Music Expression Terminology Dictionary

Author: Zhang Ninghe
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: The basis for our singing and playing is the score. The score conveys the composer's musical ideas in two aspects: notes and expressive terms. When contemporary composers create, they record notes on paper while also writing down their ideas for expression, tempo, and tone—those aspects that cannot be conveyed by notes alone—on the score in writing. To better understand the score, we must know the meaning of these written terms. Since the early 18th century, Italian has been used for this purpose. Some of these terms have now become universally recognized terminology among musicians worldwide. However, to fully grasp the composer's subtle requirements, we must always remember that these terms are derived from the everyday language of the Italian people. The musical expressive terms collected in this small dictionary are primarily based on materials from P. Rougnon, J. Hile, and W. Apel's musical glossary, with additional supplements. Most of them are related to performance, while other musical terms like Sonata, Concerto, etc., are excluded. Terms without [German], [French], etc. after them are in Italian.