Glossary of music terminology

A variety of musical terms is encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes.

Most of the terms are Italian, in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions.

Sometimes, the special musical meanings of these phrases differ from the original or current Italian meanings.

Most of the other terms are taken from French and German, indicated by Fr.

The list can never be complete: some terms are common, and others are used only occasionally, and new ones are coined from time to time.

On these organ stops, some of the knobs have numbers indicating the length in feet of the longest (the lowest note) organ pipe of the stop