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On Line Music Dictionary - Letter S
 
A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H -

Our heartfelt  thanks to Dr. Brian Blood at Dolmetsch Online
for allowing us to reproduce his musical dictionary.

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

 
S after Wolfgang Schmieder, the cataloguer of music by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750); see also 'BWV'; after Siebel the cataloguer of music by Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729); after Humphrey Searle the cataloguer of music by Franz Liszt (1811-1886); after Smith the cataloguer of music by Leopold Sylvius Weiss (1686-1750); after Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) whose music was catalogued by Bittinger (sometimes designated 'SWV'); after Padre Samuel Rubio the cataloguer of music by Padre Antonio Soler (1729-1783) (sometimes designated by 'SR')
Saarangi see sarangi
Sabar a Wolof orchestra of five to seven drums carved from solid mahogany. Each drummer plays one drum with one hand and a stick. It is composed of solo drums called n'der and gorong yeguel, three accompanying drums known as gorong talmbat, m'bung m'bung bal and m'bung m'bung tungoné. The bass drum is the lambe (Senegal)
Sabaro a large Mandinka drum carved from mango or mahogany wood. It is played with one hand a short stick. The head is covered with shaved goat skin (West Africa)
Sacbut, Sackbut, Sagbut early form of trombone
more...
Saccadé (French) sharply accented
Sac de gemecs Catalan bagpipe (Spain)
Sackpfeife (German) bagpipe
Sack pipa Swedish bagpipe with a single reed chanter and a single drone
Sacred music music designed to be played in church inspired by or as part of services including religious texts
Sacre rappresentazioni (Italian) an precursor of the opera form, in particular, a sacred drama with music
Saeta an unaccompanied Spanish folk song
Saenap see taepyongso
Saf after Milos Safrenek the cataloguer of music by Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959)
Saibara (Japanese) folk songs sung in Chinese, part of gagaku
Sainete (Sp.), Saynète (Fr.) Spanish musical farce
Saite (German, literally 'string') the string of a musical instrument
Sakara a Yoruba (Nigeria) musical style played at namings, weddings and funerals; a Yoruba round ceramic drum from Nigeria covered with goatskin, played with a stick
Salegy dance of the Sakalave people of Madagascar
Sälgflöjt (Swedish, literally 'willow flute') pipe made from the willow tree
Saliamiya three-holed flute from Egypt
S'a llarga, S'a curta the two most typical dances from the island of Ibiza, Spain. One stands for long and the other for short, depending on the beat. The woman dances slowly, barely moving while the man dances vigorously trying to prove his manhood and strength. A drummer, flute player and castanets accompany the dancers
Salmo (Italian) psalm
Salphinx, Salpinx (Greek) ancient Greek trumpet made of bronze and probably used for martial events
Salsa (Spanish, literally 'sauce') derived from Cuban son, the music is not always fast-paced and vibrant; it can be slow and romantic. The salsa has been influenced also by the Puerto Rican plenas, the Dominican merengue and the Colombian cumbia
more...
Salsa dura (Spanish, literally 'hard salsa') a term that defines salsa as it developed in New York, with genres and rhythms drawn from Cuba and other islands in the Caribbean melding with the tempo, drive and improvisational techniques picked up by the immigrants in New York City
Saltando, Saltato (Italian) playing with a bouncing bow, spiccato
Saltarella, Saltarello, Salterello a quick Italian dance not unlike the galliard or tarantella with simple triple and compound duple rhythms, whose name comes from jump, although only expert dancers hop
Saltones traditional Asturian dance tunes (Spain)
Salve regina (Latin, literally 'hail Queen') one of the four Marian Antiphons sung between Trinity Sunday and Advent
more...
Samba a dance and type of music from Brazil of African slave origin. The dance, in double time and highly syncopated, is very difficult as performed by Brazilians in comparison to formal ballroom-dancing which is highly stylized. Men and women dance samba differently and together yet without touching
more...
Samba de coco a fusion between the Fulnio Indian culture of Brazil and African musical roots
Samba reggae this style grew out of the blocos afros (Black carnival associations) in Bahia
Samba school a social, cultural, and club group that meets regularly and frequently with the purpose of learning and performing Brazilian samba dance, music, and costumes
Sambista a person that performs samba, more commonly a female dancer
Sambuca angular harp used by the Greeks and Romans
Samisen a Japanese 3-stringed instrument played with a plectrum
Sammlung (German) collection
Sampeh, Sampet see sape
Sampho small Cambodian barrel drum
Sampler a device used in electronic music enables the production of sounds digitally
Samsien see shamisen
Sämtlich (German) complete, collected
San (Japanese) florid and very complicated Buddhist chant style performed in Sanskrit, Chinese, or Japanese
Sanctus (Latin, literally 'holy') the oldest item of the Ordinary of the Mass, the eighth item, following the Offertory and preceding the Agnus Dei
Sandpaper blocks wooden blocks with sandpaper attached, two blocks being rubbed together to create a coarse, brushing sound
Sanduri (Greek) zither
Sanfona Portuguese hurdy-gurdy
Sanft, Sanftmütig (German) soft, gentle, gently
Sangleik Scandinavian song games
Sanghwang (Korean) a combination of baktong (a type of gourd) and bamboo pipes, this woodwind instrument sounds when the player inhales and when he or she exhales, like a mouth-organ, and is capable of producing more than one note at a time
more...
Sanko a Japanese hourglass shaped drum
Sanpi Chinese word for flute
Sans (French) without
Sansa, Sanza see 'thumb piano'
Sanshin see shamisen
Santoor, Santour, Santouri, Santur a hammered dulcimer struck with light wooden mallets, indigenous to Kashmir, but nowadays played throughout Northern India. The number of strings may vary between 24 and more than a 100, although typical instrument have about 80. The Indian santur should not be confused with the Persian santur, the latter being much wider
Sanxian Chinese long-necked lute with 3 strings and a small snake-covered head, known as shamisen in Japan
Sanza see mbira
Sáo ba nguoi a flute that allows two players to perform it at once; a novelty instrument invented by Khac Chi that combines three flutes into one instrument that allows three players to perform on it at once
Sáo tre Vietnamese transverse bamboo flute
Sáo trúc Vietnamese bamboo flute
Sape, Sapeh also called sampet or sampeh; a traditional lute of the Orang Ulu or "up-river people", who live in the longhouses that line the rivers of Central Borneo. with a body carved from a single bole of wood originally strung with two strings and fitted with three frets
more...
Sarabande, Saraband a dignified, steady dance usually in triple time
Sarangi a common representative of vitat, it has three to four main playing strings and a number of sympathetic strings. The instrument has no frets or fingerboard; the strings float in the air. Pitch is determined by sliding the fingernail against the string rather than pressing it against a fingerboard and for this reason the instrument is extremely difficult to play. As a consequence, its popularity is on the decline. The sarangi has traditionally been associated with the kathak dance and the vocal styles of thumri, dadra and kheyal
Saraswathi veena, Saraswati vina associated with Saraswati, the goddess of learning and the arts, this instrument is common in south India and is an important instrument in carnatic sangeet. It is variously called simply vina, or veena, the 'Saraswati' part being implied. The instrument has a body made of wood, generally jackwood, the instruments of highest quality having the entire body carved from a single block of wood while the ordinary vinas have a body which is carved in three sections (resonator, neck and head). There are 24 frets made of brass bars set into wax. There is a second resonator at the top of the neck that is no longer a functioning resonator, but is used mainly as a stand to facilitate the positioning of the instrument when it is played. Because it is no longer functioning, it is not unusual to find that this upper resonator may be made of acoustically neutral materials such as paper mache, cane or other similar materials. The saraswati vina has no sympathetic strings, only four playing strings and three drone strings (thalam). The main bridge is a flat, lightly curved bar made of brass. It is the light curve which gives the vina its characteristic sound
Sardana the Catalonian national dance similar to a farandole
Saringda a folk version of the sarangi (q.v.)
Sarod an instrument which is derived from the rabab. It is not particularly ancient, probably no more than 150 to 200 years old. Essentially it is a bass rabab with a fretless metal fingerboard, a bridge that rests on a taut membrane covering the resonator and numerous strings, some of which are drones, some are played, and some are sympathetic. It is played with a pick made of coconut shell
Saron (Javanese) a glockenspiel with bronze bars struck with a wooden mallet. There are three kinds: saron barung, saron peking and saron demung
Sarrusophone a family of double-reed instruments, similar to a bassoon or oboe but made of brass, invented in 1856, named after its French inventor, the Parisian bandmaster Pierre Auguste Sarrus (1813-1876)
more...
Sartenes frying pans in Spanish. Used as a percussion instrument in Spain and Spanish America. In parts of Spain, a single pan, sartén, is played with a cuchara (spoon) and a dedal (thimble)
Sarune shawm from Sumatra (Indonesia)
Sarune bolon shawm with detachable bell from Sumatra (Indonesia)
Sarune etek small shawm from Sumatra (Indonesia)
Sassofone (Italian) saxophone
Satara South Asian double flutes, one drone, one melodic
S.A.T.B. short for 'soprano, alto, tenor, bass'
Sattar a long-necked bowed instrument, with one metal playing string and 10 sympathetic strings, used by the Uigurs, a Turkman people from Western China
Satz (German) movement, theme or subject, phrase, composition or piece, texture, style
Saudades (Portuguese) sadness associated with a longing for times past
Saung Burmese harp
Saung gauk (Burmese) wooden harp with silk strings, elaborately gilded with the sound-body covered with deer skin
Sausage bassoon racket
Sautillé (French) spiccato, the bouncing of the bow on a stringed instrument
Savart a logarithmic measurement system of musical intervals invented by Felix Savart (1791-1841) in which an octave comprises 301.03 savarts
Saxhorn a family of brass instruments invented by Antoine Joseph (Adolph) Sax (1814-1894) similar to the flügelhorn family and to the Italian flicorni
more...
Saxofonia (It.), Saxofono (It.), Saxofon (Ger.), Saxophone a family of wind-instruments with a single reed like a clarinet but with a body made of metal, invented in about 1840 by Antoine Joseph (Adolph) Sax (1814-1894)
more...
Saz family of long thin-necked metallic-sounding fretted lutes played throughout Turkey that includes baglama (middle sized saz with six strings grouped in pairs), cura (small three stringed saz) and divan & meydan both having 9 strings; Armenian lute, with three strings, a small oval sounding box and an unusually long neck
Sbalzo, Sbaltzato (Italian) play with a sense of impetuosity
Scacciapensieri (Italian) Jew's harp
Scale a sequence of notes monotonically rising or falling between two notes an octave apart where neighbouring degrees of the scale have prescribed intervals between them, for example, the interval-sequence 'tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone' describes a rising major scale
Scale degree scale degree refers to the location of a pitch within the ordering of pitches that produce a scale. For example, the first pitch of a scale is scale degree 1. Scale degree also has a functional meaning in the syntax of tonal music. Scale degrees can influence the harmonic unfolding of sections of music, and the progression of scale degrees through unify a complete work
Scaling the relationship between the length and thickness of a vibrating string and the tone it produces, for example, with a constant tension and thickness, half the length of a given string will sound an octave higher than the entire length of the string
Scampanata (Italian) unsophisticated extemporised music, charivari
Scandicus see 'neume notation'
Scandicus flexus see 'neume notation'
Scat song scat singing can be highly artistic, with nonsense words generally used only in the improvised chorus as part of a song that otherwise has ordinary words, which although much in vogue in the 1930's remains popular today as part of the jazz style
[entry courtesy of Ben Crowell, 2004]
Scemando (Italian) diminishing the volume of tone
Scena an episode in an opera composed of elements such as arias, recitative, even dialogue
Scenario the outline of a work often prepared before either music and libretto has been written
Schale, Schalen or Schallbecken (German) cymbal, cymbals
Schalkhaft (German) roguish
Schalmei (German) the medieval shawm
more...
Scharf (German) emphatically, definitely, precisely, sharply
Schärfe (German) sharpness, definiteness, precision
Schaurig, Schauerig, Schauerlich (German) ghastly, gruesome
Schelle, Schellen (German) bell, bells
Schellengeläute (German) sleigh-bells
Schellentrommel (German) tambourine
Schelmisch (German) roguish
Scherz (German) fun, joke
Scherzando, Scherzante, Scherzevole, Scherzevolmente (Italian) jokingly, playfully
Scherzare (Italian) to joke
Scherzetto, Scherzino (Italian) a little scherzo
Scherzo (Italian) a joke; a vocal work by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643); a piece played between two performances of a minuet - i.e. 'minuet - scherzo - minuet', a movement of a symphony, a work for solo piano
more...
Scherzo and trio a replacement for the 'minuet and trio' in the sonata cycle
Scherzoso, Scherzosamente (Italian) playful, playfully
Schietto (Italian) sincere, plain - in the sense 'unadorned'
Schisma the difference between five octaves and eight justly tuned fifths plus one justly tuned major third. It is expressed by the ratio 32805:32768, and is equal to 1.95 cents. It is also the difference between the Pythagorean and syntonic commas
Schlacht (German) battle
Schlag (German) stroke, blow
Schlägel (German) drumstick
Schlagen (German) to strike
Schlaginstrumente, Schlagzeug (German) percussion instrument
Schlangenrohr (German) serpent
Schleifer an ornament used to fill in the interval between two notes
Schleppen, Schleppend (German) drag, dragging
Schlummerlied (German) slumber song
Schluss (German) end, conclusion
Schlussel (German) clef
Schmachtend (German) languishing
Schmeichelnd (German) coaxingly
Schmelzend (German) dying away
Schmerz (German) pain, sorrow
Schmerzlich, Schmerzhaft, Schmerzvoll (German) painful, sorrowful
Schmetternd (German, literally 'blaring') a strongly blown stopped horn
Schmid after Hans Schmid the cataloguer of music by Frantisek Rossler-Rosetti (1746-1792)
Schnabelflöte (German) recorder
Schnarre (German) snare drum
Schneidend (German) defining
Schnell, Schneller (German) quick, quicker
Schnelligkeit (German) speed
Schofar, Shofar, Shophar synagogue horn
Schoor thom large Cambodian bass drums
Schottische, Schottisch (German) Scottish
Schreierpfeife see rauschpfeife
Schrittmässig, Schrittweise (German, literally 'stepwise') andante
Schüchtern (German) shy
Schütteln (German) to shake
Schwach, Schwächen, Schwächer (German) 'weak' or 'soft', 'to weaken' or 'to soften', 'weaken' or 'soften'
Schwankend (German) swaying
Schwebung (German) the beating between two notes slightly out of tune with one another, difference tone
Schweigen, Schweigt, Schweigezeichen (German) silence, tacet, rest
Schwellen, Schweller, Schwellkasten, Schwellwerk (German) crescendo, swell of an organ, the swell box, the swell organ
Schwer (German) heavy, difficult
Schwermütig, Schwermutsvoll (German) heavy-hearted
Schwinden (German) diminuendo
Schwung (German) swing
Schwungvoll (German) full of vigour
Scientific pitch notation see scientific pitch notation
Scintillante (Italian) sparkling
Sciolto, Scioltamente (Italian) freely, loosely
Scivolando (Italian) glissando
Scoop to slide up to pitch from slightly below it, a term normally applied to singers
Scordato, Scordatura (Italian) to tune a stringed instrument in a non-standard manner
Score a representation on the page of a whole musical work; if the orchestral part is reduced to a piano version, the score is said to be a short score
Scoring orchestration
Scorrendo, Scorrevole (Italian) glissando, in a flowing manner
Scorriu an instrument that was developed by Sardinian bandits to scare the horses of their victims or the police. It is made out of a cork cylinder with a dog skin membrane. When rubbed, the instrument produces a loud screeching sound that scares horses
Scotch snap a rhythmic figure consisting of a short note on the beat followed by a long note which is then held until the next beat
Scottish smallpipes a bellows blown bagpipe from the Scottish lowlands, related to the Northumbrian smallpipes
Scozzese (Italian) Scottish
Scraper a percussion instrument consisting of a rough serrated surface in any various shapes that is scraped by a hard object
Scroll ornmental carving normally found on the violin and related stringed instruments, at the end of the neck just above the pegbox
Scucito (Italian) disconnected
Sdegno, Sdegnante, Sdegnoso, Sdegnosamente (Italian) disdain, disdaining, disdainful, disdainfully
Sdrucciolando (Italian) glissando
Se (Italian) if, in case, as; in solfeggio, se is the lowered fifth degree of a diatonic scale; in 'fixed do' solfeggio, se is always the note 'G flat'; (Chinese) a Chinese zither
Sebi Egyptian end-blown reed flute
Sec, Sèche (French) dry, crisp; similar to staccato; to play in a plain unornamented way
Sécheresse (French) dryness
Secco (Italian) staccato
Secco recitative synonymous with recitativo semplice, recitatives, mainly during the seventeenth- and eighteenth-centuries, accompanied by continuo instrument(s) rather than by an entire orchestra
Sechs (German) six
Sechzehntel, Sechzehntelnote
(German) a semiquaver (sixteenth note) a note one sixteenth the time value of a whole note or semibreve
Sechzehntelpause
(German) a semiquaver rest (sixteenth rest), a rest one sixteenth the time value of a whole note rest or semibreve rest
Second the smallest non-unison interval
Secondando (Italian) colla voce
Seconda prattica an Italian seventeenth-century term used to distinguish Renaissance polyphonic style, prima prattica, from that of the Baroque, seconda prattica
Secondary dominant the dominant of the dominant
Seconda volta (Italian) second ending
Second ending see 'first ending'
Secondo, Seconda, Secondi, Seconde (Italian) second
Second Viennese school name given to the composer Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils Alban Berg and Anton Webern, that represents the first efforts in twelve-tone composition
Secular music compositions that have no connection with religion
Secundal chords chords built of seconds
Selák Furiant
Seele (German) feeling
Seele, Seelenvoll (German) sound-post (of a stringed instrument)
Segno
(Italian) sign; for example, [D.C.] dal segno as in [repeat] from the sign
Segue (Italian, literally 'it follows') now follows, go on with what follows
Seguente, Seguendo (Italian) following
Seguidilla old Spanish dance in simple triple time which features vocal passages from the performers, similar to the bolero
Segundo the middle (or second) drum in the set of three tumbadoras used in Cuban drumming
Sehnsucht (German) longing
Sehr (German) very, much
Sei (Italian) six
Seistron a metallic rattle. the most simple version consisting of little metal bars tied on to two wooden arms. Probably originating from Egypt where it was used for religious ceremonies for the goddess Isis. It was held in the right hand and shaken, from which it derived its name
Seite (German) side
Seizième de soupir
(French) a hemidemisemiquaver rest (sixty-fourth rest), a rest one sixty-fourth the time value of a whole note rest or semibreve rest
Sekere see shekere
Seke-seke metal rattle or ears that are used on a jembe (West Africa). Also known as ksink-ksink
Selingup, Selingut also called keringuta five-holed nose flute of the Kayan people of the interior of Sarawak
more...
Seljefløyte Swedish and Norwegian willow flute. Originally, it was called birch flute. It exists in two forms: an end-blown flute, often called a whistling flute, and a side-blown flute
Selnien vertical cymbals used by Tibetan monks in Buddhist rites
Selnyen see selnien
Sema the Whirling Dervish rite
Semai dance of the Alevis, also know as screaming dervishes
Semibiscroma
(Italian) a hemidemisemiquaver rest (sixty-fourth rest), a rest one sixty-fourth the time value of a whole note rest or semibreve rest
Semibreve
a whole note
Semibreve rest
a whole rest
Semibrevis
(Latin, literally 'half-short') semibreve; in early mensural music a note that is half or third the value of a breve
Semicroma
(Italian) a semiquaver (sixteenth note), a note one sixteenth the time value of a whole note or semibreve
Semidemisemiquaver
a hemidemisemiquaver (sixty-fourth note), a note one sixty-fourth the time value of a whole note or semibreve
Semifusa
(Latin) in mensural notation, semiquaver or sixteenth note
Semihemidemisemiquaver a one hundred and twenty-eighth note or a note having the time duration of one hundred twenty-eighth of the time duration of a semibreve (whole note)
Semiminima
(Italian) a crotchet (quarter note), a note one quarter the time value of a whole note or semibreve
Semiquaver
a sixteenth note, a note one sixteenth the time value of a whole note or semibreve
Semiquaver rest
a sixteenth rest, a rest one sixteenth the time value of a whole note rest or semibreve rest
Semitone half the interval of a tone
Semplice, Semplicità (Italian) simple, simplicity
Semplicemente, Semplicissimo (Italian) simply, extremely simple
Sempre (Italian) always
Senh tien a small hand held percussion instrument made from two pieces of flat wood. The upper piece is grooved to produce a rasping sound when rubbed by a small stick, and the lower piece is struck against the upper as in a clapper. Small bells and jingles are attached. The playing technique is complex, alternating rapidly between rasping, clasping, and jingling sounds
Seni rabab very popular during the moghal period, the main characteristic that distingished this from other rababs was the large hook on the back of the head of the instrument used to sling it over the shoulder, thus allowing it to played while marching in processions. The seni rabab is virtually extinct today and should not be confused with the kabuli rabab which is still common. The name seni rabab is a reference to Tansen, a great musician in the court of Akbar. This instrument was held in great esteem in the past. The first Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Nanak, is said to have had a tremendous love for the instrument. It is said that he was accompanied by his friend and musical accompanist Mirdana while he sang the Gurbani
Senj Iranian metal castanets
Sensibile, Sensibilità (Italian) sensitive, sensitiveness, for example, nota sensibile, (Italian) leading note
Sentence a complete, independent musical idea, usually consisting of two or four phrases, ending with a cadence
Sentimento (Italian) with feeling
Sentir a Moroccan three-stringed long-necked lute with a body made from a single piece of wood, and covered with camel skin. Also known as sintir, hejhuj, gogo, gnbri and guimbri
Sentito (Italian) felt
Senufo a large buzzing Malian xylophone
Senza (Italian) without
Senza sordino, Senza sordina, Senza sordini (Italian) unmuted, on the piano using the sustaining pedal
Separé (French) uncoupled
Sepik flutes the longest flutes in the world, from Kanengara (Papua New Guinea)
Sepolcro Italian performance similar to the oratorio, except that the sepolcro makes use of scenery, costumes, and acting, a sacred, dramatic work performed during Holy Week which was popular in the late seventeenth-century
Sept (French) seven
Septet (Eng.), Septette or Septuor (Fr.), Settimino or Septetto (It.), Septett (Ger.) a group of seven instrumentalists, a work written for a group such as this to perform
Septième (French) seventh
Septulet a group of seven notes played in the time of four or in the time of six
Sequence a syllabic genre which follows the alleluia in the mass; most sequences were banned by the Council of Trent (1543-1563) and only five survive in modern-day use; a sequence can also be a melodic pattern that is repeated at successively higher, or lower, pitches; there are two types of sequence:
real sequence: where the repeated phrase is unaltered as it's pitch is changed
tonal sequence: where the notes in the repeated phrase are modified to keep it in it's original key
Sequencer a device or program that records and plays back user-determined sets of music performance commands, usually in the form of MIDI data. Most sequencers also allow the data to be edited in various ways, and stored on disk
[from the Electronic Music Dictionary]
Sequentia a Medieval term referring to a melody without text, such as the melismatic alleluia, used in opposition to the term prosa, signifying a melody with a text
Serenade music properly played or sung in the evening under a lady's window; a light and/or intimate piece of no specific form to be played in an open-air evening setting; in German the equivalent word is Nachtmusik
Serenata a dramatic cantata, a work for wind-band
Serenatella (Italian) diminutive of serenata
Sereno, Serenità (Italian) serene, serenity
Serialism A compositional method where various musical elements such as pitch, rhythm, dynamics and tone colour may be put in a fixed order
Serialized rhythm a musical passage or work in which the rhythmic aspects are controlled by some predetermined series of durations
Serial music see twelve tone method - dodecaphony
Seriamente (Italian) seriously
Series a succession of musical elements to be used as fundamental material in a composition
Sérieux, Sérieuse (French) serious
Serio, Seria, Serioso, Seriosa (Italian) serious
Seriosamente (Italian) seriously
Serpent a large member of the cornetto family, S-shaped, usually made of wood and sometimes fitted with keys; it was superceded by the ophicleide
more...
Serraggia an ancient one-string bowed instrument from Sardinia (Italy), used during carnival. It is made of a cane with one brass string. The instrument is played with a bow made from horse hair
Serranas a flamenco style with the same beat structure as the siguiriyas, although less intense, its themes revolving around the concerns of mountain bandits
Serrando or Serrato (It.), Serrant or Serré (Fr.) getting faster
Serunai used throughout Islamic-influenced countries in eastern Europe, northern Africa and much of central Asia, an ancient double reed instrument with a long, conical wooden body and a flared bell
more...
Service a Christian liturgical gathering, containing fixed prayers, songs, and responses; an Anglican Church term that denotes music for the unchanging morning and evening prayers and for communion
S'escandalari a colorful peasant dance from Ibiza, Spain that celebrates planting and harvesting
Sesquialtra the ratio 3:2, which was often used in Medieval music theory
Set in music, a collection of twelve notes that cover each of the tones of the twelve-tone scale; a collection of pieces played sequentially during a performance
Sette (Italian) seven
Seufzend (German) sighing
Seul, Seule, Seuls, Seules (French) alone
Seventh a major seventh is a semitone smaller than an octave; a minor seventh is a whole tone smaller than an octave
Seventh chord a chord consisting of a root note, the third above the root, the fifth above the root and the seventh above the root
Severita (Italian) severity, strictness
Severo, Severamente (Italian) severe, severely
Sevillanas a very popular colorful and festive Spanish folk dance from Seville, derived from the seguidilla and the fandango, consisting of six or seven couplets (coplas). Each copla is a little dance in itself divided into three parts and consisting of twelve bars (measures) of music. Couples dance it at fairs and pilgrimages. In recent years, sevillanas have become popular across Spain. Women usually wear a colorful Gypsy dress while men wear short black jackets or vests
Sext the fifth service of the Divine Office, usually performed at noon, and consisting of several responsories and psalms which are sung
Sextet (Eng.), Sextette or Sextuor (Fr.), Sestetto (It.), Sextett (Ger.) a group of six instrumentalists, a piece of music written for such a group to play
Sextolet see 'sextuplet'
Sextuple meter, Sextuple time a compound meter with six beats to every bar
Sextuplet a group of six notes of equal value that have the equivalent time value normally of five or seven
Sextus the sixth part in Renaissance vocal polyphony
sf. abbreviation for sforzando
Sfogato (Italian, literally 'evaporated') light and easy style
Sfoggiando (Italian) flauntingly, ostentatiously
Sforzando, Sforzato, Sf. (abbrev.) (Italian) strongly accented
Sgambato (Italian) in a weary style
Sha'bi indigenous Egyptian music
Shahnai north Indian shawm
Shake a word meaning 'trill'; the rapid back-and-forth movement of a percussion instrument to produce a rattling sound
Shaker a percussion instrument consisting of a receptacle filled with a rattling substance such as seeds, beans or pebbles
Shakuhachi (Japanese, a reference to the instrument's length in ancient Japanese units) traditional Japanese end-blown flute, about 55 cm. long, made from bamboo, or more recently from wood
Shamisen a long necked Japanese 3-string fretless lute, plucked with a heavy ivory plectrum, that first became popular in the pleasure districts during the Edo Period (1600-1868) when it appeared as part of the musical accompaniment in kabuki and bunraku performances. Shamisen are made from one of a variety of woods such as red sandalwood and the head covered with cat or dog skin. The pegs are traditionally made of ivory while the strings are of twisted silk
Shamisenongaku music played on the shamisen particularly kabuki and bunraku
Shan osi Burmese long drum
Shanty (or Chanty) a sea-song which has a chorus, which is sung by all, and verses that are usually sung by only one voice
Shanz Mongolian three stringed banjo played with a plectrum
Shape the direction of a melody; the abstract quality of the motion and figure of a composition, achieved through dynamics, pitch direction and tempo
Shape notes see shape note notation
Sharp
a sign to show that a note should be raised one semitone in pitch
Sharp a term applied to a note slightly above its expected pitch
Shawm a family of double-reed instruments from the Renaissance
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Shekere calabash shaker embroidered with beads that produce the shaker's sound (Nigeria). Known as chékere in Cuba
Shenai South Asian Indian shawm
Sheng ancient Chinese mouth organ, consisting of a bundle of between 17 to 36 pipes seated on a small wind chamber. A free brass reed is placed in the root of the instrument. It is the predecessor of other free reed instruments such as the accordion
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Shevi Armenian flute
Shift the movement of the left hand from one position to another on the fingerboard when playing a stringed instrument
Shiko see ashiko
Shime-daiko small rope tuned Japanese drum
Shinobue Japanese bamboo transverse flute
Shi qin a stone zither or xylophone of Southern China
Shishi mai traditional Lion dance from Japan with Chinese roots, in which cape hides the dancer
Shishi odori Japanese deer dance, in which the dancer wears a deer mask and usually plays a drum hung from the waist while dancing
Sho a Japanese instrument rather like a harmonica, similar to the Chinese sheng
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Shofar an ancient, Biblical wind instrument made of a ram's horn
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Short octave on a keyboard instrument of limited range, the bottom three to five keys can be tuned only to notes in the bottom register likely to be used rather than in their usual chromatic sequence, so nonessential notes are omitted
Shomyo (Japanese) Buddhist music brought to Japan when the first Chinese teachers of Buddhist music arrived in 719 and 735
Shuang guan a small Chinese double-reed wind instrument
Shudraga Mongolian three stringed banjo played with a plectrum
Shuffle a slow-tempo jazz rhythm
Shurle Istrian reed instrument with two chanters (Croatia)
Shuye Chinese leaf reed
Shvi an end-blown flute-like instrument, played solo or in ensembles by shepherds in Armenia
Sibilant a term from linguistics, the producing a hissing sound like that of (s) or (sh), the sibilant consonants or a sibilant bird call. In English the sibilant speech sounds are s, sh, z or zh
Sich (German) oneself, himself, herself, itself, themselves
Siciliana (It.), Siciliano (It.), Sicilienne (Fr.) a dance of Sicilian origin in compound duple or quadruple time with a swaying rhythm
Side drum a small drum, also known as a snare drum, with a membrane or skin on either end, the lower surface in contact with a set of strings called snares which produce a rattling effect when engaged
Sieben (German) seven
Sieg (German) victory
Siesenki Polish bagpipe
Sifflöte (German) a high-pitched (2 ft., 1 ft.) organ stop
Sigaoma a more modern Malagasy salegy dance with South African pop influence
Sigh see 'springer'
Sight reading (instrumental), Sight singing (vocal) to perform a piece of music never seen before
Signature signs placed on the clef to mark the number and position of the sharps or flats in the key in which the piece is being written, i.e. key signature, and to indicate the number of beats in a bar, i.e. time signature
Signs symbols placed on or near a staff indicating performance specifications for pitch, dynamics, time duration, accidentals, phrasing, manner of attack, timing, tempo, repeats, fingering, ornamentation, use of pedals or mutes, etc.
Siguiriyas a flamenco song style derived from tonás, full of drama and with a large number of variations. They consist in a powerful wordless introduction followed by a four verse stanza
Sihu four-stringed type of Mongolian khuuchir
Sikadraha a Malagasy scraper. A long piece of bamboo with transverse ridges cut into it that is played by scraping with a stick
Siku Andean double-row panpipes typically made of cane or clay
Sil a large Tibetan cymbal
Silenzio (Italian) silence
Silverbasharpa ancestor to Swedish nyckelharpa
Similar motion when parts move in the same direction but not necessarily by the same interval
Simile, Simili (Italian) similar
Simple interval an interval of an octave or less; an interval greater than an octave is called a compound interval
Simple meter, Simple time see simple and compound time
Simplement (French) simply, in a simple manner
Simplex a term from Medieval theory which covers a variety of specific meanings, but always implying something simple as opposed to something more complex; simplices conductus implies a monophonic composition; simplex organum implies simple as opposed to composite organum; simplex breve implies that the breve should be of a regular, unlengthened duration, and so on
Sin' al fine a prefix to another instruction, implying that whatever is required should be carried out to the end of the work
Sinding a West African harp with five strings made out of hemp. The resonating body is a calabash stretched with goat skin. A tin rattle may be attached to the instrument. Plucking the string sets the rattle in motion, adding a percussive element to the hollow sound
Sine wave a signal put out by an oscillator in which the voltage or equivalent rises and fall smoothly and symmetrically, following the trigonometric formula for the sine function (i.e. shown mathematically by the equation y = sin x). Sub-audio sine waves are used to modulate other waveforms to produce vibrato and tremolo. Audio-range sine waves contain only the fundamental frequency, with no overtones, and thus can form the building blocks for more complex sounds
[from the Electronic Music Dictionary]
Sinfonia term applied in a variety of contexts in different periods; e.g., as a near synonym for 'instrumental canzona', 'prelude', 'overture', and 'symphony'
Sinfonia concertante a concerto with several soloists, for example, a double or triple concerto
Sinfonie the name given by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) to his three-part contrapuntal works for keyboard but which, today, are called three-part inventions
Sinfonico, Sinfonica (Italian) symphonic
Sinfonietta (Italian) a small-scale symphony
Singbar (German) singable, in a singing style
Singend (German) singing
Singende Säge (German) musical saw
Singhiozzando (Italian) sobbingly
Single reed a piece of cane bound to a mouthpiece by a ligature, that when the player's breath is blown between the reed and the mouthpiece, vibrates thus sounding the instrument; single reed instruments include clarinets and saxophones
Singsing pop music from the Solomon Islands
Singspiel (German) a comic opera including spoken dialogue, often in the local dialect, as an alternative to recitative, for example, Die Zauberflote by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
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Sinistra (Italian) left hand
Sino, Sin' (Italian) until
Sintir see sentir
Sirillas Chilean dance from the Quellón region that combines Spanish music and dance forms with aboriginal Chilean music and dance
Sistro an instrument invented in seventeenth-century Italy consisting of a series of small bells attached to a frame
Sistrum an ancient Egyptian rattle type instrument used in religious events and which survives today as an Ethiopian instrument
Sita harana a dance from the Indian state of Manipur that depicts stories from the Ramayana
Sitar perhaps the most well known of Indian instruments, the sitar is a long necked instrument with a varying number of strings (17 is the most usual), three to four playing strings, three to four drone strings, with the remainder, sympathetic strings, lying under the frets. The playing and drone strings are plucked with a wire finger plectrum called the mizrab. The frets are metal rods which have been bent into crescents while the main resonator is usually made of a gourd and there is sometimes an additional resonator attached to the neck. The sitar developed during the collapse of the Moghul empire (circa 1700). It reflected the culture of the times in that it showed both Indian and Persian characteristics.
Siter a floor-standing plucked zither, smaller than the cemplung, each tuning, slendro and pelog, needing its own siter
Sitolotolo South African Jew's harp
Sitz-probe (German, literally 'sitting try') an opera rehearsal in which the singers work seated, to an orchestral accompaniment
Sivigliano, Sivigliana (Italian) in the style of Seville
Six, Sixième (French) six, sixth
Six-four chord the chord which is, reading up from the bottom note, C E G (i.e. in root position), becomes G C E (i.e. second inversion) or its equivalent in any other key
Sixian moon-shaped Chinese mandolin with a short-necked and three or four strings
Sixteenth century dance also called 'late Renaissance dance'; the sources for this period are English texts, formerly known as the ‘Inns of Court manuscripts’, and manuals of a number of Italian dancing masters. The Italian dances are still described verbally but in considerably greater detail than was usual in the early Renaissance. The step-vocabulary has become more elaborate, placing the interest strongly on the footwork, while many floor-patterns are based on symmetrical figures
[taken from The Early Dance Circle]
Sixteenth note
a semiquaver, a note one sixteenth the time value of a whole note or semibreve
Sixteenth rest
a semiquaver rest, a rest one sixteenth the time value of a whole note rest or semibreve rest
Sixth for example, the interval from C to A
Six, The a group of French composers whose members were Louis Durey (1888-1979), Arthur Honegger (1892-1955), Darius Milhaud (1892-1974), Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983), Georges Auric (1899-1983) and Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Six-three chord the chord which is, reading up from the bottom note, C E G (i.e. in root position), becomes E G C (i.e. first inversion) or its equivalent in any other key
Six-to-octave cadence in the middle ages and the renaissance, cadences were thought of contrapuntally rather than harmonically, so that a dominant-to-tonic chord sequence would be expressed in terms of two voices moving together so that the interval between them changes from a sixth to an octave; a commonly used cadential gesture, often enhanced by rhythmic and melodic ornamentation
Sixty-fourth note
a hemidemisemiquaver, a note one sixty-fourth the time value of a whole note or semibreve
Sixty-fourth rest
a hemidemisemiquaver rest, a rest one sixty-fourth the time value of a whole note rest or semibreve rest
Siyari calabash rattle of Ghana
Si yo tan ka Lakota (Native American) word for the flute or whistle
Skameja (Swedish) shawm
Skank to dance to reggae music
Skarki a Kosovar six-stringed instrument from the saz family
Skip any interval larger than a whole tone
Skizze, Skizzen (German) sketch, sketches
Skor thomm large Cambodian barrel drums
Skratji Surinamese big drum with a cymbal on top
Slaman Ghanaian drums
Slancio (Italian) impetuosity
Slapstick a percussion instrument formed of two flat pieces of wood, hinged at one end, which, when snapped together produce a slapping sound, like a whip
Slap tonguing a technique for playing a single-reed instrument that involves making the reed slap against the reed holder, thus giving a punch to the notes being played
Slargando, Slargandosi (Italian) rallentando, broader
Slavonske gadje Slavonian bagpipe (Croatia)
Slegato (Italian) non-legato
Sleigh bells a row or many rows of pellet bells mounted on a piece of wood or on a harness
Slendro see laras
Slentando (Italian) rallentando, getting slower
Slentem (Javanese) thin bronze bars suspended over bamboo resonating chambers, struck with a padded disc on the end of a stick
Slide a device on a brass instrument that allows the tube length, and thereby the pitch, to be altered, for example on a trombone
Slide trombone trombone
Slide trumpet a trumpet without valves, used in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, that has a slide similar to that of a trombone, so facilitating changes in the length of tubing of the instrument, allowing the fundamental and harmonic series to be adjusted
Slide whistle a duct flute without finger holes which has an extended length of tubing containing a plunger that allows the performer to shorten or lengthen the the resonating length of the tube, so changing the pitch. The common slide whistle today has a two and one-third octave range in each of two registers. The low register sounds from a low 'E flat' to a high 'G' and the high register sounds from a low 'A flat' to a high 'G'. It is also known as a song whistle, swanee whistle, piston flute, jazz flute, lotus flute, piston pipe and bike pump whistle
Slur
a marked used to show where a group of notes are played either under a single bow stroke, or on a wind instrument without retonguing or when singing, in one breath, so that the notes move smoothly one to the other with no perceptible break
Sluskinja Croatian double flute with six holes
Small octave the name applied to an octave extending from 'C' below middle C to 'B' below middle C, notes that are generally indicated by lowercase letters ('c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'a', and 'b')
Smania, Smaniato (Italian) craze, frenzy
Smear in jazz, a type of glissando or portamento in which the pitch of a note is shifted about a semitone (half step), often with a rather harsh tone, performed most commonly on the trombone and other brass instruments
Sminuendo, Sminuito (Italian) diminishing, diminished
Smorfioso (Italian) mincing, affected
Smorzando (Italian) gradually dying away to a whisper
Snare drum see 'side drum'
Snares wire-bound gut strings
Snello, Snellamente (Italian) nimble, nimbly
So (German) as, so
Soave, Soavità (Italian) suave or gentle, suavity or gentleness, lightly played
Soavemente (Italian) suavely
Sob an ornament used in lute playing, where the left hand pressure on the string follows the plucking of the string, to create a sob-like effect on the sound of the note
Sobald (German) so soon as, should
Soca a musical style from Trinidad and Tobago, whose name derives from so, from soul, and ca, from calypso. The bands usually feature a drummer, bass player, guitar and horns
Sociology of music an area of study that examines the effects, now and in the past, that music has has upon society and similarly the effect that society has upon music
Sodina Malagasy bamboo flute
Soeben (German) just, barely, a moment ago
Sofort (German) immediately
Soft pedal a pedal on a piano that alters the setting of the hammers relative to the strings (normally three for each note) so that only one or two are struck when a key is depressed, so lessening the volume of the sounding note or notes
Soggetto (Italian) subject, for example, of a fugue
Sogleich (German) immediately
Sogo one of a pair of closed bottom barrel drums from Ghana. The sogo is the larger one and is lower in pitch. The other drum is called kidi
Sogo (Korean) small 'hour-glass' shaped Korean drum
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Sogeum small Korean bamboo flute, an octave higher then the daegum
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Soinari Georgian name for the panpipes
Sokyoku (Japanese) music played on the koto which, later might be accompanied by the shamisen and the shakuhachi
Sol the fifth degree in a major scale; in 'fixed do' solfeggio, sol is always the note 'G'
Sola, Solo (Italian) solo
Soldatenzug (German) soldier's procession
Soldatenmarsch (German) soldier's march
Soleares a flamenco singing style in triple time, without rational continuity in its words, or solearilla de cierre, which has a more agile and simpler, although the ending can be demanding, culminating in extremes of emotion
Solemnis, Solennis (Latin) solemn
Soleariya a flamenco soleá with three verses
Solenne, Solennemente, Solennità (Italian) solemn, solemnly, solemnity
Solennel, Solennelle (French) solemn
Solennellement (French) solemnly
Sol-fa see tonic sol-fa
Solfaing singing the notes of the scale to the syllables do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do
Solfège (Fr.), Solfeggio (It.) ear-training using sol-fa syllables; more advanced exercises employ vowels in place of the sof-fa note names, i.e. vocalizzo (It.) or vocalise (Fr.) (q.v.)
Soli (Italian) alone
Solito (Italian) usual, for example, al solito meaning 'as usual'
Sollecitando (Italian) hastening forward
Sollecito (Italian) eager
Solmization system of designating musical notes by syllable names which may have been invented by the eleventh-century Italian monk Guido d'Arezzo when training his cathedral singers. The syllables — ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la — were derived from the first syllables of the lines of a hymn, each phrase of which began one note higher than the previous phrase. This six-note series, or hexachord, facilitated the sight-reading of music by allowing the singer always to associate a given musical interval with any two syllables. The syllables are still in use, though ut is usually replaced by the more singable do, and ti or si has been added for the seventh scale degree.
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Solo, Solo part a part for one player with or without accompanying instruments, for example, an unaccompanied violin partita or the solo pianist's part in a piano concerto
Soloist the player who performs the solo part
Soltanto (Italian) solely
Som after the cataloguer of the music of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809)
Sombre (French) dark, melancholy
Sommesso (Italian) subdued
Sommo, Somma (Italian) utmost
Sompoton also called sumpoton; the free-reed mouth organ of Sabah in northeastern Borneo, with a gourd wind chamber from which extend 8 pipes arranged in two rows
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Son (Spanish) born at the end of the nineteenth-century in the eastern portion of Cuba known as Oriente, among farmers who played tres (a guitar with six strings tuned in three pairs) and sang, accompanied by bongos or some other type of drum pounding out Afro-Caribbean rhythms, son had, by the 1920's, become music usually played by a sextet of guitar, tres, bass, bongos and singers who also played claves (sticks) and maracas (shakers) which with the addition of a trumpet player to jazz up the sound, finally brought it out of the hills and into Havana
Son, Sons (French) sound, sounds
Sona, Suona a Chinese double-reed shawm
Sonabile (Italian) resonant, full toned
Sonaja Spanish and Spanish American shakers
Sonare (Italian) to sound, to play, to resonate
Sonata an extended piece in several movements for a number of instrumental soloists, most commonly one, with instrumental accompaniment, usually a keyboard, with or without a cello or viola da gamba; in its modern form, dating from the early eighteenth-century, a musical form, called 'sonata-allegro' form, in three sections, exposition (usually with two contrasting themes), development (in which the opening material is extended) and recapitulation (in which the opening material is reheard)
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Sonata-allegro form see 'sonata'
Sonata cycle the multi-movement structure found in sonatas, string quartets, symphonies, concertos and large-scale works of the eighteenth- and ninteenth-centuries
Sonata da camera (Italian) see 'chamber sonata'
Sonata da chiesa (Italian, literally 'church sonata') usually a trio-sonata with four movements, slow-quick-slow-quick
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Sonata form see sonata form
Sonata-rondo a musical work that combines sonata and rondo forms; the rondo theme is the exposition of the sonata form A which recurs after each of the remaining two sections of the sonata, i.e. the development B and the recapitulation C, so the five sections are A B A C A
Sonate (German) sonata
Sonatina (It.), Sonatine (Fr.) diminutive of sonata
Son the root of most familiar styles of Cuban dance music. It is the result of merging African music practiced by the slaves and the music of the Spanish farmers, the campesinos, and originated in the province of Oriente where it was played by small bands, using guitar or tres, maracas, güiro, claves, bongo, a marí mbula and a botija. Son and served as a basis for the mambo, which in turn became the triple mambo, now known as cha cha
Soneos improvised lyrics and melody sung during a Cuban montuno
Sonevole (Italian) sonorous, resonant
Song a piece to be sung with or without an accompaniment
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Song cycle a group of songs performed in an order establishing a musical continuity related to some underlying (conceptual) theme
Song form a term used to describe a simple A-B-A or ternary structure as employed in many slow movements, although it is best avoided as many songs do not have this structure; in popular music, most song forms are in the binary or ternary forms A-A-B-B and A-B-A respectively or, the standard jazz formula, A-A-B-A
Song loan Vietnamese small clacker played with the foot
Songo a popular musical style created in Cuba, featuring drum set and many new rhythms
Song whistle see 'slide whistle'
Song without words a piece for solo piano
Soniou light Breton songs of love and adventure
Son jarocho a style found in the Veracruz Gulf Coast region of Mexico, that blends instrumental music traditions including Spanish and Afro-Caribbean influences, oral poetry and dance. The ensemble that plays this style of music usually consists of a harp, jarana (five string guitar), and requinto (small four string guitar)
Sonnerie (French) sounding; a form especially popular during the Classical period
Sono (Italian) sound
Sonore (Fr.), Sonoro (It.) sonorous
Sonorité (Fr.) or Sonorità (It.), Sonoramente (It.) sonority, sonorously
Sons bouchés (French) stopped notes from the horn
Sons etouffes (French) damped sound, for example, using a cloth, or the palm of the hand, to damp the sound of a harp string immediately after it has sounded
Sopile Croatian shawm
Sopilka Ukrainian recorder
Sopra (Italian) on, above, for example in piano music when the left hand crosses over the right hand
Sopran (Ger.), Soprano or Soprana (It.) soprano, the highest voice, usually extending from middle C to the C two octaves higher
Sopranino an instrument pitched above the soprano range, for example, the sopranino recorder
Soprano clef see soprano clef
Soprano recorder the descant recorder in C
Sordamente (Italian) softly, gently
Sordina or Sordino (s.), Sordini (pl.) (Italian) mute, damper on the piano; con sordino means muted; senza sordino means unmuted
Sordun a instrument from the sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries related to the crumhorn, with a double reed, a cylindrical bore, twelve finger holes and a body that doubled back upon itself, that existed in four sizes, ranging from Gross Bass to Cantus
Sorgfalt (German) care
Sortie (French) exit, departure
Sospirando, Sospirante, Sospirevole, Sospiroso (Italian) sighing, plaintive
Sostenendo or Sostenente, Sostenuto (Italian) sustaining, sustained
Sostenido (Spanish) sharp sign
Sostenuto pedal the middle pedal, of three, on more expensive instruments that lets the player sustain selective notes as he or she chooses
Sotto voce (Italian) under one's breath, in lowered tones, softly
Soubrette (French) a female role, usually coquettish, typically a maid, in comic opera or operetta sung by a light soprano voice
Soudainement (French) suddenly
Souffara a small Egyptian flute
Soukou see suku
Soukous a Congolese musical style that grew out of 1950s Cuban rumba combined with the kwassa kwassa dance rhythm
Soul music a style of composition characterised by an emotional and highly dramatic delivery of the vocal line, commonly including wails, sighs, cries, falsetto, whispers, etc., that developed in 1960's America
Souna a Chinese double-reed eight-holed instrument, the two ends of which are made of copper while the body is made of wood
Sound board a wooden board in a stringed instrument that enhances its resonance
Sound box hollow box shaped resonator, one face of which is the soundboard, that enhances its volume and tone of a stringed instrument
Sound hole a hole in the soundboard of a stringed instrument that enhances its volume and tone
Sound post small, movable rod or pillar of wood that is fitted inside the sound box between the back of certain stringed instruments (particular those of the violin and viol families) and the belly, connecting the two, thus easing the string pressure on the bridge and distributing vibrations throughout the instrument
Soundtrack a strip along the side of a film that contains optical coding for sound
Soupir (French) a crotchet rest, a quarter-rest
Soupirant (French) sighing
Souple (French) flexible, supple
Sourd, Sourde (French) muffled
Sourdine (French) mute
Sous (French) under
Sourek after Otakar Sourek the cataloguer of music by Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904)
Sousaphone a marching tuba, that coils around the player designed by John Philip Sousa (1854-1932)
Sousedska a slow Bohemian peasant dance in simple triple time
Soutenu (French) sustained
Space interval between the lines on the staff where each line and each space indicate a different pitch
Spagnoletto, Spagnoletta, Spagniletta, Spagnicoletta a late sixteenth-century round dance related to the pavan
Spalapipa see spelpipa
Spandendo (Italian) expanding, getting more powerful
Sparta, Sparto, Spartita, Spartito (Italian) score
Spass, Spasshaft (German) joke, jocular
Spassapensieri (Italian) Jew's harp
Später (German) later
Species counterpoint strict counterpoint involving the addition of voices to a melody advancing from simple to more complex harmonies
Spediendo (Italian) speeding, hurrying
Speech-song see sprechgesang
Spelpipa a traditional Swedish wooden whistle usually with eight finger holes, scale usually includes 'blue notes' that add special character
Sperdendosi (Italian) fading away
Spianato, Spianata (Italian) level, smoothed, even
Spiccato (Italian) separated, detached; a form of staccato bowing in which the bow is bounced on the string while the bow-stroke is restricted to the tip to produce rapid notes
Spiegando (Italian) becoming louder
Spiel, Spielen (German) play, to play
Spielend (German) playing, playful
Spieltenor in opera, a light tenor voice
Spill in jazz, a descending glissando that falls from the end of a note, also known as a 'fall off' or 'drop'
Spinet a small member of the harpsichord family, popular between the sixteenth- and eighteenth-centuries
Spinnlied (German) spinning song
Spinto (Italian) pushed, urged on; a lyric voice or a part for that voice, usually soprano or tenor, that can be powerful and dramatic
Spiritual a folksong with religious overtones associated with the American negro, hence its alternative name, negro spiritual
Spirante (Italian) dying away
Spirito (Italian) spirit, vigour
Spiritoso, Spiritosamente (Italian) spirited, spriritedly
Spitze (German) point or tip of a bow
Spitzig (German) pointed, cutting
Splash cymbals a cymbal, a circular brass plate measuring from 6" to 16" across, that sits on a stand at an angle as is part of the drum kit, that is struck with drum sticks or brushes to maintain a rhythmic pulse in the performance
Split note chords a chord in which one or more chord members are 'split' by adding a note a minor second away; e.g., C E G G#
Spondee a musical foot consisting of two long notes or syllables
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Spöttisch (German) mocking
Sprechend (German) speaking
Sprechgesang, Sprechmelodie, Sprechstimme speech-song; a term used by Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) to describe a voice delivery midway between song and speech, although he preferred the terms sprechstimme speaking voice), sprechmelodic (speech melody) or rezitation (recitation)
Sprezzatura a free style of musical performance that ignored strict tempo and rhythm but embraced freedom of tempo and expressiveness, typically in seventeenth-century Italy
Springar Swedish and Norwegian dance for two people
Springdans Swedish and Norwegian dance in simple triple time
Springend (German) springing, bouncing
Springer an ornament consisting of the main note followed by the note above it followed by the note above that, then returning to the original main note'; also called the acute or sigh
Springleik Swedish and Norwegian country dance
Spruch two kinds of Medieval German poetry, the first verbal Spruch consisted of rhymed couplets and was intended for spoken performance, while the second lyric Spruch was intended to be sung and was related to the Minnelied
Square dance a form of American dance, with music derived from popular or Anglo-American folk genres and played on a fiddle, piano, guitar or banjo, usually performed by four couples facing each other, arranged in a square
Squeeze box slang word meaning an 'accordian'
Squillante, Squillanti (Italian) clear, ringing, sounding; cymbals to be suspended and struck with drumsticks
S/R after Max Schönherr & Karl Reinhold the cataloguers of music by Johann Strauss Jr (1825-1899)
Sralai, Sralai thomm Cambodian low-pitched quadruple-reed shawm
SS after Kaethe Schaefer-Schmuck the cataloguer of music by Georg Phillip Telemann (1681-1767)
Sspilåpipa see spelpipa
Stabat Mater (Dolorosa) a sequence in the Roman Catholic liturgy regarding the crucifixion, and used in several Divine offices
Stäbchen (German) beater for the triangle
Stabile (Italian) steady, firm
Stabreim (German, literally 'alliteration') a term to describe alliterative verse, used by Richard Wagner (1813-83) in his music dramas
Staccatissimo (Italian) an extreme form of staccato, often taken to indicate that one should shorten the note thus marked to one quarter of its written length, the remaining three-quarters replaced with silence
Staccato (Italian, literally 'detached') a dot above the note indicating that the note thus marked should be shortened to half its written length, the second half replaced with silence
Stadtpfeifer established in the late fourteenth-century, a musician, publicly employed in Germany, and expected to perform on civic occasions
Staff
  a framework of five lines on which musical notation is written
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Stanchezza (Italian) wearily, in a weary manner
Ständchen (German) serenade
Standhaft, Standhaftigkeit (German) firm, firmness
Stark, Stäker (German) strong or loud, stronger or louder
Stasis a static figure, commonly used as background, for example, repeating chord figure
Statement see 'exposition'
Statt (German) instead of
Stave see 'staff'
Steel band originally from the West Indies, a band playing pans (q.v.), tuned drums made out of oil drums
Steel drum a percussion instrument made from an oil drum cut to a shallow depth, developed in Trinidad in the 1940s, and made in a variety of sizes; also called 'pans'
Steg (German) bridge
Stelle, Stellen (German) place, places
Stem see 'note'
Stendendo (Italian) rallentando
Stentare, Stentando (Italian) to play in a laborious manner, heavily and slightly slowing
Stentato (Italian) forced, loud, stentorian
Step an interval of a second; a step is the interval between one degree of a scale and the next, regardless of whether the interval is a major, minor, augmented, or diminished second
Sterbend (German) dying away
Steso (Italian) slow
Stesso, Steea, Stessi, Stesse (Italian) same
Stets (German) steadily, always
Stev Norwegian short songs
Sticheron specific hymns in the Greek Orthodox rite
Stick a wooden or metal dowel-shaped beater used to strike a drum, comprised of a bead (tip), a neck, a taper, a body and a butt; a stick is called a mallet when used to strike tuned percussion instruments; slang term for a conductor's baton
Stierhorn (German) cow-horn
Stile (Italian) style
Stileconcitato Baroque style developed by Monteverdi, which introduced novel effects such as rapid repeated notes as symbols of passion
Stile rappresentativo a dramatic recitative style of the Baroque period in which melodies move freely over a foundation of simple chords
Still (German) quiet, calm
Stimme (German) the human voice, sound-post of a violin, an organ stop
Stimmen (German) to tune
Stimmflöte, Stimmhorn, Stimmpfeife (German) pitch pipe
Stimmgabel (German) tuning fork
Stimmung (German) tuning, mood
Stinguendo (Italian) fading away
Stirando, Stirato, Stiracchiando, Stiracchiato (Italian) ritardando
Stock arrangement the standard score of the work in contrast to an arrangement that has been produced especially for one particular band or ensemble
Stockend (German) slackening the time gradually
Stollen see 'bar form'
Stomp a lively, rhythmic jazz marked by a heavy beat, a term derived probably from early, foot-stomping forms of blues and ragtime dance music
Stop a lever or pedal that engages or disengages pipes or sets of strings on a keyboard instrument; to 'stop' a string on a stringed instrument is to changes its vibrating length and thereby the pitch of the note it sounds; to 'stop' a horn is to push the hand firmly into the bell to change the quality of sound emitted
Stornello a Tuscan folk-song
Stracciacalando (Italian) prattling
Straccinato (Italian) ritardando
Strackharpa Swedish bowed harp
Straff, Straffer (German) strict, stricter - also used in reference to the tightness of a drum head
Straffando, Straffato (Italian) throwing off, thrown off
Strain a series of contrasting sections found in rags and marches, often in duple meter with sixteen-bar (measure) themes or sections
Strancica Croatian flute
Strascicando, Strascinando, Strascinato (Italian) heavy slurring, singing portamento
Strathspey a slow Scottish dance, often coupled with the quick reel
Stravagante (Italian) extravagant, fantastic
Straziante (Italian) tearing
Streich (German) stroke
Streng (German) strict
Strepito, Strepitoso, Strepitosamente (Italian) noise, noisy, noisily, boistrously
Stretch out in jazz, an extended and often highly inventive improvisation in place of an anticipated shorter set of phrases
Stretto (Italian) accelerated, brought together; fugal entries occur closer together, the following beginning before the previous has finished
Strich (German) bow stroke
Strimpellata (Italian) strumming, scraping
Stringendo (Italian) squeezing together, accelerando
String(s) a strand of gut, wire, silk or nylon that, when bowed, plucked or struck, produces a sound determined by its tension, length and density; the section of the orchestra formed by members of the violin family but excluding harp, guitar, harpsichord, piano, viols etc.
String bass see 'double bass'
String instruments, Stringed instruments any musical instrument that produces sound by means of strings under appropriate tension that are set into vibration by being plucked (for example, harp, guitar, or lute, etc.), strummed (for example, harp, guitar, or lute, etc.), struck (for example, piano, dulcimer, or clavichord, etc.), or bowed (for example, violin, viol, or 'cello, etc.)
String music Music especially composed for string instruments, that is for violins, violas, cellos and double basses
String orchestra a moderately large ensemble form only of first and second violins, cellos and double basses
String quartet a quartet formed of one first violinist, one second violinist, one violist and one cellist
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Strisciando, Strisciato (Italian) smooth, slurred, glissando
Strohfiedel (German) xylophone
Stroll in jazz, a direction indicating that a performer should be silent
Stromentato (Italian) played by instruments
Stromento, Stromenti (Italian) instrument, instruments
Stromenti a percossa (Italian) percussion instruments
Stromenti d'ottoni (Italian) brass instruments
Strophe, Strophic (Greek, from strephein to turn, twist) a metrical or musical unit that is repeated in a musical composition; a composition is strophic if the music accompanying one stanza of poetry is repeated for subsequent stanzas
Strum brushing the fingers over the strings of a stringed instrument
Strumento, Strumenti (Italian) instrument, instruments
Stück (German) piece
Studien (German) study, étude
Study see étude
Stürmend, Stürmisch (German) stormy, passionate
Sturm und drang (German, literally 'storm and urgency') a powerful, romantic movement of the 1760's and 1770's
Style the way musical elements (melody, rhythm, harmony, dynamics, form, etc.) are presented; the relationship between the organisation of compositional material and a particular era or country; what distinguishes one performance from another
Style brisé an arpeggiated style of keyboard music
Style galant (French) see galant
Su, Sull', Sulla, Sui, Sugli, Sulle (Italian) on, near, up, above, upon
Suave, Suavità (Italian) suave, suavity
Subbass clef see subbass clef
Subdivision breaking up a larger metrical pattern into smaller parts, the easier to understand it
Sub-dominant the fourth degree of the scale
Sub-dominant chord the chord which uses as its root the subdominant note of a key, that is, the IV chord
Sub-dominant triad triad built on the fourth degree of the scale
Subing a bamboo Jew's harp of the Cuyinin People of the Palawan Island in western Philippines
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Subito (Italian) suddenly
Subject a theme
Sub-mediant the sixth degree of the scale
Sub-mediant chord the chord which uses as its root the submediant note of a key, that is, the VI chord
Sub-mediant triad triad built on the sixth degree of the scale
Substitute clausula one passage (or several) composed as a replacement for a segment of Notre Dame organum, in which the tenor uses a short excerpt of plainchant, possibly melismatic, with newly composed organal voice(s); the clausula was the forerunner of the early motet
Sub-tonic the seventh degree of the scale
Substitute fingering see 'alternative fingering'
Sufi devotional Muslim music
Sugli, Sui (plural form) (Italian) on the
Sugudu Chinese plucked lute
Sui xun in the Guangdong dialect
Suite a set of unrelated and usually short instrumental pieces, movements or sections played as a group, and usually in a specific order
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Suite de dances (French) a set of dances, that originated in the early part of the seventeenth-century, and was firmly established by the Baroque era, when the 'suite' contained an optional prelude, followed by a selection of dances including allemande, courante, sarabande, intermezzi (consisting of two to four dances, containing a minuet, a gavotte, or other styles of dances) and a gigue
Suivez (French) follow
Suku small West African fiddle
Sul Korean twenty-five string zither used in court music
Sulim flute from Sumatra (Indonesia)
Suling (Javanese) hollow reed flute used in gamelan orchestras, each tuning, slendro and pelog, requiring its own suling
Sulla tastiera (Italian) see sul tasto
Sul ponticello (Italian) bow near the bridge to achieve a brittle tone
Sul tasto bow near or above the fingerboard producing a colourless tone
Summend (German) humming
Sumpoton see sompoton
Sungion-mu (Korean) dance music for celebrating a victory
Suo (Italian) its own
Suono, Suoni (Italian) sound, sounds
Superbo, Superba (Italian) proud
Super-dominant see 'sub-mediant'
Superius the upper, or higher, voice or melody in a musical composition of two or more parts, the superius was orginally only used as an accompaniment to the main melody, the tenor; this term became common in the fifteenth-century
Super-tonic the second degree of the scale
Super-tonic chord the chord which uses as its root the supertonic note of a key, that is, the II chord
Super-tonic triad triad built on the second degree of the scale
Suppliant (Fr.) or Supplichevole (It.), Supplichevolmente(It.) supplicating, supplicatingly
Supprimez (French) put stop out of action, suppress
Supriñu an ancient Basque double-reed horn made from hazelnut tree bark rolled into a cone that is bent at one end to form the mouthpiece and is then rolled to form a long tube (Spain, France)
Sur (French) on, over
Sur la touche (French) on the fingerboard
Sur le chevalet (French) on the bridge
Surbahar essentially a bass sitar, tuned anywhere from four steps to an octave lower than a regular sitar, the surbahar has an advantage over the sitar in that it has a longer sustain and an ability to meend (glissando) up to an octave in a single fret. It is possible therefore to play complex melodies without using more than a single fret. This instrument is very well suited to long slow alaps but the instrument's main weakness is that its long sustain causes a fast jhala to become indistinct and muddy. It is for this reason that some artists prefer to play the alap with a surbahar but shift to the sitar for gat and jhala
Surdam flute from Sumatra (Indonesia)
Surdo Brazilian bass drum used to mark the beat of samba music
Surdu see surdo
Surdulina small bagpipe from southern Italy
Sur la touche (French) same as sul tasto
Surmandal otherwise known as swarmandal, the surmanal is basically a small harp used for the drone to accompany singers. It is considered a minor instrument although, as a class, the harps in India are very ancient
Surnai double reed pipe from India
Surtout (French) above all, especially
Suspended cymbal a cymbal (circular brass plate measuring from 16" to 22" in diameter) that is suspended on a stand and is struck with drum sticks, brushes, or, more often, mallets, typically used in a symphony orchestra, symphonic band, concert band, brass band, and other large instrumental ensembles, to keep a rhythmic pulse in a composition or provide percussive accents
Suspended time very long static events, with nothing much else happening
Suspension a note that is held over, that is approached by itself, and resolved to the chord note by a tone or semitone after the chord is played
Sustaining pedal a mechanism that raises the felt dampers allowing the strings to vibrate freely
Süss (German) sweet
Susurrando, Sussurrante (Italian) whispering, murmuring, lightly
Suzu Japanese bells
Svegliando, Svegliato (Italian) brisk, alert
Svelto (Italian) smart, quick, freely, lightly
Svirala a six-hole shepherd's flute, from Dalmatia (Croatia)
Svirel Russian whistle
Svirka Bulgarian’s shepherd's flute
Svolgimento (Italian) development
Swanee whistle see 'slide whistle'
Sweet potato see 'ocarina'
Swei lei small Burmese bells
Swell a device that controls the volume of an organ through the use of a foot-pedal operated shutter; term used to mean crescendo
Swing American style of jazz music, originating in the 1930's, characterized by 'big band' instrumentation, a greater emphasis on solo passages and a 4/4 tempo with an almost even emphasis on each beat of the bar
SWV (WV is an abbreviation for Werke-Verzeichnis) reference to the catalogue of music by Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) by Bittinger
Sygyt throat-singing style from Tuva
Sykora after Vaclav Jan Sykora the cataloguer of music by Frantisek Xaver Dusek [Dussek] (1731-1799)
Syllabic a musical setting is syllabic when one and only one note is related to one syllable in the text
Symmetrical scales see symmetrical scales
Sympathetic strings strings, that cannot be bowed or plucked, that resonate by means of their immediate proximity to other strings, that can be bowed or plucked, which are set very closely above them
Symphonia (Greek) a word used in place of the Latin word symphony
Symphonic poem (or Tone poem) c. 1850 to present, a descriptive orchestral piece in which the music conveys a scene or relates a story
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Symphonie symphony
Symphonie concertante (French) featuring a few solo instruments and orchestra, this genre is associated with the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-centuries, is in two or three movements, is lighthearted in character and is usually written in a major key
Symphonique (Fr.), Symphonisch (Ger.) symphonic
Symphony an extended piece for full orchestra, usually serious in nature and in several movements; before the mid-eighteenth-century a symphony was an instrumental interlude between section of a large choral work
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Symphony orchestra an extended ensemble of instruments that has grown in number steadily since the early eighteenth century when it might have had only 20 instruments to the modern orchestra which may have in excess of 100 members
Syncopation where a silence or weak beat replaces the expected strong beat in a bar, used extensively in the fourteenth century and again in the twentieth
Synthesizer an instrument that uses electronics to generate a large range of sounds, some meant to mimic real instruments and others that are completely new, originally developed from principles developed by Robert Moog and others in the 1960s. A synthesizer is distinguished from an electronic piano or electronic organ by the fact that its sounds can be programmed by the user, and from a sampler by the fact that the sampler allows the user to make digital recordings of external sound sources
Syntonic comma the difference between four justly tuned perfect fifths and two octaves plus a major third. It is expressed by the ratio 81:80, and is equal to 21.51 cents
Syrinx
panpipe, usually with 7 pipes, already known in the Cyclades (islands south east of Greece) around 2500 BC. According to mythology, Pan fell in love with the waternymph Syrinx. She ran away from him and when she could not cross the river Ladon to escape she asked Artemis to help her. Just as Pan was about to embrace her, Syrinx changed into cat-tail reeds. Pan, holding the marsh reeds, sighed in disappointment, causing the wind to blow through the reeds. He was enchanted by the sound, believing it to be the mournful cry of his beloved Syrinx. He produced a set of pipes so that he could have her with him always
Syvspring a popular dance from Jutland
System
notation of a line of music including all the parts and voices involved, presented in a group of two or more staves which are joined together on the left hand side by a vertical bar and a brace
 
Sz after Szöllösy, the cataloguer of the music of Béla Bartók (1881-1945)