| L |
after Alessandro Longo the cataloguer of the
music of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757); after
Lesure the cataloguer of the music of Claude
Debussy (1862-1918); after Jean-Baptiste Lully
(1632-1687) whose music was catalogued by Max
Schneider |
| L |
denoting notes to be played by the left hand
in keyboard music |
| L' |
(French) the |
| La |
(Italian, French) the; the sixth note in a
major scale; in 'fixed do' solfeggio, la
is always the note 'A' |
| Laavloe |
a Sami song style with words or lyrics |
| Lächelnd |
(German) laughing |
| Lâcher |
(French) to loosen (e.g. the snare of a
drum) |
| Lacrimosa |
division of the Roman Requiem Mass |
| Lacrimoso, Lagrimoso |
(Italian) tearful, mournful, sad |
| Lage |
(German) position (in string playing); the
range of an instrument or of the voice |
| Lagnoso, Lagnevole |
(Italian) doleful |
| Lagouto |
see lavouto |
| Lagrimando, Lagrimoso |
(Italian) tearful |
| Lahute |
eight-stringed instrument in the lute
family, tuned in fifths, a folk instrument of
the Kosovar Albanians |
| Lai, Lay |
a form of trouvére song popular in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, usually
consisting of 12 unequal stanzas sung to
different tunes. The lai was often
composed as an instrumental piece |
| Lai |
wooden drum of New Zealand |
| Laid back |
music played with the accent played slightly
after the beat to convey a relaxed, casual
feeling |
| Laisser |
(French) to allow, to leave, for example,
laisser vibrer meaning 'let it sound on' |
| Lajas de piedra |
chips of stone, used in popular Andalusian
folk music |
| Lakolosy |
small bells (Madagascar) |
| Lali |
two large slit log drums (Beqa, the Pacific) |
| Lambe |
Wolof bass drum with closed bottom used in a
sabar drum set (Senegal) |
| Lamellae |
African pygmy (Efé) thumb piano |
| Lamellophone |
plucked idiophone with thin metal strips,
common throughout sub-Saharan Africa |
| Lame musicale |
(French) musical saw |
| Lament |
a sad tune, particularly one played on the
Scottish bagpipe at clan funerals |
| Lamentando, Lamentabile, Lamentevole,
Lamentoso |
(Italian) lamenting, mourning |
| Lamentations |
verses from the Bible written by Jeremiah,
that are used in the Lessons of Holy Thursday,
Good Friday and Holy Saturday of Holy Week in
the Roman Church |
| Lamentazione, Lamento |
(Italian) lamentation, lament |
| Lancio |
(Italian) gusto |
| Lancers |
a trype of square dance or quadrille,
popular in the second half of the
nineteenth-century |
| Lambada |
a samba-derived dance from the
northeast coast of Brazil |
| Lammban |
pre-circumcision ritual music from Guinea |
| Lam saravane |
(Laotian) most popular genre of music in
Laos |
| Ländler |
an Austrian rural dance or air, usually in
3/4 or 3/8 time, rather like a slow waltz,
popular in the late eighteenth- and early
nineteenth-centuries |
| Landini cadence |
named after the Italian composer Francesco
Landini (1325-1397) but used by many other
composers in the fourteenth- and
fifteenth-centuries, a variant of the standard
sixth-to-octave expanding cadential progression
to which a third to the cadential pitch is added
in the top line which resolves to the octave
[What
is a Landini cadence?] |
| Ländlich |
(German) rustic |
| Landó |
a Peruvian dance, a mix of both Spanish and
African rhythms, with its origins from a dance
in Angola called londu that came with the
slaves when they arrived in Brazil from Angola
and still today the londo exists in
Brazil. The Peruvian lando has become so
closely associated with black Peruvian music
that it has become the sound of black Peru |
| Lang |
(German) long |
| Langeleik |
Norwegian zither |
| Langen mandra wanara |
(Javanese) a gamelan opera style
developed at the end of the nineteenth-century
in Yogyakarta. It is innovative in that, as
opposed to the ordinary theatre, the entire
libretto is sung |
| Langer Vorschlag |
(German) appogiatura |
| Langoureux, Langoureusement |
(French) languorous, languorously |
| Langsam |
(German) slow |
| Langsammer |
(German) slower |
| Langspil |
a bowed stringed instrument from Iceland,
consisting of an oblong box with two strings,
one of which is a drone |
| Languendo, Languente, Languemente |
(Italian) languishing |
| Langueur |
(French) languor |
| Languido, Languidamente |
(Italian) languid, languidly |
| Languissant |
(French) languishing |
| Languore |
(Italian) languor |
| Laouto |
see lavouto |
| Lapas |
limpet shells used as a percussion
instrument in the Canary Islands. Two shells are
struck against each other creating a sound like
a castanet |
| Laras |
(Javanese) there are two kinds of laras
(tuning systems) in gamelan, namely
slendro (a five-note scale with
approximately equal intervals between the notes
(barang, gulu, dada,
lima, nem) and pelog (a
seven-note scale that is based on a nine-note
scale of equal intervals from which two notes
are missing (bem, gulu, dada,
pelog, lima, nem, barang);
in gamelan orchestras, the laras
each have their own percussion set; about
gamelan scales prior to those described
above, there is evidence for three proto-gamelan
scales (or modes), namely kodhok ngorek
(literally, 'chant of the batrachians') with 2
notes, played in particular at marriages,
munggang (literally, 'voice of the tiger')
with 3 notes and carabalèn (literally, 'a
Bali manner') with 4 notes, martial and often
played for processions |
| Larchemi |
Georgian name for the panpipes |
| Largamente |
(Italian) slowish and dignified |
| Large |
(French) slow and dignified |
| Largement |
(French) slowish and dignified |
| Larghetto |
not as slow as largo |
| Larghissimo |
an extremely slow tempo, slower than largo,
40 beats per minute or less |
| Larguer |
(French) breadth |
| Largo |
(Italian) broad |
| Larigot |
old name for the flageolet rather like the
recorder; an organ stop with a mutation of two
octaves and a fifth above the fundamental |
| Larynx |
the upper part of the trachea in the human
throat, the seat of the variation in tone of the
voice |
| Lasciare |
(Italian) to allow to |
| Lasciate |
(Italian) allow!, let! |
| Latpipa |
a Swedish wooden whistle usually with eight
finger hole |
| Laúd |
Spanish lute with a flat back, 12 metal
strings in 6 courses and a pear shaped body |
| Lauda, Laudes |
a song of praise and adoration to Christ,
Mary or the saints that became popular amongst
the laity in the thirteenth century |
| Lauda spirituale |
non-liturgical songs of praise and worship
of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, that in
their earlier stages were associated with
flagellants who would chant them in procession |
| Laudes |
(Latin, literally 'praises') the second
service of the Divine Office, usually performed
at daybreak, the service consisting of several
responsories and psalms which are sung |
| Launeddas |
a polyphonic reed instrument from Sardinia
(Italy), which is made up of three canes. It is
also known as the triple pipe. Since it requires
a constant flow of air it is played using
circular breathing |
| Laut |
(German) loud |
| Laute |
(German) lute |
| Lautenmacher |
luthier, a maker of stringed instruments |
| Lavolta |
(Italian, literally, 'the leap') a dance,
popular in the sixteenth-century, in fast triple
time featuring leaps and turns, a great
favourite with Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
although not everyone believed it was elegant |
| Lavouto |
Greek lute |
| Lavta |
Turkish lute |
| Lay |
see lai |
| Lay out |
in jazz, a direction indicating that a
player should be silent |
| Le |
(French) the; the lowered sixth degree of
the major scale; in 'fixed do' solfeggio, le
is always the note 'A flat' |
| Leader |
the first violinist in a conventional
orchestra, concert-master |
| Leading note, Leading tone |
the seventh degree of a major scale |
| Leaning note |
see appoggiatura |
| Leap |
a skip; the movement from one note to
another an interval more than second away |
| Leben |
(German) life, vivacity |
| Lebendig |
(German) lively |
| Lebendiger |
(German) livelier |
| Lebhaft |
(German) lively |
| Lebhafter |
(German) livelier |
| Lebhaftigkeit |
(German) liveliness |
| Ledger line |
short lines drawn through, above or below
the heads of notes that are written above or
below the staff |
| Leer |
(German) open strings on a violin |
| Legatissimo |
exceedingly smooth |
| Legato, Legando, Legabile |
(Italian) smooth playing style in which the
notes seem bound together |
| Legatura |
(Italian) tie, bind, slur, syncopation |
| Legende |
(French) a legend; a composition written in
a narrative, romantic style; a composition that
depicts a legend, a term was used mostly during
the Romantic era |
| Leger line |
see ledger line |
| Léger, Légère |
(French) light |
| Légereté |
(French) lightness |
| Légèrement |
(French) lightly |
| Leggero, Leggere |
(Italian) light |
| Leggeramente, Leggermente |
(Italian) lightly |
| Leggerezza, Leggeranza |
(Italian) lightness |
| Leggerissimo |
(Italian) as light as possible |
| Leggiadro, Leggiadretto |
(Italian) graceful |
| Leggiadramente |
(Italian) gracefully |
| Leggiero, Leggiere |
(Italian) light |
| Leggieramente, Leggiermente |
(Italian) lightly |
| Leggierezza, Leggieranza |
(Italian) lightness |
| Leggierissimo |
(Italian) as light as possible |
| Leggio |
(Italian) music stand, music desk |
| Legno |
(Italian) wood; a direction in a score to
use the wood block; a direction to a string
player to strike the string with the back of the
bow, i.e. the bowstick |
| Lehrstück |
a genre of musical drama popular in Germany
during the 1920's, whose purpose was to
communicate anti-Nazi political propaganda
rather than to entertain |
| Leich |
see lai |
| Leichen-musik |
(German) funeral music |
| Leicht |
(German) light style, easy |
| Leichtigkeit |
(German) lightness, easiness |
| Leichtfertig |
(German) giddy, frivolous |
| Leid |
(German) sorrow |
| Leidenschaft |
(German) passion |
| Leidenschaftlich |
(German) passionately |
| Leise |
(German) soft, gentle |
| Leiser |
(German) softer |
| Leisten |
(German) to perform |
| Leistung |
(German) performance |
| Leitmotiv |
(German) a theme identified with a character
in an opera, a term first used by H. von
Wolzogen in a discussion of The Ring by
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
more... |
| Leizi bili |
vertical flute indigenous to the Naxi
minority of China |
| Lene, Leno |
(Italian) gentle |
| Lera |
Persian flute |
| Lent |
the season of the church year from Ash
Wednesday to Easter (forty days, not counting
Sundays) |
| Lent (Fr.), Lento (It.) |
slow, as in pas trop lent meaning
'not too slow' |
| Lentando, Lentato, Lentamente, Lentezza,
Lentissimo |
(Italian) slowing, slowed, slowly, slowness,
very slow |
| Lentement, Lenteur |
(French) slowly, slowness |
| Les |
(French) the |
| Lesson |
a short keyboard piece or pieces from the
seventeenth- or eighteenth-centuries |
| Lesto, Lestamente, Lestissimo |
(Italian) quick, quickly, very quickly |
| Letzt |
(German) last |
| Levare |
(Italian) to lift, to take off |
| Levate |
(Italian) lift off! |
| Lever |
on a clavichord, it is a wooden rod that has
a key at one end and a tangent at the other,
which when the key is depressed raises the
tangent up to the appropriate string which both
touches the string and frets the string at a
given point |
| Levet |
a piece to be played under a bedroom window
in the morning |
| Levezza |
(Italian) lightness |
| LH |
indicating that specific notes are to be
played by the left hand |
| Li |
the raised sixth degree of the major scale;
in 'fixed do' solfeggio, li is always the
note 'A sharp' |
| Liaison |
(Italian) legato, slur, tie or bind |
| Liberamente |
(Italian) freely |
| Libero |
(Italian) free, unrestrained |
| Libertà |
(Italian) liberty, freedom |
| Liber usualis |
a modern-day book of chants, prayers and
readings for major services throughout the
Church year, first published in 1896 |
| Libre, Librement |
(French) free, freely |
| Libretto |
(Italian) the literary text of an opera or
oratorio |
| Licenza |
(Italian) license, freedom |
| Lick |
a spontaneous musical phrase, melody or
passage often drawn from a stock of scales,
arpeggios, and so forth. If the lick is wholly
original it is called a 'true lick' |
| Lié |
(French) slurred, tied |
| Liebe |
(German) love |
| Liebesgeige |
(German) viola d'amore |
| Liebesoboe |
(German) oboe d'amore |
| Lieblich |
(German) lovely, charming |
| Lied (s.), Lieder (pl.) |
(German) song, songs; in particular, a style
of nineteenth-century German song distinguished
by the setting of texts from the literary
tradition and by the elaboration of the
instrumental accompaniment
more...
|
| Liederbuch |
fifteenth- and sixteenth-century collections
of German polyphonic songs |
| Liedercyklus |
(German) song cycle |
| Liederkranz |
(German) song cycle |
| Liederspiel |
(German) a German form of ballad opera using
popular folk songs or folk style songs; a song
cycle, the text of which involves some element
of action |
| Liedersammlung |
(German) song collection |
| Lietissimo |
(Italian) very joyous |
| Lietezza |
(Italian) joy |
| Lieto |
(Italian) joyous |
| Lieve |
(Italian) light |
| Lievemente |
(Italian) lightly |
| Lievezza |
(Italian) lightness |
| Lift |
a rising glissando attached to the end of a
note; to transcribe a musical score from a
recording |
| Ligature |
slur, tie or bind; an adjustable band that
holds the reed on instruments of the clarinet
family |
| Limbe |
Mongolian shawm |
| Limbi |
Tuvan flute |
| Limbindi |
a bowed instrument from the Baka forest
people of southeast Cameroon. A strong vine is
used as the cord and a strong, elastic branch
used as the bow. To change the pitch of the
notes the cord is held under the player's chin
which is slid forward and back raising and
lowering the pitch |
| Line |
used graphically to denote ends of bars
(single and double bar lines), the pitches of
notes (staff and leger lines), articulation (tenuto
mark); used to describe aspects of melody, for
example, a musical line or phrase; used to
describe a formation of dancers, as in 'line
dancing' |
| Linea |
(Latin) a stave line |
| Linear chords |
essentially, a chord that results from
linear motion. For example, if you have a chord
in root position that moves to its first
inversion and some of the upper voices imitate
the bass motion, the interval of the third will
separate the notes in some voices. The interval
of the third in the bass can be filled in with a
passing tone. We would not call the passing tone
a chord. However, if the remaining voices were
connected with passing and neighbor notes, a
chord suddenly appears. In this case, the chord
is the product of linear motion |
| Liner notes |
textual data that convey information about a
music recording, for example, printed as a
booklet supplied with a compact disc |
| Linga |
wooden slit-drum in which a tree or a solid
block of wood is hollowed out to leave a
longitudinal opening on the upper side. The
edges of this slit are of unequal thickness and
produce two sounds of different pitch when
struck. They are generally used in groups of
three instruments of different size. Each player
hammers the edges of the slit with a pair of
mallets to produce two different notes (Central
African Republic) |
| Linh mu |
(Vietnam) a chanting style of Buddhist
pagodas |
| Lining out |
a call and response singing practice,
prevalent in early America and England,
characterized by the alternation between a
singer leader and a chorus singing
heterophonically |
| Link |
material that appears between the end of one
phrase and the beginning of the next, but
belongs to neither |
| Linke hand |
(German) left hand |
| Linkwin |
Burmese cymbals |
| Lip |
the projecting edge where the air column is
split to produce a pitch, such as the metal
plate (called a lip plate) on a flute where the
player places his or her lips; the adjustment of
the performer's lips when playing a wind
instrument so as to affect the tone and or pitch
of the sound produced; corrections to the
intonation on a flute by changing the position
of the lip plate relative to the lips is called
'lipping' |
| Lip synching |
moving one's lips to music that has been
pre-recorded; matching singing or speech to an
earlier filmed performance so as to superimpose
the later recorded sound to the earlier recorded
images |
| Liquescent neumes |
a liquescent neum only features at the end
of a syllable, especially when the pronunciation
of the following syllables is likely to present
some problems. The most common case is the
syllable ending on -m, like in sanctum,
or when a consonant cluster appears, like in
non confundentur. The Vaticana print
indicates the liquescent neumes with a very tiny
note attached at the end of the group. The main
guideline for a good performance is clear
pronunciation |
| Lira |
(Italian) a general term meaning
'instrument' as in lira da braccio,
lira organizzata, lirone, lyra
and the hurdy-gurdy |
| Lira da braccio |
(Italian) the viola da braccio; an
instrument popular in the Renaissance and
related to the violin, in that its shape is
similar shape to that of violin, but with seven
strings, a wider neck and a flatter bridge |
| Lira organizzata |
a hurdy-gurdy, popular around 1780, with
organ pipes and bellows encased within the
instrument's body |
| Lirica |
small fiddle with three strings, held on the
knee and bowed like cello, from Dalmatia |
| Lirico |
(Italian) lyric |
| Lirico spinto |
(Italian) a female voice that combines the
characteristics of a lyric soprano with greater
power and drama |
| Lirone |
the bass member of the lira da braccio
family, held between the knees rather than under
the chin, usually fretted and having from nine
to sixteen strings |
| Liscio, Liscia |
(Italian) smooth |
| L'istesso |
(Italian) the same |
| L'istesso tempo |
(Italian) the same time, i.e. the beat
remains constant when the meter changes, so
that, in the case of 2/4 to 6/8, the meter is
still counted with two beats per bar (measure)
but the tempo or speed of the beat remains
unaltered; in fact all that has changed is the
subdivision of the beat from the duplets of the
2/4 to the triplets of the 6/8 |
| Litany |
Christian suppliant prayers, generally with
a fixed response from the congregation |
| Litungu |
Kenyan harp |
| Liturgical books |
books containing liturgical services; in the
Roman Catholic Church there are seven books: the
missale, the graduale, the
breviarium, the antiphonale, the
martirologium, the pontificale and
the rituale |
| Liturgy |
structure of Christian religious services |
| Lituus |
(Latin) ancient Roman brass instrument in
the the shape of a letter 'J', used for martial
purposes; Johann Sebastian Bach used the term
lituus in his Cantata No. 118, but it is
uncertain to what instrument he is referring |
| Liu qin |
its name is a reference to the willow leaf
shaped soundbox, the lin qin is the
treble version of the Chinese lute (smaller than
the pipa), which had originally 2 or 3
strings and 7 frets, but today may have up to 4
steel strings, and up to 24 frets, sounds like a
mandolin and is played with a small bamboo tube
placed over the forefinger used as a plectrum |
| Liuto |
(Italian) lute |
| Livre |
(French) book |
| Lizard |
the tenor cornett
more... |
| Lo |
a small Chinese flat gong, about 20 cm wide
(8 inches) |
| Loco |
(Italian, literally 'place') an instruction
to read the notes as written, cancelling an
earlier instruction to play an octave higher or
lower than written |
| Locrian mode |
see
modes |
| Lombardic rhythm |
reversed dotting; Scotch snap |
| Long, Longa, Longe |
 |
(Latin, literally 'long') in early
mensural music, the note that is thrice
or twice the value of a brevis,
its origins are in the virga
|
|
| Long-playing discs |
termed LPs, these micro-groove vinyl (PVC)
records turned at a speed of 33 1/3 rpm and had
a playing time of approximately 25 minutes per
side |
| Loin, Lointain |
(French) distant, faint |
| Lojki |
wooden spoons, popular Russian percussion |
| Lokananta |
the mythical first set of gamelan,
created by the gods and played in Mount Lawu,
east of Solo |
| Lokanga |
a southern Malagasy fiddle, descended from
ancestral Arab and South African box-shaped
fiddles |
| Lo kantak |
Basque lullaby |
| Loop |
a piece of material that plays over and
over. In a sequencer, a loop repeats a musical
phrase. In a sampler, loops are used to allow
samples of finite length to be sustained
indefinitely |
| Lo stesso tempo |
(Italian) see l'istesso tempo |
| Lontananza |
(Italian) distance |
| Lontano |
(Italian) distant |
| Los |
(German) loose, free in style |
| Lotar |
Moroccan pear-shaped lute |
| Lote |
Pygmy notched flute played primarily by
elders |
| Lothar |
see lotar |
| Lotus flute |
see 'slide whistle' |
| Loud pedal |
a pedal on the piano that lifts the dampers
away from the strings so allowing the notes
struck to ring on after the keys have been
released, also called the sustaining pedal |
| Lourd, Lourde |
(France) heavy |
| Lourdement |
(French) heavily |
| Lourdeur |
(French) heaviness, weight |
| Loure |
(French) an old Normandy bagpipe, a rustic
dance in 3/4 or 6/4 time |
| Lower auxiliary (note) |
see 'auxiliary note' |
| Luftig |
(German) airy |
| Lugubre |
(Italian) lugubrious, sad, mournful |
| Lullaby |
a cradle song |
| Lumineux |
(French) luminous |
| Lunga, Lungo |
(Italian) long, as in lunga pausa
meaning 'long pause' |
| Luogo |
(Italian) loco |
| Lur |
a large, ancient, Nordic trumpet made of
bronze in the shape of an 'S'; also used to
describe wooden trumpets used by Scandinavian
herdsmen |
| Lusheng |
a mouth organ used by the minority
nationalities in southwestern China (Yunnan,
Guizhou), with pipes of varying lengths
more... |
| Lusingando, Lusinghiero |
(Italian) flattering, alluring, to play in
an intimate manner |
| Lustig |
(German) cheerful |
| Lustigkeit |
(German) cheerfulness |
| Lustspiel |
(German) comedy |
| Luta |
(Swedish) lute |
| Lute, Luth (Fr.) |
a plucked stringed instrument with a
pear-shaped body and fretted fingerboard, an
ancient instrument of middle-eastern origin,
which became popular in Europe from the Middle
Ages
more... |
| Luthier |
a maker of stringed instruments |
| Lutto |
(Italian) mourning |
| Luttosamente |
(Italian) mournfully |
| Luttoso |
(Italian) mournful |
| Luttuoso |
(Italian) mournful |
| LWV |
Lully-Werke-Verzeichnis catalogue of
the works of Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) by
Schnieder |
| Lydian mode |
see
modes |
| Lyra, Lyre |
a Greek harp with two projecting arms
supporting a crossbar, from which strings are
stretched to a soundbox; in ancient Greece, the
lyre and related kithara were plucked with a
plectrum
more... |
| Lyric |
the words to a popular song; when used to
describe a voice, lyric implies some lightness
in the sound |
| Lyricism |
an intense personal quality, expressive of
feeling or emotion, expressed in poetry or music |
| Lyricist |
the person who writes the words to a popular
song or musical play |
| Lyric song |
song form from ancient Greece, sometimes
performed in combination with dance
| form |
occasion |
| dithyramb |
choral song at the Dionysia
festival, with the chorus dressed like
animals (goats) from which tragedy
(Greek for 'song of goats') developed |
| enkomion |
praise for some person |
| epinikion |
song for victory athletic or
military |
| erotikon |
love songs |
| hymenaios |
wedding songs |
| hymn |
praise for a god |
| hyporcheme |
song and dance during sacrifice
around an altar |
| paean |
praise song |
| partheneion |
songs by chorus of maidens |
| prosodion |
liturgic, thanksgiving |
| skolion |
banquet song |
| threnos |
funeral song |
|
| Lyric soprano |
a female singer with a slightly higher range
than a dramatic soprano |
| Lyric tenor |
a male singer with a slightly higher range
than a dramatic tenor |
| Lyrique (Ger.), Lyrisch (Ger.) |
lyrical |
| Lysard, Lysarden |
see 'lizard' |
