Music Terms in Italian
The words on your score, explained · tap a term · hear tempo, dynamics & articulation
How to play
- Tap any term to read what it means. The coloured edge shows its category (tempo, dynamics, articulation, expression, direction).
- Where it makes a sound, a Hear it button appears: tempo terms tick a metronome at their speed, dynamics play a note at that loudness, and articulations demonstrate the touch.
- Use the filter chips or the search box to narrow the list. Vol sets volume.
- Italian is the traditional language of these directions because Italy led European music printing in the 1600s. Keyboard: Tab + Enter/Space.
Scroll down the page to see a grid of Italian words that is commonly used as directions on a piece of music. Tap each word to find out what it means. Alternatively, use your computer’s keyboard to tab through the words until you reach desired direction. Then press space or enter to select it. This will give you a better grasp of common musical term that appear on pieces of music. It covers performance directions, dynamics, tempo, expression, and articulation.
The buttons is in a scrollable grid. Every button corresponds with different musical term. When you click on a button it will choose the term for you and show its definition in the detail panel above. Each button is color-coded on the left side and categorized as follows: Blue means tempo. Orange means dynamics. Green means articulation. Purple means expression. Yellow means general directions.
How to Use This Tool
Below the grid is a search box where you can type in any word. It will filter the list to match what you typed, letting you find the marking you want quickly without scrolling through the whole database. Below this there’s a line of category filters. If you click on one of these it’ll display only those terms under that category (e.g., Dynamics or Tempo), while clicking on the All button bring back the complete list.
In the detail panel, you can see word chosen in big letters with an explanation of what it means in English. The term’s category is also shown as a colored badge. On the right-hand side of this panel, there will be a Hear it button if the term is one which has a sound example. Clicking here will bring up an audio example. Dynamics play a note at the indicated volume level. Tempo terms plays a metronome tick at the listed speed. Articulations shows how the term describes the style or physical touch.
Down in the bottom right-hand corner there’s volume control. This allows you to use the slider to set the overall sound output of all the audio demos (this is handy if you’re in a quiet room or wish to hear more about some of the more delicat volume changes such as very soft or very loud etc). Next to that is the count indicator, which shows how many result match your filters or search term.
There’s also a toggleable help panel on top which provide a short list of bullet points explaining the controls when you click the Help button. If you’re just browsing around and want to remind yourself what something is without digging into the settings, use the Help button. The Fullscreen button will increase size of the widget and take up your whole browser window, making it easier to read (especially from smaller screens) and giving you more room for the term grid itself. Clicking the Fullscreen button again or pressing the Escape key gets you back out of it.
Starting with tempo try listening to what it sounds like with a slow Grave compared to a fast Prestissimo. Next, go to dynamics to compare Pianissimo and Fortissimo. Then listen to what happens when you press some of the other articulation buttons like Legato or Staccato that create different rhythmic figures in the accompanying sound sample below. To explore specific kinds of markings, you could have combined your category filter choices with search bar, such as searching for all expressions beginning with Con.
It’s a handy cheat code for deciphering what is written down on paper. Because of Europe’s long-standing tradition of publishing music, they are still written in Italian despite being English terms. Have it running in a window alongside your sheet music so you know where to look if something doesn’t ring a bell. Pick one that looks interesting to you first and listen to what it means.