newman (translator), Hildegard von Bingen, Symphonia: A Critical Edition of the Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum, Cornell University Press, 2nd Edition, page 28,
In general, the more melismatic a piece, the more solemn, elaborate, and difficult it is, and the more the text is dominated by the music.

The melismatic content of this chant lies at the extreme of what is typical for responsories, usually considered among the most melismatic chant types.

2006, James Grier, The Musical World of a Medieval Monk: Adémar de Chabannes in Eleventh-century Aquitaine, Cambridge University Press, page 358

(music) Of, relating to, or being a melisma; the style of singing several notes to one syllable of text.


flatten

en-verb

flatten (third-person singular simple present flattens, present participle flattening, simple past and past participle flattened)

flattens (present singular third-person)
flattening (participle present)
flattened (participle past)
flattened (past)


rudiment

From Old French, from Latin rudimentum (“a first attempt, a beginning”), plural rudimenta (“the elements”), from rudis (“rude”); see rude.

der

Show me your rudiments.

2014, Damien Chazelle, Whiplash, spoken by Terence Fletcher (J. K. Simmons)

(music) In percussion, one of a selection of basic drum patterns learned as an exercise.


notturno

/nɒˈtʊə(ɹ)nəʊ/

Borrowed from Italian notturno (“nocturnal, nightly”), from Latin nocturnus, from noctū (“by night”), from nox (“night”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts. Doublet of nocturne.


shredder

(music) One who shreds, or plays (especially the guitar) very fast.


alt

From Latin altus. Doublet of old and alto.

Sop[hy] Moderato! moderato! Madam. Your Ladyship's absolutely in alt. / L[ady] Scr[ape] In alt! Madam? / Sop[hy] Yes, in alt- Give me leave to tell your Ladyship, that you have raised your voice a full octave higher since you came into the room.

The duet was in alt; one stormed, the other half crying, half scolding, made up in volubility what her aunt possessed in authority, and it was not 'till Lady Meredith had twice raised her mild voice, either party could be silenced.

1794, Mrs. Bennett (Agnes Maria), Ellen, Countess of Castle Howel: A Novel, volume 1

And he began, — "Poor insect! born to flutter and to die;" — falling into the second, directly Helen took the first, till he got down to such unreasonable bass that he suddenly gave a shriek in alt that made Olga stop her ears.

1857, Anne Manning, Helen and Olga: a Russian tale, page 194

(music) High pitch, of a voice or instrument; especially, the octave above the top line of the treble stave.


DJ

Coordinate term: VJ

Last night a DJ saved my life / Last night a DJ saved my life from a broken heart

1982, Michael Cleveland (lyrics and music), “Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life”, performed by Indeep

Burn down the disco / Hang the blessed DJ / Because the music that they constantly play / It says nothing to me about my life

1986, Morrissey & Johnny Marr (lyrics and music), “Panic”, in The World Won’t Listen, performed by The Smiths

Three MC's and one DJ / We be getting down with no delay

1999, “Three MC’s and One DJ”, in Hello Nasty, performed by Beastie Boys


operetta

(music) A lighter version of opera with a frivolous story and spoken dialogue. [from 18th c.]


partial

From Middle English partiall, parcial, from Old French parcial (“biased or particular”), from Late Latin partiālis (“of or pertaining to a part”), from Latin pars (“part”).

(music) Any of the sine waves which make up a complex tone; often an overtone or harmonic of the fundamental.


flourish

From Middle English floryschen, from Old French florir (via the arrhizotonic stem floriss-), from Late Latin flōrīre, from Latin flōrēre, from Latin flōrem (“flower”, noun). Corresponds to flower + -ish.

The trumpets blew a flourish as they entered the church.

[I]f he is a soldier in command, successes will be amplified, and the results of his campaigns announced with a flourish of trumpets.

1872, Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Percival Frost, The Annals of Tacitus with a Commentary by the Rev. Percival Frost, M.A, London: Whittaker & Co.; George Bell, Life of Tacitus

(music) A ceremonious passage such as a fanfare.


orchestration

en-noun

orchestration (countable and uncountable, plural orchestrations)

(uncountable, music) The arrangement of music for performance by an orchestra.

(countable, music) A composition that has been orchestrated.


thrash

thrash (countable and uncountable, plural thrashes)

From Middle English thrasshen, a dialectal variant of thresshen, threshen (whence the modern English thresh), from Old English þrescan, from Proto-Germanic *þreskaną, whence also Old High German dreskan, Old Norse þreskja.

(music, uncountable) Ellipsis of thrash metal.


FOB

(music) Initialism of Fall Out Boy, an American pop-punk band formed in Chicago.


outboard

(music) Being or relating to an external effects unit such as compressor or equalizer.


outboard

(music) A studio having outboard gear (compressor, equalizer, etc.).


skip

From Middle English skippen, skyppen, of North Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skupjaną, perhaps related to *skeubaną (“to drive, push”), iterative *skuppōną (“to push/move repeatedly, skip”), from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ- (“to push, throw, shake”).
Related to Icelandic skopa (“to take a run”), Old Swedish skuppa (“to skip”), modern dialectal Swedish skopa, skimpa (“to skip, leap”), and English shove. See also dialectal English skimp (“to mock”) (Etymology 1), considered by some to be related.

der

(music) A passage from one sound to another by more than a degree at once.


oratorio

Borrowed from Italian oratorio (“oratorical”), from Latin ōrātōrius. Doublet of oratory.

(music) A musical composition, often based on a religious theme; similar to opera but with no costume, scenery or acting.

араторыя

a musical composition on a religious theme


kettledrum

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

(music) A large percussion instrument with a drumhead that is stretched over a hemispherical metal bowl.


timpani

en-noun

timpani (usually uncountable, plural timpanis)

Borrowed from Italian timpani, plural of timpano (“drum”), from Latin tympanum (“drum”), from Ancient Greek τύμπανον (túmpanon), from τύπτω (túptō, “I strike, I hit”).

Since the timpani is a legato instrument, a note must be allowed to sound and ring to achieve the full effect of the drum.

2010, Steven L. Schweizer, Timpani Tone and the Interpretation of Baroque and Classical Music, Oxford University Press, page 38

(music) The set of precision kettledrums in an orchestra.


etude

From around the year 1837, borrowed from French étude (“study”) from Latin studium. Doublet of studio and study.

The etudes with metronome markings should be played in tempo, all others should be considered rubato.

2007, Michele Weir, Jazz Piano Handbook, Alfred Music Publishing, page 110

(music) A short piece of music, designed to give a performer practice in a particular area or skill.


stopped pipe

(music) A pipe organ tube with a uniform diameter, one closed end and one open end.


obbligato

obbligato (plural obbligatos or obbligati)

/ɒblɪˈɡɑːtəʊ/

The noise of the traffic outside the building on the boulevard made an unmusical obbligato to my thinking.

1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 281

(music) An obbligato section; a prominent countermelody, often written to be played or sung above the principal theme (in a higher pitch range).


overture

coda

antonym(s) of “opening of a piece of music”

/ˈəʊvətʃ(ʊ)ə/

/ˈoʊvəɹt͡ʃəɹ/

From Middle English overture, from Anglo-Norman, Middle French overture, from Old French overture. Doublet of aperture.

(music) A musical introduction to a piece of music, or a play.


romance

romance (countable and uncountable, plural romances)

→ Japanese: ロマンス

→ Korean: 로맨스 (romaenseu)

From Middle English romauns, roumance, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French romanz, romans (the vernacular language of France, as opposed to Latin), from Medieval Latin rōmānicē, Vulgar Latin rōmānicē (“in the Roman language”, adverb), from Latin rōmānicus (“roman”, adj) from rōmānus (“a Roman”). Doublet of Romansch.

der

(music) A romanza, or sentimental ballad.


brawl

From French branle (“type of dance; an act of shaking, a shake”), from branler (“to shake”), from Old French brandeler (“to shake, wave; to agitate”); see further at etymology 2.
Alternatively, the word could be derived from brawl (“(obsolete) to move to and fro, quiver, shake”): see etymology 2.

(dance, music, historical) Alternative form of branle (“dance of French origin dating from the 16th century, performed by couples in a circle or a line; the music for this dance”)


setlist

(music) A list of the songs to be played by a particular band or musical act for a particular show or tour.


ri

From the McCune-Reischauer romanization of Korean 리 (ri), from Mandarin Chinese 里 (lǐ).

(music) The solfeggio syllable used to indicate the sharp of the second note of a major scale, enharmonic to me.


slap-back

en-adj

slap-back (comparative more slap-back, superlative most slap-back)

more slap-back (comparative)
most slap-back (superlative)

(music) when bass strings are slapped rather plucked individually.


impromptu

The second impromptu is a dance-like Allegretto in A flat major, with a trio in D flat major employing arpeggiated textures.

1997, Christopher H. Gibbs, The Cambridge Companion to Schubert, Cambridge University Press, page 168

(music) A short musical composition for an informal occasion often with the character of improvisation and usually to be played solo.


mezzo piano

Italian mezzo (“half”) + piano (“soft, quiet”)


plena

en-noun

plena (countable and uncountable, plural plenas)

(music, uncountable) A style of Puerto Rican music having a highly syncopated rhythm and often satirical lyrics


cornetto

Borrowed from Italian cornetto, a diminutive of corno (“horn”), from Latin cornū.

(music) A trumpet-like wind instrument used in European music of the medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods.


restore

en-verb

restore (third-person singular simple present restores, present participle restoring, simple past and past participle restored)

restores (present singular third-person)
restoring (participle present)
restored (participle past)
restored (past)

From Middle English restoren, from Old French restorer, from Latin rēstaurāre, equivalent to re- + store.

اِسْتَعَادَ

to bring back to a previous condition or state

(transitive, music) To bring (a note) back to its original signification.


fantasia

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-fantasia.wav

Borrowed from Italian fantasia (“imagination, fancy, fantasy; musical composition with improvisational characteristics”), from Latin phantasia (“fancy, fantasy; imagination”), borrowed from Ancient Greek φᾰντᾰσῐ́ᾱ (phantasíā, “appearance, look; display, presentation; pageantry, pomp; impression, perception; image”), from φᾰ́ντᾰσῐς (phántasis) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-íā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Φᾰ́ντᾰσῐς (Phántasis) is derived from φᾰντᾰ́ζω (phantázō, “to make visible, show; to become visible, appear; to imagine”), from φαίνω (phaínō, “to appear; to reveal; to shine”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”). The English word is a doublet of fancy, fantasy, phantasia, and phantasy.

doublet

The Fantasia, by Mr. [Pio] Cianchettini, is upon [Gioachino] Rossini's air "Tu che accendi," so often made the theme of piano forte lessons. [...] Mr. Cianchettini's imagination is very vivid and full, and we know of nothing more florid or requiring lighter and more delicate touching than this Fantasia.

1821, “… Fantasia, for the Piano Forte, on Di Tanti Palpiti, by Pio Cianchettini. London. Mitchell. [review]”, in The Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review, volume III, number X, London: […] Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, […], →OCLC, page 252

Miss [Eleanor Margaret] Geary is a brilliant pianiste, who make light of the modern difficulties set down for the instrument: her performance of [Theodor] Döhler's Anna Bolena fantasia was achieved without apparent effort, and won considerable applause; [...] Miss E[lizabeth] Geary is a vocalist, possessing a sweet and flexible voice, [...] this young lady also played a fantasia on the concertina very adroitly.

1841, Eleanor Margaret Geary, “[Addenda.] Reviews Consequent upon a Grand Morning Concert Given by Miss Geary and Miss Elizabeth Geary, at Willis’s Great Concert Room, King Street, St. James’s, June 21st, 1841, …”, in Musical Education; with Practical Observations on the Art of Piano-forte Playing, London: D’Almaine and Co., […], →OCLC, page 44

The little Italian party, before alluded to, had collected around the piano. The white and plump fingers of the gay and black-eyed daughter of the Roman marchioness were tripping lightly up and down the octaves of the instrument, and her little tastefully arranged head was merrily dancing from side to side, keeping time to the half-improvised phantasia, which trickled like a wayward stream from her hands.

1853 July, Thomas Buchanan Read, “Pilgrims of the Great St. Bernard”, in George R[ex] Graham, editor, Graham’s Magazine, volume XLIII, number 1, Philadelphia, Pa.: [Watson & Co. […]?], →OCLC, chapter VIII, page 105

She [Josepha Barbara Auernhammer] published subsequently many works of her own, (in all 63,) which, as well as her play, especially the extempore phantasias, were distinguished by much delicate feeling and a vivid imagination.

1857, Hugh James Rose, “AURENHAMMER, (Josepha)”, in A New General Biographical Dictionary, […], volume II, London: T. Fellowes, […], →OCLC, pages 368–369

Among English composers working during the first half of the seventeenth century, John Coprario distinguished himself as a first-rate craftsman and as the innovator of the three-movement fantasia-suite. [...] These pieces should be viewed in the context of his total output of eight two-part fantasias; ten three-part fantasias; seven four-part fantasias; [...]

1982, Richard Charteris, “Preface”, in John Coprario, edited by Richard Charteris, Twelve Fantasias for Two Bass Viols and Organ, and Eleven Pieces for Three Lyra Viols (Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era; XLI), Madison, Wis.: A-R Editions, →ISSN Invalid ISSN, page vii, column 1

Representative as they are of [Georg Philipp] Telemann's introduction to Germany of the lighter and less contrpuntal galant style from France, these fantasias are also obvious precursors of the Classical sonata form.

1987, “Publisher’s Note”, in Georg Philipp Telemann, edited by Max Seiffert, The 36 Fantasias for Keyboard, New York, N.Y.: Dover Publications

In 1783 C[arl] P[hilipp] E[manuel] Bach's fourth collection of keyboard music for Kenner und Liebhaber was published by Brietkopf in Leipzig. [...] For the first time in the Kenner und Liebhaber series, this volume contained two free fantasias in addition to sonatas and rondos, a novelty that not only caught the attention of the critics, but seems to have been considered by Bach as a particular selling point for the volume: [...]

2001, Annette Richards, “C. P. E. Bach and the Landscapes of Genius”, in The Free Fantasia and the Musical Picturesque (New Perspectives in Music History and Criticism), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, page 34

(music, also figurative) A form of instrumental composition with a free structure and improvisational characteristics; specifically, one combining a number of well-known musical pieces.


ascend

en-verb

ascend (third-person singular simple present ascends, present participle ascending, simple past and past participle ascended)

ascends (present singular third-person)
ascending (participle present)
ascended (participle past)
ascended (past)

From Middle English ascenden, borrowed from Old French ascendre, from Latin ascendō (“to go up, climb up to”), from ad (“to”) + scandō (“to climb”); see scan. Unrelated to accede other than common ad prefix.

(transitive, music) To become higher in pitch.


uvula

en-noun

uvula (plural uvulae or uvulas or (obsolete) uvulæ)

uvulae (plural)
uvulas (plural)
uvulæ (obsolete plural)

Borrowed from Late Latin ūvula, diminutive of ūva (“grape”).

(music) an object so suspended inside a bell that it may hit the bell and cause it to ring; a clapper


disjunctive

en-adj

disjunctive (comparative more disjunctive, superlative most disjunctive)

more disjunctive (comparative)
most disjunctive (superlative)

From Middle English disjunctief, disjunctyf, from Middle French disjunctif and Latin disjunctīvus (“placed in opposition”).

der

[…] that the phrase should be articulated in one breath; failing this, Quantz recommends that breath should be taken wherever possible on tied notes, between disjunctive notes of continuous semiquavers or at other equivalent moments.

2005, Simon P. Keefe, The Cambridge Companion to the Concerto, Cambridge University Press, page 206

(music) Relating to disjunct tetrachords.


musical saw

(music) A musical instrument consisting of a thin sheet of metal, or sometimes a saw, usually played with a bow.


tuck

From Middle English tuken, touken (“to torment, to stretch (cloth)”), from Old English tūcian (“to torment, vex”) and Middle Dutch tucken (“to tuck”), both from Proto-Germanic *teuh-, *teug- (“to draw, pull”) (compare also *tukkōną), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull”). Akin to Old High German zucchen (“to snatch, tug”), zuchôn (“to jerk”), German Low German tuken (“to tug, pluck, grab and pull towards”), Old English tēon (“to draw, pull, train”). Doublet of touch.

cog

(music, piano, when playing scales on piano keys) The act of keeping the thumb in position while moving the rest of the hand over it to continue playing keys that are outside the thumb.

piano; when playing scales on piano keys; piano; when playing scales on piano keys


freestyle

en-noun

freestyle (countable and uncountable, plural freestyles)

freestyle

sports event where competitors can choose their own method of participation

In the world of hip hop, many freestyle artists have been known to speak, “Check one, check two!” into the microphone. The phrasing serves two purposes: (1) to put the freestyle artist on rhythm with the beat and (2) […]

2014, Michael W. Waters, Freestyle: Reflections on Faith, Family, Justice, and Pop Culture, Fresh Air Books

(music) A form of rapping in which the emcee makes up lyrics while performing.

A not always visibly but nevertheless significantly Latin music, freestyle originated alongside hip-hop in the Bronx and achieved a quicker yet more fleeting commercial success. The style’s similarities to contemporaneous R&B and hi-NRG endeared it to pop radio programmers, […]

2012 March 2, Nick Minichino, “A Quick Primer On Freestyle: 1980s Dancepop's Most Underheralded Genre”, in The Village Voice

Already a veteran DJ-producer on New York’s freestyle scene, 23-year-old Frankie Bones was flown to England for an Energy rave.

2012, Simon Reynolds, Energy Flash, Soft Skull Press, page 281

(music) Ellipsis of Latin freestyle, a form of electronic dance music.


sempre

(music, as a qualifier) always, still; maintaining the same style


lesson

From Middle English lessoun, from Old French leçon, from Latin lēctiō, lēctiōnem (“a reading”), from legō (“I read, I gather”). Doublet of lection.

(music) An exercise; a composition serving an educational purpose; a study.


pointing

pointing (countable and uncountable, plural pointings)

Verfugen

filling of gaps in brickwork or masonry with mortar

Psalm pointings sometimes differ between psalters.

(countable, music, Anglicanism) In Anglican chant, the placement of marks in the text to indicate the syllables on which the chant should progress to the next note.


backup

→ Danish: backup

→ Italian: backup

→ Japanese: バックアップ (bakkuappu)

→ Korean: 백업 (baegeop)

→ Portuguese: backup, becape

→ Swedish: backup

Debbie Ahn, on piano, provided some mesmerizing back-up and many fiery, on-target solos.

1984 April 21, Pam Gordon, “'There's Always Cost': Ferron's Boston Concert”, in Gay Community News, page 17


engraving

engraving (countable and uncountable, plural engravings)

(music) The art of drawing music notation at high quality, particularly on a computer.


attacca

They played the remaining sections attacca.

(music) Without any break between the current movement and the next movement of the work.


allargando

en-adv

allargando (comparative more allargando, superlative most allargando)

more allargando (comparative)
most allargando (superlative)

Borrowed from Italian allargando, present participle of allargare (“to broaden”).

(music) Decreasing in tempo; getting slower.


tenuto

(music) A tempo mark directing that a note or passage is to be held for the full time


tenuto

tenuto (comparative more tenuto, superlative most tenuto)

more tenuto (comparative)
most tenuto (superlative)


tenuto

(music, of a passage) Having this tempo mark.


rattle

en-noun

rattle (countable and uncountable, plural rattles)

From Middle English [Term?], from Old English hratele, ultimately imitative. The noun (c. 1500) is from the verb.

ratel

zoology: organ that produces a rattling sound

(music) A musical instrument that makes a rattling sound.


concertina

Coordinate term: accordion

(music) A musical instrument, like the various accordions, that is a member of the free-reed family of musical instruments, typically having buttons on both ends.


counter

From Old French contre, Anglo-Norman cuntre, both from Latin contra.

[ˈkʰaʊ̯.ɾ̃ɚ]

(music) Alternative form of contra Formerly used to designate any under part which served for contrast to a principal part, but now used as equivalent to countertenor.


aubade

Princess Christina of the Netherlands
Rosalía de Castro

PIE word
 *albʰós
Borrowed from French aubade, from Old French albade, from Old Spanish albada (“musical or poetic composition to be performed in the morning”), from alba (“dawn”), from Vulgar Latin *alba (“dawn; sunrise”), from Latin albus (“bright, clear; white”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *albʰós (“white”).

beuregan

Alladad Khan woke to the far crying of kampong cocks in the dark. That noise had been the farmyard aubade in the Punjab in his dream.

1956, Anthony Burgess, chapter 11, in Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), London: William Heinemann, published 1968, page 155

(music, poetry) A poem or song evoking or greeting the dawn or early morning.

(music, specifically) A morning love song, or a song of lovers parting in the morning.

aubade

morning love song; song of lovers parting in the morning

(music) A concert held at dawn or in the morning, especially outdoors.


G-funk

Abbreviation of gangsta funk; also in imitation of P-Funk (“Parliament-Funkadelic”).

Man, I love sitting back and listening to some jived out G-funk!

The Chronic, and the other G-funk albums that followed, scandalized the civic engagement and racial ideals of gangsta's parent culture in several salient ways.

2004, Eithne Quinn, Nuthin' but a "G" Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap, Columbia University Press, page 144

(music) A kind of slow, melodic hip-hop music associated with California.


nocturne

Borrowed from French nocturne (literally “nocturnal”), from Latin nocturnus. Doublet of notturno.

For all its grace, charm, and apparent simplicity, [Frédéric] Chopin’s Nocturne in E♭ major, Op. 9, No. 2, poses fundamental problems on close inspection. The fact that so many analyses of the piece – including those of Heinrich Schenker and Felix Salzer – fail to explain certain idiosyncratic aspects, in particular an unusual distribution of structural weight, gives some indication of the Nocturne’s complexities at a profound level.

1999, John Rink, “‘Structural Momentum’ and Closure in Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2”, in Carl Schachter, Hedi Siegel, editors, Schenker Studies 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, page 109

The vocal nocturne, in other words, turns out to be no easier a genre to define than the piano nocturne. But its ambiguities are nevertheless helpful in making sense of those of the piano nocturne.

2004, Halina Goldberg, editor, The Age of Chopin: Interdisciplinary Inquiries, Bloomington, Indianapolis, In.: Indiana University Press, page 222

(music) A dreamlike or pensive composition, usually for the piano.


bravura

/bɹəˈvjʊəɹə/

From Italian bravura (“skill”), from bravo (“good, skilful”).

(music) A highly technical or difficult piece, usually written for effect.


tremolo

en-noun

tremolo (countable and uncountable, plural tremolos)

Borrowed from Italian tremolo, first-person present indicative of tremolare (“to shake, to tremble”). Origin: 1715-25.

It commenced with a slow crescendo, so irresistibly lugubrious that two of our dogs at once raised their heads and swelled their voices into a responsive tremolo, which may have been heard and appreciated by their distant relatives.

1880, Felix Leopold Oswald, Summerland Sketches, page 57

(music) A rapid repetition of the same note, or an alternation between two or more notes. It can also be intended to mean a rapid and repetitive variation in pitch for the duration of a note. It is notated by a strong diagonal bar across the note stem, or a detached bar for a set of notes (or stemless notes).

(music) A variation in the volume of a note or a chord, evoking a tremor or quiver.

(music) The device in an organ that produces a tremolo effect.


interlude

Latin inter- (“between”) + ludo (“to play”)

(music) A short piece put between the parts of a longer composition.


ridotto

ridotto (plural ridottos or ridottoes or ridotti)

ridottos (plural)
ridottoes (plural)
ridotti (plural)

Borrowed from Italian ridotto (“foyer”). Doublet of redoubt.

(music) An arrangement or abridgment of a piece from the full score.


sticker

From stick (“to pierce, to be fastened, to adhere”) + -er (“agent”).

affix

(music) A small wooden rod in an organ which connects (in part) a key and a pallet, so as to communicate motion by pushing.


resolution

en-noun

resolution (countable and uncountable, plural resolutions)

/ˌɹɛzəˈluːʃ(ə)n/

Recorded since 1412, as Middle English resolucioun (“dissolution”), either from Anglo-Norman resolucion or directly from Latin resolūtiō (“a loosening, solution”), from resolvō (“I loosen”), itself from the intensive prefix re- + solvō (“I loosen”).

der

(music) Progression from dissonance to consonance; a chord to which such progression is made.

解決

music: progression from dissonance to consonance


winding

en-noun

winding (countable and uncountable, plural windings)

The noun is derived from Middle English winding, windinge, wyndynge (“act of exposing something to the wind, airing, ventilating; act of winnowing (?)”), from winden, wynden (“to expose (something) to the air or wind, ventilate; to cause (someone) to be out of breath; to winnow (wheat); of an animal: to catch the scent of (someone or something)”) + -ing, -inge (suffix forming gerund nouns, and the present participle forms of verbs).
The adjective is derived from the verb.
The English word is analysable as wind (“to blow air through (a wind instrument or horn) to make a sound; to cause (someone) to become breathless; to winnow (food grain), etc.”) + -ing (suffix forming present participial adjectives and verbs, and nouns denoting an action or the embodiment of an action).

suffix

(music) The act of blowing air through a wind instrument or (chiefly) a horn to make a sound.

puhallus

act of blowing air through a wind instrument or a horn to make a sound


winding

en-adj

winding (not generally comparable, comparative more winding, superlative most winding)

more winding (comparative)
most winding (superlative)

(not comparable, music) Of a horn or wind instrument: blown to make a sound.

puhallettava

of a horn or wind instrument: blown to make a sound


winding

The noun is derived from Middle English winding, windinge, wyndynge (“directional change, curve, turn; bend of the leg at the knee; meandering course of a river; act of turning and twisting; twisting of things (especially thread) together; wrapping of a cloth around something; wattling of a structure; wattle(s); ornamentation with interwoven patterns; hoisting of something”) [and other forms], and then partly:
* from winden, wynden (“to go, move; to move forcefully or suddenly; to direct, guide, lead; to go along a meandering or twisting course; to move in a circular pattern, revolve, turn; to move restlessly, toss and turn; to wriggle free; to move with a turning or twisting motion, bend, turn, twist; to form or mould (something) in one’s hands; to mix together; to cover; to clothe, dress; to wrap (a baby, a corpse, etc.); to encircle, surround; to bind; to interlace; to winch; (figurative) to conceal, disguise; to embroil, involve”) + -ing, -inge (suffix forming gerund nouns, and the present participle forms of verbs).; and
* from Old English windung (“woven object”), from windan (“to twist, wind; to circle, curl, eddy, spiral”) (from Proto-Germanic *windaną (“to wind; to wrap”), from Proto-Indo-European *wendʰ- (“to turn; to wind”)) + -ung (suffix forming nouns denoting a verbal action or something involved in a verbal action).
The adjective is derived from the verb.
The English word is analysable as wind (“to turn coils of (a cord, etc.) around something; to encircle, enfold, entwist, wrap; to travel in a way that is not straight”) + -ing (suffix forming present participial adjectives and verbs, and nouns denoting an action or the embodiment of an action).

suffix

(obsolete, music) A variation in a tune.


unaccompanied

en-adj

unaccompanied (comparative more unaccompanied, superlative most unaccompanied)

more unaccompanied (comparative)
most unaccompanied (superlative)

(music) performed or scored without accompaniment; solo


night owl

From night + owl, from the fact that the bird is active at night.

The night-owl,—a mug-shaped instrument, with an orifice in its side, through which a whistle is inserted,—when used, is partly filled with water, to give the tremulous owl-hoot sound.

1874 May, James Judson Lord, “Haydn’s Children’s Symphony [actually the Toy Symphony, possibly by Leopold Mozart or Edmund Angerer]”, in [Mary Mapes Dodge], editor, St. Nicholas, volume I, number 7, New York, N.Y.: Scribner & Co., →OCLC, page 429, column 2

At the right was the piano, with a young lady seated, ready to play. Just before the curtain, and arranged in a semicircle, sat the juvenile orchestra,—Kitty with a tin trumpet; Jane with her night-owl filled with water and ready to pipe up; Julia with another bird, but having a different note; John with his drum, and Edward with his trumpet.

1889, Charles Barnard, chapter VI, in The Tone Masters: A Musical Series for Young People, Boston, Mass.: New England Conservatory of Music, →OCLC, book I (Mozart and Mendelssohn), pages 189–190

(music) A musical instrument which imitates an owl's hoot, consisting of a receptacle partly filled with water and a mouthpiece that is blown into.


vinyl

en-noun

vinyl (countable and uncountable, plural vinyls)

→ Catalan: vinil

→ Finnish: vinyyli

→ French: vinyle

→ German: Vinyl

→ Greek: βινύλιο (vinýlio)

→ Irish: vinil

→ Italian: vinile

→ Japanese: ビニール (binīru)

→ Korean: 비닐 (binil)

desc

Portuguese: vinil, (Brazil) vinila, (Portugal) vinilo

→ Russian: винил (vinil)

→ Spanish: vinilo

→ Swedish: vinyl

From Latin vīnum (“wine”) + -yl. Derived from Latin vīnum because ethyl alcohol is the ordinary alcohol present in wine.

Many DJs prefer vinyl to CDs.

(music, collectively, uncountable) Phonograph records as a medium.

Coordinate term: acetate

This is a tangible example of the net's natural flow toward improved environmental outcomes. Although some people lament the loss of flipping through CDs, or eight-tracks, or vinyls, there is a clear upside to dematerialization.

2011, David Eagleman, Why the Net Matters, Canongate Books


vinyl

Dance, boogie wonderland / Sound fly through the night / I chase my vinyl dreams to boogie wonderland

1979, “Boogie Wonderland”, in I Am, performed by Earth, Wind & Fire

After being gifted a turntable and investing in relatively inexpensive speakers, he talks about becoming reacquainted with the Impulse vinyl version of John Coltrane's celebrated jazz album, A Love Supreme.

2015, Dominik Bartmanski, Ian Woodward, Vinyl: The Analogue Record in the Digital Age, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 48

(music) Pertaining to a phonograph record.


ambient

en-adj

ambient (comparative more ambient, superlative most ambient)

more ambient (comparative)
most ambient (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-ambient.wav

From Latin ambiēns (“going around”), from ambiō (“go around”).

(music) Evoking or creating an atmosphere: atmospheric.

tunnelmallinen

(music) evoking or creating an atmosphere


ambient

en-noun

ambient (countable and uncountable, plural ambients)

→ Polish: ambient

Ambient can be flabby synth mulch that needs to access cyberism and external philosophies to convince you you're not being scammed.

1996, SPIN, volume 12, number 3, page 116

(uncountable, music) A type of modern music that creates a relaxing and peaceful atmosphere.


piston

(music) A valve device in some brass instruments for changing the pitch


cluster

→ Catalan: clúster

→ French: cluster

→ German: Cluster

→ Italian: cluster

→ Japanese: クラスター (kurasutā)

→ Portuguese: cluster

→ Russian: кла́стер (kláster)

→ Spanish: clúster, cluster

→ Swedish: kluster

High Performance Computing Center, Stuttgart

The noun is derived from Middle English cluster (“bunch, cluster, spray; compact body or mass, ball”) [and other forms], from Old English cluster, clyster (“cluster, bunch, branch”), from Proto-Germanic *klas-, *klus- (“to clump, lump together”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up; to clench; to amass”)) + *-þrą (suffix forming nouns denoting an instrument or tool). The English word is probably a doublet of clot.
The verb is derived from the noun.
cognates
* Dutch klister (“cluster”) (dialectal)
* Icelandic klasi (“cluster; bunch of grapes”)
* Low German Kluuster (“cluster”)
* Swedish kluster (“cluster”)

nb...

closter, clostre, clouster, clowster, clustre, clustyr

բույլ

A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.

(music) A secundal chord of three or more notes.


minimal

en-adj

minimal (comparative more minimal, superlative most minimal)

more minimal (comparative)
most minimal (superlative)

mínimu

the smallest possible amount, quantity, or degree

(music) Characterised by the repetition and gradual alteration of short phrases.

minimalistisch

music: characterised by the repetition and gradual alteration of short phrases


sextet

From French sextette, from Italian sestetto.

(music) A composition for six voices or instruments.


shuffle

Originally the same word as scuffle, and properly a frequentative of shove.

(by extension, music) A rhythm commonly used in blues music. Consists of a series of triplet notes with the middle note missing, so that it sounds like a long note followed by a short note. Sounds like a walker dragging one foot.


bubblegum

en-noun

bubblegum (countable and uncountable, plural bubblegums)

Born in the small town of Rockwood, east Tennessee, Carter’s bubblegum sound and mini-bad boy image made him the definitive millennium child star.

2022 November 6, Emma Garland, “Aaron Carter was the millennium’s bubblegum bad boy – and the victim of a rapacious music industry”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

(music, sometimes derogatory) A type of pop music marked by sweetness, pep and charm (rather than depth or complexity).


ordo

Borrowed from Latin ōrdō. Doublet of order.

(music) A musical phrase constructed from one or more statements of one modal pattern and ending in a rest.


acid house

First appears c. 1988, in the periodical New Musical Express. Likely a reference to acid (“LSD, psychedelic drugs”), influenced by earlier acid rock. See Acid House § Etymology.

Coordinate term: (precursor) Hi-NRG

Acid House, this year's underground musical phenomenon, had finally made it into the living rooms of Britain. A nation, encountering for the first time a new music, fashion, and cultural phenomenon, flew into another drug-obsessed moral panic.

1989 January, Sean O'Hagan, “Acid House”, in SPIN, SPIN Media LLC, page 64

(music) A style of music from the early rave scene in the UK.


preparation

preparation (countable and uncountable, plural preparations)

/pɹɛpəˈɹeɪʃən/

From Middle English preparacion, from Middle French preparacion, from Latin praeparatio, praeparationem.
Morphologically prepare + -ation

(music) Any of the objects placed between the strings of a prepared piano.

esine

music: object placed between strings of a piano

(music) The previous introduction, as an integral part of a chord, of a note continued into a succeeding dissonance.


singing

en-adj

singing (comparative more singing, superlative most singing)

more singing (comparative)
most singing (superlative)

From Middle English syngyng; equivalent to sing + -ing.


primo

Borrowed from Italian primo (“first”). Doublet of prime.


fretboard

(music) A fret or plate put over the neck of musical instruments or its fingerboard, to create a different sound of notes.

bundiertes Griffbrett

a board on the neck of stringed instruments used to shorten or lengthen strings to create different sound of notes. — see also fingerboard


garage

en-noun

garage (countable and uncountable, plural garages)

→ Assamese: গেৰেজ (gerez)

→ Bengali: গ্যারেজ (gêrej)

→ Hindi: गेराज (gerāj)

→ Irish: garáiste

→ Japanese: ガレージ, グラージ

→ Malay: garaj

→ Scottish Gaelic: garaids

→ Sinhalese: ගරාජ් (garāj)

→ Urdu: گیراج (gerāj)

/ˈɡæ.ɹɑː(d)ʒ/

Borrowed from French garage (“keeping under cover, protection, shelter”), derivative of French garer (“to keep under cover, dock, shunt, guard, keep”), from Middle French garer, garrer, guerrer; partly from Old French garir, warir (from Old Frankish *warjan); and partly from Old French varer (“to fight, defend oneself, protect”), from Old Norse varask (“to defend oneself”), reflexive of vara (“to ware, watch out, defend”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *warjaną (“to defend, ward off”), *warōną (“to watch, protect”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to close, cover, protect, save, defend”).

der

(attributive, music) A type of guitar rock music, personified by amateur bands playing in the basement or garage; garage rock.

(British, music) A type of electronic dance music related to house music, with warped and time-stretched sounds; UK garage.


sampling

(music) Electronically splicing pieces of previously recorded sound as part of a composition, especially as part of hip-hop or electronic dance music.

samplaus

technique for electronically splicing pieces of previously recorded sound as part of a composition


slur

From Middle English sloor (“thin or fluid mud”). Cognate with Middle Low German sluren (“to trail in mud”). Also related to dialectal Norwegian sløra (“to be careless, to scamp, dawdle”), Danish sløre (“to wobble, be loose”) (especially for wheels); compare Old Norse slóðra (“to drag oneself along”).
* (an extremely offensive term): Influenced by various compounds of sense 1 such as racial slur, ethnic slur, etc.

cog

(music) A set of notes that are played legato, without separate articulation.

(music) The symbol indicating a legato passage, written as an arc over the slurred notes (not to be confused with a tie).


slur

en-verb

slur (third-person singular simple present slurs, present participle slurring, simple past and past participle slurred)

slurs (present singular third-person)
slurring (participle present)
slurred (participle past)
slurred (past)

Notes , the stems of which are joined together by cross lines, as in united quavers , semiquavers , & c . or notes over the heads of which a curve is drawn, to signify that they are to be slurred

1817, Thomas Busby, A Dictionary of Music, Theoretical and Practical

(music) To play legato or without separate articulation; to connect (notes) smoothly.


medley

From Middle English medle, from Anglo-Norman medlee, Old French medlee, from the feminine past participle of early Medieval Latin misculō (“to mix”). Compare meddle. Doublet of melee.

They played a medley of favorite folk songs as an encore.

(music) A collection of related songs played or mixed together as a single piece.


medley

medley (third-person singular simple present medleys, present participle medleying, simple past and past participle medleyed)

medleys (present singular third-person)
medleying (participle present)
medleyed (participle past)
medleyed (past)


bottleneck

The narrow portion that forms the pouring spout of a bottle; the neck of a bottle.

(music) A portion of a bottleneck placed on the finger and used as a guitar slide.


transcribe

transcribe (third-person singular simple present transcribes, present participle transcribing, simple past and past participle transcribed)

transcribes (present singular third-person)
transcribing (participle present)
transcribed (participle past)
transcribed (past)

Learned borrowing from Latin trānscrībere (“to write again in another place, transcribe, copy”).

lbor

(music) To adapt a composition for a voice or instrument other than the original; to notate live or recorded music.


sambuca

From Latin sambūca, from Ancient Greek σαμβύκη (sambúkē), ultimately from Aramaic סַבְּכָא (sabbəḵā).

Cymbals, trumpets and organs (familiar Old Testament vocabulary) appear conventionally enough as cymballe, trwmpedau and organau, but the more obscure psaltria, trigona, and sambucae (psalteries, trigons and sambucae: three types of Greek harp) become psalteris, kornets, shalmes, [a] dulcimus in translation (Chapter Six, paragraph 7); cornets and shawns are, of course, wind instruments.

2007, Sally Harper, “Part III: Welsh Music in an English Milieu c.1550–1650”, “19. A Welsh Translation of John Case’s Apologia Musices”, in Music in Welsh Culture Before 1650: A Study of the Principal Sources, Routledge, published 2016, page 334

(music) An ancient form of triangular harp having a very sharp, shrill tone.

סַבְּכָא

ancient triangular harp having a sharp, shrill tone


tonal

en-adj

tonal (comparative more tonal, superlative most tonal)

more tonal (comparative)
most tonal (superlative)

(music) Employing tones that have a predictable relationship to some tonic.

tonaalinen

employing tones that have a predictable relationship to some tonic


sample

From Middle English saumple, sample, from Old French essample (“example”), from Latin exemplum. Doublet of example and exemplum.

Jeffrey conceives a fascination with nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) who sings Blue Velvet, while her abusive, misogynist sugar-daddy Frank (Dennis Hopper) watches, caressing a sample of this same material.

2016 December 1, Peter Bradshaw, “Blue Velvet review – still inventive, sexy and bizarre”, in The Guardian

(music) Gratuitous borrowing of easily recognised phases (or moments) from other music (or movies) in a recording.


sample

en-verb

sample (third-person singular simple present samples, present participle sampling, simple past and past participle sampled)

samples (present singular third-person)
sampling (participle present)
sampled (participle past)
sampled (past)

To address this novel legal quandary, one legal treatise on copyright has developed the concept of fragmented literal similarity, a method of determining whether a sample-based work is substantially similar to the source it sampled. The name reflects the exactness of the similarity between the snippet of a track that is sampled and the sampled copy of that snippet.

2011, Kembrew McLeod, Peter DiCola, Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling, page 130

(music, transitive) To reuse a portion of (an existing sound recording) in a new piece of music.

sämplätä

music: to reuse a portion of an existing recording


transcription

en-noun

transcription (countable and uncountable, plural transcriptions)

From Middle French transcription, or directly from Latin transcriptiōnem, from trānscrībō (“transcribe”).

These frame tale interludes frequently include transcriptions of Italian folk songs.

In other words, the adantino was written first as an independent piece; it is, moreover, hardly more than an elaborated transcription of the little song, ‘Im Herbste’, written in 1828, with its two exactly similar strophes (each only five bars long) and four-bar piano epilogue.

2013, Gerald Abraham, Slavonic and Romantic Music: Essays and Studies, Faber & Faber

Something that has been transcribed, including:


note value

(music) A musical notation that indicates the relative duration of a note, using the color or shape of the note head, the presence or absence of a stem, and the presence of flags.


musical bow

(music) A simple musical instrument consisting of a string supported by a flexible wooden bearer.


modulate

en-verb

modulate (third-person singular simple present modulates, present participle modulating, simple past and past participle modulated)

modulates (present singular third-person)
modulating (participle present)
modulated (participle past)
modulated (past)

From Latin modulatus, past participle of modulari (“to measure, regulate, modulate”), from modulus (“measure”); see modulus. Compare module. By surface analysis, module + -ate.

(intransitive, music) to move from one key or tonality to another, especially by using a chord progression

轉調

to move from one key to another (intransitive)


overplay

overplay (third-person singular simple present overplays, present participle overplaying, simple past and past participle overplayed)

overplays (present singular third-person)
overplaying (participle present)
overplayed (participle past)
overplayed (past)

overdrijven

To present something more dramatically than necessary

A lot of times I don't want to overplay songs that I really like, because I know that then I'll get sick of them and I don't want to get sick of them.

2008, Walter Douglas Crigler, iMusic/myMusic, page 75

(transitive, music) To play (a song or record) too frequently, often to the point of causing weariness and annoyance.


clarinet

/ˌklæɹɪˈnɛt/

/ˌklɛɹɪˈnɛt/

Borrowed from Italian clarinetto, diminutive of clarino (“trumpet”) (as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet), from Latin clarus.
Alternatively, the word may come from French clarinette, diminutive form of clarine (“bell”), from clarin, from clair (“clear”), from Latin clarus.

(music) A woodwind musical instrument that has a distinctive liquid tone whose characteristics vary among its three registers: chalumeau (low), clarion (medium), and altissimo (high).


extrapolation

en-noun

extrapolation (countable and uncountable, plural extrapolations)

(music) The diametric opposite of interpolation.


pent

The major pent is the same minor pent pattern only shifted down 3 frets toward the nut. Like John B told me for Sunshine of your love. Play Bm and then Dm pent and it will sound good. He also pointed out that Bm pent includes the same exact notes as DM pent. So the idea is if the song is in D, try both minor and major pents and see how it works.

2006 March 28, Greg Cisko, “Re: Any good solos?”, in alt.guitar.beginner (Usenet)


votive

From Middle French votif, from Latin vōtīvus (“votive”), from vōtum (“vow”).

(music) a hymn or chant dedicated to a particular saint, or to the Virgin Mary


registration

registration (countable and uncountable, plural registrations)

/ˌɹɛ.d͡ʒɪs.ˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/

(music) The art of selecting and combining the stops or registers of an organ.

Registrierung

the art of selecting and combining the stops or registers of an organ


humoresque

(music) A composition that is playful in attitude and tone.


swoop

From Middle English swopen, from Old English swāpan (“to sweep”). Doublet of swaip. See also sweep, which was probably the basis for analogical restoration of /w/ in this word.

Originally, computers' attempts at making music were recognizable by their beeps and boops and weird swoops.

2008, Russell Dean Vines, Composing Digital Music For Dummies, page 281

(music) A quick passage from one note to the next.