Terms of Musical Expression

The links below provide more terms, including Italian, French and German, all needed to pass the theory exams.

Alphabetised by 'Musical Term'

English	Musical Term	Language
lively		Italian
at, to, by, for, in the style of	a	Italian
to the, in the manner of	al, alla	Italian
broadening (getting a little slow and probably louder)	allargando	Italian
slightly faster than andante	andantino	Italian
very	assai	Italian
with	con, col	Italian
sweetly	dolce	Italian
and	e, ed	Italian
expressive	espressivo	Italian
loud, then immediately soft	fortepiano	Italian
playful, merry	giocoso	Italian
very slow, solemn	grave	Italian
graceful	grazioso	Italian
rather slow (not as slow as largo)	larghetto	Italian
slow, stately	largo	Italian
but	ma	Italian
majestic	maestoso	Italian
over or under the notes means accented and slightly separated	marcato	ItalianDirection
less	meno	Italian
Dots inside a slur over or below the notes mean the notes should be slightly separated, but less so than notes with ordinary staccato	mezzostaccato	Italian
very, much	molto	Italian
movement	mosso	Italian
movement	moto	Italian
not	non	Italian
more	più	Italian
fast	presto	Italian
without	senza	Italian
forced, accented	sforzando	Italian
in the same way	simile	Italian
sustained	sostenuto	Italian
A wedge sign above or below the notes indicates super-staccato, played as briefly as possible and possibly accented	staccatissimo	Italian
over or below the note means the note is given a slight pressure	tenuto	Italian
held	tenuto	Italian
too much	troppo	Italian
quick	vivo	Italian