A Cappella - In choral singing, unaccompanied singing.

Accelerando - Getting gradually quicker.

Accent - An emphasis on a particular note.

Adagio - Slow in tempo.

Allegro - Lively in style and tempo.

Allemande - A dance movement of a piece of music. It is usually serious in character, but sounds light and is played at a moderate speed.

Andante - Walking speed or medium tempo.

Arco - Use of the bow as opposed to pizzacato or plucking a stringed instrument with the fingers.

A tempo - Reverting back to the original tempo or speed of a piece after a deviation.

Baritone - Male voice between a tenor and a bass, sometimes combining elements of both.

Chamber Music - Instrumental music for a small group of musicians. Each musician's part is unique and equally important to the ensemble. Chamber music is meant to be performed in an intimate setting.

Col legno - Using the wooden stick part of the bow to strike the strings rather than playing with the hair.

Coloratura - Elaborate ornamentation of a melody, particularly in vocal music.

Crescendo - A dyanamic marking that instructs the musician to get gradually louder.

Diminuendo/Decrescendo - A dynamic marking that instructs the musician to get gradually softer.

Dynamics - Degrees of loudness and softness. The musician is instructed to play softly when (s)he sees the Italian word piano. Forte signals the musician to play loudly. Medium loud or medium soft is marked by adding mezzo to the dynamic, such as mezzo forte.

Fugue - Successive playing of the same theme by different instruments or voices.

Gavotte - A dance movement of a piece of music. A gavotte is an old French dance in common time, beginning on the third beat of the bar.

Largamente - Broad and dignified in a slowish manner, similar to Largo but refers to style more than tempo.

Largo - Broad and slow in tempo, dignified in style.

Lento - Slow in tempo.

Maestoso - Majestic, dignified, i.e. allegro maestoso.

Meter - Grouping of the beats of a piece of music. For example, duple meter groups beats into two with the emphasis on the first beat - 1 2, 1 2, 1 2.

Motif - A motif is a recurring subject, theme, idea that is developed throughout an artistic work.

Movement - The primary, self-contained sections of a large composition, such as a string quartet. Each movement usually has a separate tempo indication. Usually there is a silent pause between each movement.

Mute - A device used to reduce the volume of an instrument by stopping the vibrations of each note.

Presto - Quick in tempo, very fast.

Resolution - The satisfactory following of a discordant chord or note, with a concord.

Rondo - The form of a piece of music in which a theme or motif intermittently recurs. The rondo is a light-hearted movement.

Scherzo - The name of a movement in a piece of music, literally meaning "joke." A scherzo is generally very lively, but not necessarily light- hearted, suggesting a dark sort of humor.

Sonata - An instrumental composition for piano or piano and another instrument, usually in several movements or sections.

Song Cycle - A set of individual songs grouped together by the composer in a particular order and referring to a particular theme.

Soprano - The highest register of female (or artificial male) voice.

Suite - A piece of instrumental music made up of several movements, usually in dance-style.

Tempo - The speed at which a piece of music is performed.

Tenor - The highest normal male voice.

Theme - The main succession of notes, or the subject of a piece of music.