| l |
abrev. for left |
| la |
sixth syllable of any major scale |
| labial pipes |
flue stops |
|
lacrimoso |
tearful |
|
lage |
position of the hand for playing a chord |
|
lagnoso |
lamenting |
| lagrimoso |
tearful |
| lai |
a form of poetry set to music, born in 13th-century
France |
| lament |
a mournful piece, either meant to be played at a funeral, or to commemorate a
death |
| lamentations |
the lamentations of Jeremiah form part of the catholic liturgy of holy week, the week before
Easter, traditionally chanted, but from the middle of the 15th century providing material for polyphonic
setting |
|
lamento |
lamenting music |
| lancers |
a type of square-dance, or quadrille, danced by 8 or 16 couples, particularly popular in the second half of the
19th-century |
|
lancio |
vigor |
|
landini cadence |
the melodic cadence that moves in the sequence 7-6-8, used primarily by
Francesco Landini, and later by other composers |
|
ländler |
a slow dance in triple time originating in rural
Austria. fashionable in the late 18th-and early 19th-centuries |
|
langaus |
wild Austrian dance |
|
langsam |
slow |
| languido |
languidly, sluggishly, spiritless |
|
largamente |
broadly and consequently slowly. largo-largo
is used as a frequent instruction to performers. Handel's largo, an aria from his opera
Serse, is in fact marked larghetto, although this does not seem to affect its speed in popular
performance |
|
largando |
slowing down |
|
larghetto |
a little faster than largo |
| largo |
an instruction to a musician to play in a very slow and dignified |
|
larigot |
shepherd's pipe |
|
lauda |
Italian hymn |
| lauds |
the second of the canonical hours |
|
lauf |
rapid section |
| lavolta |
a dance, usually in fast triple time, featuring a series of leaps, when the woman is swept high into the air by her partner.
Very popular in the 16th-century, in the royal courts of western Europe |
| lay |
a form of poetry set to music, born in 13th-century
France |
| lead |
cue (noun), or, serve as concertmaster
(verb) |
| leader |
the directing member of a chamber group or ensemble of musicians. in an orchestra, the leader is the principal first
violinist |
| leading note |
the seventh degree of the diatonic scale, when it is only a half-step below the tonic.
It is called "leading" because it gives the feeling of wanting to move up a half-step toward the
tonic |
| leap |
the movement of a single musical line by more than a second at a time. |
|
lebendig |
lively |
| lecturer |
clinician |
|
ledger line |
a short line written in a musical score above or below the five main lines of the staff, to accommodate notes that lie outside the
staff |
| leere saite |
open string |
|
legatissimo |
extremely connected |
|
legato |
a direction to play smoothly, so that all the notes run into one another.
The opposite of staccato |
| legend |
a narrative piece |
| eger line |
a short line written in a musical score above or below the five main lines of the staff, to accommodate notes that lie outside the
staff |
|
leggero |
light, fast and graceful |
|
leggierissimo |
very light |
|
legno |
wood, appears in the phrase 'col legno', with the wood, an instruction to string players to hit the strings with the back of the bow.
Examples of col legno are found in the Dance Macabre of Saint-Saens and at the opening of
Holst's the planets. |
|
leidenshaftlich |
passionately |
|
leier |
lyre, also hurdy-gurdy |
|
leierkasten |
street organ |
|
leise |
low, soft |
|
leiter |
orchestra leader |
| leitmotif |
use of a musical phrase to identify with a certain person, place or thing in a dramatic work, especially an opera, usually repeated every time its
referent appeared in the work |
|
leitton |
leading tone |
| lent |
the season of the church year from ash Wednesday
to Easter (40 days, not counting Sunday's) |
|
lento |
direction to play slowly |
| less prosperous princedoms |
which might employ much smaller forces, a dozen or less string players and four or five wind
players |
|
letter notation |
the use of letters for indication of tones |
|
leuto |
lauto, or lute |
|
levara |
to take off stops |
|
libretto |
the text of an opera or oratorio. In the past, it was printed as a booklet for the audience.
May or may not be written by the composer. It's author is known as the librettist. |
|
licenza |
freedom in interpretation |
|
licenza |
direction allowing a musician a degree of freedom when interpreting the relevant
passages |
|
liebesgeige |
viola d'amore |
|
lied |
song, generally applied to the distinctive
German vocal style which originated in the late 18th-and early
19th-century |
|
liedercyclus |
song cycle |
|
liedform |
song form |
|
liedmotet |
song motet |
|
lieto |
gay |
|
lievo |
light |
| ligature |
the band that secures the reed to the mouthpiece of wind instruments such as the clarinet and saxophone.
Also a slur mark on a score, instructing a singer to sing two or more notes to a single
syllable |
| linear counterpoint |
counterpoint in which the lines are more important than the harmonic
progressions |
|
lining out |
speaking out each line immediately before it is sung by an assembly |
| linke hand |
left hand |
| lip |
embouchure |
|
lippenpfeife |
labial pipe |
| lira |
obsolete violins with drones |
|
liscio |
flowing |
|
l'istesso |
the same |
|
l'istesso tempo |
in the same tempo |
| litany |
a series of suppliant prayers in the Christian
church, usually with the congregation making a fixed response |
| liturgical drama |
medieval plays representing bible stories in
Latin, accompanied by staging, costumes, and occasionally music. |
| liturgy |
structure of religious services of any denomination within the
Christian church |
|
liuto |
lute |
|
livret |
libretto |
|
loco |
instruction to play notes at the pitch written,
canceling a previous instruction that the notes be played an octave higher or lower than
written |
|
locrian |
the seventh mode |
|
locrian mode |
a mode whose scale pattern is that of playing b to b on the white keys of a piano.
While this mode theoretically existed in medieval times, it was never
used |
|
lombardic style |
inverted dotting |
|
long rest |
a long rest looks like a bold line in a measure with a number above it. it means to rest the number of measures
indicated |
|
lontano |
as from far away |
| loud pedal |
common name for the piano's -right-
sustaining pedal |
|
lourd |
heavy |
|
loure |
is a French dance of the 17th and 18th centuries, the name derived from a bagpipe used in
Normandy. the dance is usually in 6/4 time and has been described as a slow gigue. examples are found in
Bach's e major partite for unaccompanied violin and in the fifth of his
French suites |
|
low mass |
weekday masses, without the singing that characterizes the high
mass |
|
lucernarium |
the first item of vespers in the ambrosia, usually referring to
light |
|
luftpause |
breath pause |
| lullaby |
a cradle song |
|
lundu |
rural Brazilian harvest dance |
|
lunga |
long |
|
lur |
prehistoric Nordic brass trumpet |
|
lusingando |
caressing |
|
lustig |
instruction to play a piece in a cheerful, boisterous
manner |
| lute |
a stringed instrument with a pear-shaped body and fretted fingerboard, played by plucking with the fingers.
The lute is an ancient instrument of eastern origin. it was popular in
Europe from the middle ages to the 18th-century |
|
lute harpsichord |
gut strung harpsichord |
|
lutherie |
the art of building lutes, or, by extension, stringed
instruments |
|
luttuoso |
grieving, sad |
|
lydian |
the fourth of the modes |
|
lydian mode |
a medieval mode whose scale pattern is that of playing f to f on the white keys of a
piano |
|
lyra |
Greek stringed instrument with two curving arms and strings attached to a
crosspiece |
| lyra piano |
a piano with a lyre-shaped case |
| lyric |
there are several meanings. Originally, "lyric" meant the vocal performance accompanying the lure.
As a noun, it may mean a short poem, expressing the writer's personal feelings.
The lyrics of a popular song are the words. as an adjective, it can indicate a singing voice of intermediate vocal weight, as in lyric soprano or lyric tenor. |
|
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 |
| lyricist |
the person who writes the words, known as the lyrics, of a song or musical
play |
