I was curious about how many directions we learn as musicians in other languages on a day-to-day basis, without us realising how amplified our mutli-lingual vocabulary becomes. I am no Italian or German speaker and yet I can easily translate words and phrases in both languages within a selective musical context. I used to love learning new Italian words for the viva voce (there I go again!) for my piano teacher as a child. I wondered if I could come up with a list of words or phrases that are commonly used as guidelines for playing, beginning with each letter of the English alphabet… I admit I struggled with some letters and had to choose only one word for other letters where many words came to mind. Please excuse my X and Y, I got quite stuck here! I did need to refer to my Oxford Music Dictionary for a few letters as well and in doing so, I learned some new words myself along the way, so it was all good learning. Some terms are not specifically how you would play a piece of music but what the genre or part of music played is, such as a jig, waltz and exposition.
Allegro
Bravura
Crescendo
Diminuendo
Energia
Fortissimo
Giustamente
Hemiola
Incalcando
Jig
Key signature
Legato
Maestoso
Natural
Ornaments
Pause
Quadruple time
Rallentando
Staccato
Trill
Un poco
Vivo
Waltz
eXposition
Your expression
Zögernd
Please feel free to share any words you have discovered which could enhance my list above! 🙂
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