| mf. | abbreviation of mezzoforte (Italian: moderately loud) |
| MFA | abbreviation of 'Master of Fine Arts' |
| M.G., m.g. | abbreviation of main gauche (French: left hand) |
| MGM | abbreviation of 'Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer' |
| MGG | abbreviation of Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: allgemeine Enzyklopedie der Musik, Friedrich Blume, in two multi-volume parts: subjects (10 volumes) and biographies (17 volumes) Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1994-2007. This standard German language music encyclopedia is a reference work of the highest scholarly quality, available only in German |
| MH | referring to the catalogue prepared by Charles H. Sherman and T. Donley Thomas of music by Michael Haydn (1737-1806) |
| m.Holzschl. | abbreviated form of mit Holzschlägel (German: with a wooden-headed mallet or beater) |
| Mi | the third degree (mediant) of the major scale |
| in 'fixed do' solfeggio, mi is always the note 'E' |
| Mi |  | | (Portuguese, Italian m., French m.) the note 'E' |
|
| Miami bass | also known as 'booty music', a term that may also include other genres, is a type of hip hop music that became popular in the 1980s and 1990s, known for applying the Roland TR-808 sustained kick drum, slightly higher dance tempos, and occasionally sexually explicit lyrical content |
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| Miasma (s.), Miasmata (pl.) | (Greek) noxious exhalations from putrescent matter, infection emanations, atmospheric pollution |
| mi balenò un'idea | (Italian) an idea flashed through my mind |
| Mi bémol |  |
| (French m.) the note 'E flat', the flattened third degree of the scale of C major, which in 'fixed do' solfeggio is called me |
|
| Mi bemolle | |
| (Italian m.) the note 'E flat', the flattened third degree of the scale of C major, which in 'fixed do' solfeggio is called me |
|
| Mi bemolle maggiore |
 | (Italian m.) the key of 'E flat major' |
|
 | | the scale of 'E flat major' |
|
| Mi bemoll major |
| (Catalan m.) the key of 'E flat major' |
|
| | the scale of 'E flat major' |
|
| Mi bemolle minore | (Italian m.) the key of 'E flat minor' |
| Mi bémol majeur |
| (French m.) the key of 'E flat major' |
|
| | the scale of 'E flat major' |
|
| Mi bemol mayor |
| (Spanish m.) the key of 'E flat major' |
|
| | the scale of 'E flat major' |
|
| Mi bemol menor | (Spanish m.) the key of 'E flat minor' |
| Mi bémol mineur | (French m.) the key of 'E flat minor' |
| Mic | see 'microphone' |
| mic | abbreviation of 'microphone' |
| Mi-carême | (French) mid-Lent |
| Mich | after Helga Schölz-Michelitsch, the cataloguer of music by Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) |
| Mi contra fa | (Latin, Italian) tritone, false relation |
| a quotation from a Latin rhyme, mi contra fa, diabolus est in musica, (mi against fa is the devil in music), which, in counterpoint, refers to the tritone , an awkward interval that notes bearing these two solmization syllables produce, when they occur consecutively, usually as a 'false relation' in different parts |
| MICR | acronym for 'Magnetic Ink Character Recognition', used in automatic sorting methods, for example, on cheques, based on the printing of numbers in magnetic ink on the cheque itself |
| Micro double bobinage | (French) humbucker |
| Microfono | (Italian m.) microphone |
| Micrófono | (Spanish m.) microphone |
| Microfono a condensatore | (Italian m.) condenser microphone |
| Microfono a contatto | (Italian m.) contact microphone |
| Microfono elettrodinamico | (Italian m.) electrodynamic microphone |
| Microfono elettromagnetico | (Italian m.) electromagnetic microphone |
| Microform | photographic "microcopies" of images which can be read using an enlarging machine. The two main types of microform are Microfiche, transparent rectangular sheets, and Microfilm, reels of transparent film. A wide range of material is stored on microform, including books, newspapers, journals, manuscripts, photographs, art works etc. |
| Micro-groove recording | pre-1940 records were made using shellac, but after World War II, the availability of polyvinyl chloride PVC), a flexible, more durable and less expensive plastic, allowed engineers to increase the density of grooves on the records surface to 100/centimetre (the narrower grooves were called 'micro-grooves'). This new technique, combined with PVC's excellent mechanical properties, allowed for a greater fidelity (greater frequency response and dynamic range) and so the rotation speed could be reduced (from 78 rpm to 33 1/3 rpm) so extending the 'playing time' to approximately 25 minutes |
| Microhouse | a subgenre of house and glitch music |
|
| Microinterval | see 'microtonal' |
| Micromontage | the use of musical montage technique on the time scale of microsounds |
|
| Microphone | (English, French m.) sometimes called a 'mic' (pronounced "mike"), a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal |
|
| Micropolifonía | (Spanish f.) micropolyphony |
| Micropolyphony | twentieth-century technique encompassing the complex interweaving of all musical elements, not just melody. The technique was developed by György Ligeti (1923-2006), who explained it as follows: "The complex polyphony of the individual parts is embodied in a harmonic-musical flow, in which the harmonies do not change suddenly, but merge into one another; one clearly discernible interval combination is gradually blurred, and from this cloudiness it is possible to discern a new interval combination taking shape." |
|
| Microphone à condensateur | (French m.) condenser microphone |
| Microphone à condtact | (French m.) contact microphone |
| Microphone électrodynamique | (French m.) electrodynamic microphone |
| Microphone électromagnétique | (French m.) electromagnetic microphone |
| Microsillon | (French m.) long-playing record, LP |
| Micro simple bobinage | (French) single coil, as in a microphone |
| Microsolco | (Italian m.) long-playing record, LP |
| Microsound | microsound includes all sounds on the time scale shorter than musical notes, the sound object time scale, and longer than the sample time scale. Specifically this is shorter than one tenth of a second and longer than 10 milliseconds, including the audio frequency range (20 Hz to 20 kHz) and the infrasonic frequency range (below 20 Hz) |
|
| Microtonal |
|
(English, French, Spanish) interpretations of the terms microtone and microtonal vary widely, and it is useful to note the following two basic types of usage: |
the most literal and narrow definition of the word microtone has as its reference point the Western tone (or whole tone). If a semitone is half of a tone (in terms of cents*), then according to this definition, anything smaller is classified as a 'microtone', or 'microinterval'. There are more specific names such as 'quarter-tone', 'fifth-tone', 'eighth-tone', 'sixth-tone', etc.
* Alexander J. Ellis' system for measurement of musical intervals, in which the equal-tempered semitone equals 100 cents, the whole tone 200 cents, the octave 1200 cents, and so on
|
| the most general, inclusive - and most common-usage of the term microtonal is its application to any music that makes use of intervals other than the traditional intervals of 12-note equal temperament (with its multiples of 100 cent semitones and 200 cent whole tones), which has been the standard tuning for Western music since the mid-nineteenth century.
|
| considering this second, more general application, we can easily see that there are a variety of artistic, theoretical and philosophical channels through which musicians may be drawn to those 'other intervals'. As a result there are a few different disciplines, only loosely inter-related, all of which may fall into the category 'microtonality'. These include: |
| the practice of simply adding pitches to 12-note equal temperament (most often through microtonal equal temperaments such as 24-note ('quarter-tones'), 36-note ('sixth-tones'), 48-note, 72-note, 96-note, etc.) |
| contemporary pure tuning methods such as the various modern forms of just intonation, Pythagorean and mean-tone tunings |
| historically accurate tunings of Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and Classical pieces |
| the study of non-Western tuning systems |
|
|
| Microtonalismo | (Spanish m.) microtonalism |
| Microtonality | see 'microtonal' |
|
| Microtonal music | music which makes use of intervals smaller than a semitone or half step |
| Microtonal notation | one form of microtonal notation was developed by Rauf Yekta Bey (1871-1935), Turkish musician, musicologist and writer on music, who produced the first modern account of Turkish classical music available in a Western language (La Musique turque. The article appeared in Encyclopedie de la musique et dictionnaire du Conservatoire, Premiere partie, Paris, 1922, although the article was written in 1913. His system employs 4 sharps (roughly +25 cents, +75 cents, +125 cents and +175 cents) and 4 flats (roughly -25 cents, -75 cents, -125 cents and -175 cents), none of which correspond to the tempered sharp and flat. They presuppose a Pythagorean division of the octave taking the Pythagorean comma (about an 8th of the tempered tone, actually closer to 24 cents, defined as the difference between 7 octaves and 5 just-intonation 5ths) as the basic interval. The Turkish system has been adopted by some Arab musicians. The Czech composer Alois Hába (1893-1973) is noted for his use of the quarter-tone scale, though he used other intervals such as sixth-tones and twelfth-tones. His quarter-tone system included symbols for half-sharp, sharp, sharp-and-a-half, half-flat, flat and flat-and-a-half. More recently, George D. Secor and David C. Keenan have developed 'Sagittal' |
|
|
| Microtone | see 'microtonal' |
| Microtonos | (Spanish m.) microtones |
| Microtuner | an electronic device or audio software endowed with microtuning capabilities specifically designed and used to modify the tuning of musical instruments (in particular synthesizers), hence allowing for microtonal scales, just intonation scales and tunings other than the twelve-tone equal temperament to be played |
|
| Midalang | Chinese rattle drum |
|
| Middeleeuwen | (Dutch) Middle Ages |
| middeleeuws | (Dutch) medieval |
| Middenstemming | (Dutch) meantone temperament |
| Middeltonetemperatur | (Danish) meantone temperament |
| Middentoonstemming | (Dutch) meantone temperament |
| Middle ages | a period, from about 500 AD until about 1430 AD, that is sometimes divided into two. The term 'Middle Ages' cannot be traced further back than to 1688 when Christophus Cellarius (Keller) issued Historia medii aevi |
| period | dates |
| the early middle ages | 500-1100 |
| the late middle ages or Gothic period | 1100-1450 |
|
| Middle C | do central (Spanish), do centrale (Italian), do central (French), eingestrichenes c (German) |
 | the one-accented c (c'), c' in Helmholtz notation or C4 in US Scientific notation. In the modern equal-temperament tuning system, based on a'=440Hz, c'=260Hz |
|
| see 'octave' |
|
| Middle ear | one of three conceptual anatomical divisions for the organ of hearing, including also the outer ear and the inner ear. The air-filled ear cavity located behind the eardrum or tympanic membrane. The middle ear contains three small bones, ossicles, that connect the tympanic membrane to the oval window of the cochlea. The cavity can be vented to the outside world via the eustachian tube |
| Middle eight | see 'release' |
| Middle English language | the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late fifteenth century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the introduction of the printing press into England by William Caxton in the 1470s. By this time the Northumbrian dialect spoken in south east Scotland was developing into the Scots language. The language of England as spoken after this time, up to 1650, is known as Early Modern English |
|
|
| Middle High German language | (MHG, in German Mittelhochdeutsch) the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German. In some older scholarship, the term covers a longer period, going up to 1500 |
|
|
| Middle Irish | form of the Gaelic language as it was used between 900 and 1200 |
| Middle of the road | or MOR, a broad term encompassing a number of musical styles. Not technically a genre in its own right, it was, and in some places still is, a popular radio format. Music classed as MOR is broadly popular in outlook, but not cutting edge; it is generally strongly melodic and frequently uses vocal harmony techniques and arrangements involving orchestral instruments. Such music is rarely (if ever) aggressive or abrasive |
|
|
| Middle voice | a classically trained female voice has up to three registers, the chest voice, middle voice and head voice, each characterised by a different tone quality and distinct sensations felt by the singer when she is singing |
| Midi, le | (French m.) the south of France |
| MIDI | (English, German n.) an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. MIDI is a specification for the types of control signals that can be sent from one electronic music device to another |
|
| Mi dièse | (French) the note 'E sharp' |
| Mi diesis | (Italian) the note 'E sharp' |
| MIDI event | each piece of information contained within a MIDI file is an event. This includes 'notes' (attack and release), 'control changes', 'system exclusive', 'meta events', 'program changes', etc. |
| MIDI-Kanal | (English, German m.) MIDI channel |
| Midinette | (French f.) a girl apprenticed to a dressmaker, a milliner's assistant |
| MIDI Tuning Standard | or MTS, a specification of musical pitch agreed to by the MIDI Manufacturers Association |
|
| MIDI Tuning Standard unit: | 1/196608 part of an octave. This divides the 12-tET semitone into 214 = 16384 parts which resolution makes sufficiently accurate tuning of electronic instruments possible. See the MIDI Tuning Specification 1.0. There are other MIDI tuning units which differ per manufacturer, for example Yamaha has models tuned in 1/768 or 1/1024 parts of an octave. There is also the MIDI Pitch Bend message, which can carry the values -8192 .. 8191, so when the range (which is variable) is the standard range of +/- 200 cents, then the unit is 1/49152 part of an octave or 0.024414 cents |
|
| Midjweh | midjwiz or mijwiz, a folk double clarinet found in the Nile region of Egypt that has versions found throughout the Mediterranean Near East and even as far away as western China. It is generally made from cane, and has two pipes of the same length, each containing a reed and toneholes |
| see 'double clarinet' |
|
| Mi doppio bemolle |  |
| (Italian m.) the note 'E double flat', the doubly flattened third degree of the scale of C major |
|
| Mi doppio diesis |  |
| (Italian m.) the note 'E double sharp', the doubly sharpened third degree of the scale of C major |
|
| Mi double bémol | |
| (French M.) the note 'E double flat', the doubly flattened third degree of the scale of C major |
|
| Mi double dièse | |
| (French m.) the note 'E double sharp', the doubly sharpened third degree of the scale of C major |
|
| Mi-doux | (French) moderately soft (in volume of sound), mezzo piano (Italian), halbleise (German), mittelleise (German) |
| Mi gaung | Burmese three stringed instrument in the shape of a crocodile |
|
| Midjwiz | see midjweh |
| Miedo al público | (Spanish m.) stage fright |
| Mi-forte | (French) moderately loud, mezzoforte or mezzo forte (Italian), halbstark or mittelstark (German) |
| Mighty handful | Kutchka |
| migliorato | (Italian) improved |
| Mignolo | (Italian m.) little finger |
| Mignon (m.), Mignonne (f.) | (French) a small delicate person |
| mignon (m.), mignonne (f.) | (French) delicately small, dainty |
| Migraine | (English, French) or megrim (anglicized French), a severe nervous headache |
| Migrant cantus firmus | a cantus firmus that is treated canonically, the chant therefore appearing in all voices and not just the ones to which it is usually restricted |
| Mih | Croatian reed instrument similar to a bagpipe but without a drone - also known as diple and mjeh |
| Mihbaj | a Bedouin coffee-grinder made of wood, with a base that is about 30 cm. tall and a 60 cm. pestle which serves the double purpose: as a household item and, when an expert artist uses it, as a percussion instrument |
| Miijiru | (Okinawan, literally 'female-string') the thinnest of the three strings of the sanshin |
| Mijwiz | Lebanese double clarinet |
| see 'double clarinet' |
| Mikado | (Japanese) the title of the Emperor of Japan |
| Mikrofon | (German n.) microphone |
| Mikrofonabstand | (German m.) distance to the microphone |
| Mikrofongalgen | (German m.) or Mikrofonangel (German f.), boom arm (for a microphone) |
| Mikrofotographie | (German f.) microphotography |
| Mikromann | (German m.) boom operator |
| Mikrophon | (German n.) microphone |
| Mikrophonie | composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen in 1964, this is among the first electronic performance works |
|
| Mikropolyphonie | (German f.) micropolyphony |
| Micropolyphony | a type of twentieth-century musical texture involving the use of sustained dissonant chords that shift slowly over time |
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| Mikroton (s.), Mikrotöne (pl.) | (German m.) microtone |
| mikrotonal | (German) microtonal |
| mil | (Catalan) thousand |
| Milanese chant | see 'Ambrosian chant' |
| Milanese Rite | see 'Ambrosian Rite' |
| Milhûn | (Arabic) a form of sung poetry in Moroccan colloquial Arabic (Darija) which uses many of the modes and instruments found in al-âla. A milhûn suite is comprised of two parts, the taqsim overture played on an oud or kamenjah in a free rhythm to introduce the mode for the rest of the piece, followed by the qassida, or sung poem which is itself divided into three parts. These are the solo verses (al-aqsâm), choral refrain (al-harba) and crescendoing chorus that completes the suite (al-dîdka). As well as the oud and violin, milhûn orchestras are made up of darbuka, handqa (small cymbals), hadjouj (a bass lute) and swisen (a high-pitched lute) |
|
| Milieu | (French m.) middle |
| (French m.) (social) environment, (social) surroundings, (intellectual) atmosphere |
| militaire | (French) military |
| militairement | (French) military, in a military or martial style, militarily, alla militare (Italian), militarmente (Italian), militärisch (German) |
| militar | (Spanish) military |
| militär | (German) military |
| militare | (Italian) military |
| militärisch | (German) military, in a military or martial style, militarily, alla militare (Italian), militarmente (Italian), militairement (French) |
| militarmente | (Italian) military, in a military or martial style, militarily, alla militare (Italian), militärisch (German), militairement (French) |
| Militärmusik | (German f.) military music |
| (German f.) a military band |
| Militärtrommel | (German f.) military snare drum, field drum |
| Military band | a regimental band made up of woodwind, brass and percussion, a description that can also be applied to civilian marching bands which may also be called 'concert bands' or 'wind orchestras' |
| disposition of a French military band according to a Royal Commission, chaired by Minister for War de Rumigny, set up in 1845: |
| 1 | small flute in C |
| 1 | small clarinet in E-flat |
| 14 | omnitonique clarinets in B-flat (first and second parts) |
| 2 | bass clarinets in B-flat (according to Sax's plans, with a metal bell) |
| 2 | saxophones |
| 2 | oboes (modele allemand) |
| 2 | bassoons (avec pavillon de cuivre) |
| 2 | cornets with three valves |
| 2 | trumpets with three valves (systéme Sax) |
| 4 | valve horns |
| 1 | small saxhorn in E-flat |
| 2 | saxhorns in B-flat |
| 2 | alto saxhorns in E-flat |
| 3 | bass saxhorns in B-flat with three or four valves |
| 4 | contrabass saxhorns in E-flat |
| 1 | valve trombone (systéme Sax) |
| 2 | trombones |
| 2 | ophicleides |
| 5 | percussionists |
|
| Military pop | or 'martial music', is very similar to 'neofolk' |
| Military snare drum | a drum, lightly larger than the standard snare drum, that in the United States is called the field drum |
| Milk jug | percussion instrument used by Hungarian Gypsy musicians |
| Mille feuilles | (French) a kind of 'puff' pastry consisting of multiple layers of thin flakes |
| Millefiori | (Italian) a form of ornamental glass made by fusing together a number of threads of coloured glass and embedding a cross-section in transparent glass |
| Millefleurs | (French) a perfume distilled from a large number of different kinds of flowers |
| Millegrain | (French) a setting for a precious stone in which the edge of the stone is gripped by a continuous band of minute beads of metal |
| Millennium (s.), Millennia (pl.) | (Latin) a thousand year period |
| Millioctave | (abbreviations: m8ve, µ8ve, moct, µoct) an interval measurement which simply divides the 'octave' (2:1 ratio) into 1000 logarithmically-equal parts. The interval was named and used by Arthur Joachim von Oettingen (1836-1920) in his book Das duale Harmoniesystem (1913). Alfred Jonqière indicated the millioctave with the Greek letter μ. It was first used however by John Herschel in the book which he wrote with George Bidell Airy On Sound and Atmospheric Vibrations with the Mathematical Elements of Music (1871). Sometimes millioctaves are propagated as a "value-free" substitute for cents, not having the 12-tET bias, because the round cent numbers may lead people to the false belief that the intervals are perfectly in tune. However using these millioctaves introduces a 10-tET bias, which is a much less familiar tuning. Often the cent values of just intervals are easy to remember by their deviation from the 12-tET multiple of 100, for example the pure fifth is 702 cents, with millioctaves this is harder: 585 millioctaves compared to 583.333. Another advantage of cents is the size of the schisma: almost 2 cents against 1.63 M.O. |
|
| Milonga | the milonga, which precedes the tango in history, was a solo song cultivated during the nineteenth century by the gaucho (an Argentine cowboy) in the vast rural area known as the Pampa. It derives from the payada de contrapunto, in which two singers (payadores), accompanying themselves on the guitar, improvised on different topics in a competition-like practice. The verses were octosyllabic quartets structured in a musical period of eight measures in 2/4. The term milonga is an African-Brazilian term that means words, i.e., the words of the payadores. It may also be called rural milonga in order to distinguish it from later developments of the genre |
| Spanish dance first originated in Andalusia |
|
| Milonga urbana | see tango |
| Milongon | (Uruguay) a slow candombe |
| Milord | (from the French) a wealthy Englishman travelling abroad |
| Mi maior |
 | (Portuguese m.) the key of 'E major' |
|
 |
| the scale of 'E major' |
|
| Mi majeur |
| (French m.) the key of 'E major' |
|
|
| the scale of 'E major' |
|
| Mi major |
| (Catalan m.) the key of 'E major' |
|
|
| the scale of 'E major' |
|
| Mi mayor |
| (Spanish m.) the key of 'E major' |
|
|
| the scale of 'E major' |
|
| Mime | in dance, movements that a dancer uses to 'talk' without words |
| Mi menor | (Spanish m.) the key of 'E minor' |
| Mimesis | (Greek) imitation, mimicry, impersonation (usually unconscious) |
| in ancient Greek drama, memisis was the form that showed rather than told the thoughts or the inner processes of characters, by external action and acting |
|
|
| Mi mineur | (French m.) the key of 'E minor' |
| Mi minore | (Italian m.) the key of 'E minor' |
| Mimodrama | a performance, with or without music, in which dramatic action is conveyed by gesture and choreography instead of words |
| min. | abbreviation of minore (Italian: minor), 'minor' |
| Mina | a cylindrical drum found in Venezuela |
| (Cuba) an Afro-Cuban dance, closely related to the Brazilian martial dance capoeira |
| Mina | 1/2460 part of an octave, named by Dave Keenan and George Secor as an abbreviation of schismina. It is 0.487805 cents or 1/205 part of a 100 cent semitone, and selected because 2460-tone equal temperament is consistent up to the 28th harmonic and its step is therefore a useful measure in which to express high-limit just ratios, with very little roundoff errors. They use it in the development of their Sagittal notation system. Although for that purpose the exact size of one mina is 1/233 part of a Pythagorean apotome, or 0.487918 cents or 1/2459.427234 octave |
|
| minaccevole | (Italian) menacing, threatening |
| minaccevolmente | (Italian) menacingly, threateningly |
| minacciando | (Italian) in a menacing manner, in a threatening manner |
| minacciosamente | (Italian) in a menacing or threatening manner |
| minaccioso | (Italian) menacing, threatening |
| Minauderie | (French) affectation, coquettish manners |
| Mina y curbata | a set of one-headed Afro-Venezuelan barrel drums made from avocado wood. The mina drum is about 2 metres long and is played diagonally, hitting it with sticks. The curbata is about 1 metre long and it is also played with sticks |
| mind. | abbreviation of mindestens (German: at least - au moins (French)) |
| minder | (German) less |
| Mindestabstand | (German m.) minimum distance |
| mindestens | (German) at least, au moins (French) |
| Mineiro | a metal cylindrical shaker filled with metal shot or small dried seeds that features in maracatu nação (also known as maracatu de baque virado) an Afro-Brazilian performance genre |
| Mineras | see flamenco |
| Minerva | in Roman mythology, the equivalent of the Greek goddess Athena, goddess of war, wisdom and of the arts and crafts |
| Minestrone | (Italian) a substantial soup made of rice, pasta and various kinds of vegetables |
| the term is used in English for any mixture of disparate things |
| mineur | (Dutch) minor |
| mineur (m.), mineure (f.) | (French) minor, moll (German) |
| mineur-akkord | (Dutch) minor triad |
| Mineure melodique | (French f.) melodic minor |
| Mineur met verhoogde septiem | (Dutch) minor with raised seventh |
| Mineure naturelle | (French f.) natural minor, pure minor |
| Mineur none akkord | (Dutch) minor ninth chord |
| Mineur septiem akkord | (Dutch) minor seventh chord |
| Mineur toonladder | (Dutch) minor scale |
| Mingulay boat song | see 'boat song' |
| Miniature score | also 'pocket score' or 'study score', a musical score (usually 13·5 × 18·5 cm) not primarily intended for performance use, with the notation and/or text reduced in size |
| Miniaturpartitur | (German f.) miniature score |
| Mini-jazz | a type of jazz music characterized by swing dancing and jazzy melodies with influences from rock music. Predominant in Haiti in the 1970s, its popularity has waned since the 1990s |
|
| Minim | blanca (Spanish), minima (Italian), blanche (French), minime (French), half note (US), Halbe (German), halbe Note (German) |
 | a half note, a note half the value of a semibreve (whole note) |
|
|
| Minima |  | in mensural notation, equivalent to a minim or half note |
|
| (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese) a half note, a note half the value of a semibreve (whole note) |
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| Minimal Electronica | a musical genre containing elements of other electronic genres, such as ambient and glitch |
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| Minimalism | late twentieth-century style characterized by the slowing down of musical processes through the repetition-with-variation of short fragments |
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| Minimalismo | (Spanish m.) minimalism |
| Minimalismus | (German m.) minimalism |
| Minimalista | (Spanish m./f.) minimalist (composer, painter, etc.) |
| minimalistisch | (German) minimalistic |
| Minimal music | also called 'process music', music in the style called 'minimalism' |
| Minimal process | repetitive process on a small number of elements, for example, In C by Terry Riley (b. 1935) or Koyanisqatsi by Phillip Glass (b. 1937) |
| Minimal psychedelic trance | also referred to as 'minimalist trance', 'psytekk', 'progressive psytrance' and 'psyprog', a style of electronic trance music developed in the early 2000s, developed as a sub-genre of psychedelic and Goa trance |
|
| Minimal techno | a minimalist sub-genre of Techno music. It is characterized by a stripped-down, glitchy sound, a simple 4/4 beat (usually around 120-135 BPM) and the repetition of short loops. Related styles are Minimal Electronica, ambient techno, minimal house, microhouse and tech house |
|
| Minime | (French f.) or blanche (French), a minim |
| Minim rest | silencio de blanca (Spanish), pausa de blanca (Spanish), pausa di minima (Italian), demi-pause (French), half rest (US), halbe Pause (German) |
 | a half rest, a rest half the value of a semibreve rest (whole rest) |
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| Minister | (Latin) attendant, retainer, minister |
| Ministeriale (s.), Minstrerialn (pl.) | (German) a member of the class of service nobility in the Middle Ages in Germany |
| Ministerialis (s.), Ministeriales (pl.) | (Latin) as used in English, meaning originally an official in the imperial service |
| Ministralis | (Middle Latin) retainer |
| Ministrel | (Middle Latin) retainer |
| Ministrello | (Italian m.) minstrel |
| Ministril (s.), Ministriles (pl.) | (Spanish m.) or músico de viento, a wind instrumentalist associated with the church |
| (Spanish m.) troubadour, ménestrel |
| Minium | (Latin) in art, vermillion, red crystalline mercuric suphide, red lead, red oxide of lead |
| Minjayra | ney |
| Minne | (German) love |
| Minnedichter | (German) medieval German poets who flourished between 1138 and 1347 |
| Minnelied (s.), Minnelieder (pl.) | (German n.) German vernacular love songs of the 12th- to 15th-centuries, generally in two sections, the first repeated, the second not |
| although the formal love song is the most common type found in Minnesang at all periods, but there were also others: |
| Botenlied | address to a messenger | the lady or the man reveal to a messenger emotions that, by convention, could not be expressed directly to the beloved |
| Kreuzlied | crusading song | this song does not usually tell of a crusade and its hardships, but rather of the pain caused by leaving the beloved behind |
| Wechsel | conversation song | this song represents an actual conversation between two lovers, but often convention is served by making the conversation take place in a dream. In all these types of poems the rules of formal love poetry are preserved, and the formal aspects of the Minnelied (love song) appear |
| Tagelied | dawn song | derived from the Provençal alba, it shows the parting of two lovers at dawn after a night of illicit love. A watchman cries that dawn has come; the lovers are in danger from spies sent by a jealous husband or perhaps from a less successful suitor. The stress is on the feelings of the woman rather than those of the man, and there is no attempt to idealize the situation. The form was not popular with German poets since there are few examples of it in early lyric poetry, and even after Romance traditions became established, resorting to a dreamlike setting seemed to be preferable to an explicit portrayal in the Romance vein |
| Pastourelle | pastoral song | from the Occitan pastorella, the pastourelle was a poetic genre that was popular throughout France in the 12th and 13th centuries. Set in the countryside, a man discovers and attempts to seduce a young woman, usually a shepherdess. The poem includes both narrative (the man's point of view), and dialogue. In this way it contrasts with the conventions of courtly love by having the object of desire being not a noble lady where social constraints dictate events, but a commoner, with the less refined associations that would be drawn by the listener |
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| Minneliet | (Middle High German) Minnelied |
| Minnesang | (German) courtly and secular music in Medieval Germany, cultivated by the nobility although similar in many ways to the troubadour tradition, focussing on the idea of 'courtly love' or Minnedienst, the loyality and devotion of a knight to an unattainable lady |
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| Minnesänger | (German m.) or Minnesinger, the German counterpart of the troubadour/trouvere, a medieval poet-musician. Usually from the upper classes particularly those of knightly rank, they were part of the Minnesang tradition, singing of heroism, love and nature, although their tone was more idealistic than that of their Provencal/French equivalents. They were active in Germany between c. 1150 and ca. 1325. There were two chief schools: that from the Danube and that from the Rhine valleys (both great highways to the Crusades, thus frequented by travelling troubadours who spread theirart). Minnesingers declined in the thirteenth century and were replaced by Meistersingers |
- Jester from which this information has been taken
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| Minnim | (Hebrew) strings (Psalms 150:4), probably a stringed instrument |
| Minor | minore (Italian), Moll (German), mineur (French), lesser, smaller (particularly when discussing intervals, scales, keys and chords) |
| Minor II-V-I | a II-V-I progression in a minor key |
| Minor Color | colored notes in tempus imperfectum which consist of a blackened semibreve followed by a blackened minim. Although this may have originally been intended to be a triplet, during the Renaissance, it represented a dotted minim followed by a semiminim. (In Apel's description of minor color, he erroneously claims that it represents a dotted semiminim followed by a fusa, but shows the correct note shapes!) |
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| Minor diesis | see diesis |
| Minore | (Italian) less, smaller, shorter, lower |
| (Italian) minor (when referring to key or interval) |
| (Asia Minor) see matzore |
| Minor interval | the interval a chromatic semitone (half-step) narrower or smaller than a major interval |
| Minor key | tono minore (Italian), Moll Tonart (German), ton mineur (French), a key which has a minor interval between its first and third degree |
| Minor large chord | an alternative name for the 'minor major seventh chord' |
| Minor major mode | the first mode of the melodic minor scale - also the chord derived from that mode |
| Minor major seventh chord | a seventh chord consisting of a minor triad plus a major seventh |
| Minor mode | a mode, or scale, in which the third and sixth are minor |
| Minor ninth chord | equivalent to a dominant ninth chord in a minor key |
| Minor pentatonic | a five-note scale consisting of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th degrees of a natural minor scale |
| Minor scale | scala minore (Italian), Moll Tonleiter (German), gamme mineur (French) |
| the three standard minor scales used in Western music are: |
| natural minor scale | also called the Aeolian mode, exactly as the key signature dictates. This is the minor scale that is not altered. It begins on the note a minor third below the tonic or key-note of the major scale for which the key signature would usually apply. Thus the D natural minor scale, with a key signature of one flat, uses the same sequence of notes as the F major scale but begins and ends on D, i.e. D, E, F, G, A, B flat, C, D.
The interval sequence for the rising natural minor scale is T-S-T-T-S-T-T (T=tone or whole-step, S=semitone or half-step) |
| harmonic minor scale | contains the pitches most commonly used to form the harmony in the minor key. The only altered note is the seventh scale degree which is raised by a semitone (half-step) to form a leading note. The V chord, the tonicizing chord, requires this leading note to function properly. Thus, the D harmonic linor scale has the same note sequence as the D natural minor scale but with the seventh scale degree C, raised to C sharp.
The interval sequence for the rising harmonic minor scale is T-S-T-T-S-T+S-S (T=tone or whole-step, S=semitone or half-step) |
| melodic minor scale | contains the pitches that are often used in melodies that approach the tonic from below and fall away from the tonic. In this scale then, the sixth and seventh scale degrees are altered. In the harmonic minor scale, there is an augmented second between the sixth and seventh scale degree. This makes no difference in a collection of pitches used to form harmony. However, intervals like this are avoided in melodic usage, and the melodic minor scale accounts for this by raising the sixth degree as well as the seventh. This way, a melody can approach the tonic with a leading tone, and the leading tone can be approached by step as well. Notice that the descending melodic minor scale approaches the dominant the same way the ascending scale approaches the tonic so the sixth and seventh degree no longer need to be altered and it is in the unaltered natural minor form. Thus the ascending D melodic minor scale is D, E, F, G, A, B natural, C sharp, D, and the descending D melodic minor scale is D, C, B flat, A, G, F, E, D
The rising interval sequence for the melodic minor scale is T-S-T-T-T-T-S (T=tone or whole-step, S=semitone or half-step). The falling sequence is identical to that for the falling natural minor scale |
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| Minor second | an interval comprising a semitone (half step) |
| Minor semitone | an older term for 'chromatic semitone' (for example, C to C#) |
| Minor seven flat five chord | half diminished seventh chord |
| Minor seventh | an interval of five tones (whole steps) |
| ditonus cum diapente |
| Minor seventh chord | a seventh chord consisting of a minor triad plus a minor seventh chord |
| Minor six (6) pentatonic scale |  |
| a scale that is useful in jazz, but not so much used in blues or rock. The minor 6 pentatonic scale can be used over many chords including a minor 6 chord |
| Minor sixth | an interval comprising four tones (four steps) |
| semitonium cum diapente |
| Minor tetrachord | a rising row of four notes with successive intervals T-S-T (T=tone or whole-step, S=semitone or half-step) |
| Minor third | an interval comprising three semitones (i.e. a tone and a semitone, or a step and a half) |
| Minor triad |
 | | a chord consisting of a minor third above which is placed a major third. The example shown here is the G minor triad |
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| Minor triple (meter) | the meter 3/8, so-called because it should be played twice as fast as music written in 3/4 |
| Minshingaku | (Japanese, literally 'Ming-period music') Japanese genre of chamber music based on Chinese musical forms and instruments of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) that reached its peak popularity in the sixteenth century |
| Minsogak | (Korean) or minsok-ak, folk music |
| Minstreel | (Dutch) minstrel |
| Minstrel | (English, German m.) from the French, menestrel, menestrier) the word menestrier, first coined in the fourteenth century, referred to the superior class of musicians, the jongleur. The word menestrier, which is related to the word 'minister', may refer to the duty of providing musical accompaniment to the troubadours. The profession was known as menestrandie, from which came menestrel. This group were further divided into menestrel de bouche (singer), menestrel de guerre (military instrument player), and so on. When the word menestrel emigrated from the Continent to England, it was changed to minstrel, (related to the Saxon gleemen) |
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| Minstrel harp | see 'celtic harp' |
| Minstrel show | the 'minstrel show' or 'minstrelsy' of the mid to late nineteenth-century United States included performers who sang songs and danced dances mimicking blacks (African-Americans) with banjo and percussion accompaniment, the performers being both black and white dressed in black-face. The minstrel show began with brief burlesques and comic entr'actes in the early 1830s and emerged as a full-fledged form in the next decade. By the end of the 1850s, minstrel shows as such had become a "lifeless ... [but] profitable" institution, which lingered on for several decades. By the turn of the century, the minstrel show enjoyed but a shadow of its former popularity, having been replaced for the most part by vaudeville. It survived as professional entertainment until about 1910, and was performed until the 1950s in high schools, fraternities, local theatres. In the 1950s as African Americans began to score legal and social victories against racism and to successfully assert political power, minstrelsy lost popularity |
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| Minstrelsy | see 'minstrel show' |
| Minteki | (Japanese) or shinteki, a transverse flute used in minshingaku, the Chinese-style chamber ensemble of Japan |
| see shinteki |
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| Minué | (Spanish m.) minuet |
| Minuet | minuetto (Italian), Menuett (German), menuet (French), a graceful French dance in simple triple time often appearing as a section of extended works (e.g. dance suites) of the 17th- and 18th-centuries. Later minuets are generally quicker than the earlier form |
| the minuet remains an element in folk dance in countries such as Finland and parts of Sweden |
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| Minuet and trio | an ABA form (A=minuet; B=trio - because the minuet is repeated this form is sometimes called a 'double minuet') in a moderate triple meter that is often the third movement of the Classical sonata cycle |
| Minuettina | (Italian) a little minuet |
| Minuetto | (Italian m.) minuet |
| Minuscule | (English) in medieval manuscripts, script composed of lower case letters |
| minuscule | (French) tiny, microscopic |
| Minutario | (Spanish m.) minute book (for keeping a record of the business at meetings) |
| Minute | (English, German f.) a period of time equal to one sixtieth of an hour. One minute is equivalent to 60 seconds |
| Minuterie | (French) small pieces of jeweller's work, an automatic time-switch that turns off corridor or landing lights automatically after a fixed period of time from when they are switched on |
| Minutia (s.), Minutiae (pl.) | (Latin) a trivial detail, a minor peculiarity |
| Minyo | Japanese and Korean folk songs |
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| Mir | (Russian) a Russian village community |
| Mirabile dictu | (Latin) wonderful to relate |
| Mirabile visu | (Latin) wonderful to behold |
| Mirabilia | (Latin pl.) things to wonder at, astonishing things |
| Mirabrás | see flamenco |
| Miracle plays | or 'mystery plays', the use of drama to tell biblical stories, popular in Medieval Enhgland, also called 'Mysteries' or 'Moralities'. They developed from the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song, such as the Quem Quaeritis - a short musical performance set at the tomb of the risen Christ. These simple structures were developed with tropes, verbal embellishment of the liturgical text, and became more elaborate. As these liturgical plays became more popular, more vernacular elements were introduced and non-clergy began to participate. As the dramas became increasingly secular, they began to be performed entirely in the vernacular and were moved out of the churches by the thirteenth or fourteenth century |
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| Miracle temperament | in music, miracle temperament is a regular temperament invented by George Secor which has as a generator an interval, called the secor, which serves as both the 15/14 and 16/15 semitones. Because 15/14 and 16/15 are equated, their ratio (15/14)/(16/15) = 225/224, sometimes called the septimal kleisma, is tempered out, and two secors give an 8/7 interval. Three of these 8/7 intervals, or six secors, make up a fifth, so that (3 / 2) / (8 / 7)3 = 1029 / 1024, an interval sometimes called the gamelan residue, is also tempered out. This gives the 7-limit version of miracle |
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| Mirada | (Spanish f.) look |
| Mirage | (French) an optical illusion observable in sandy deserts, hot road surfaces, etc., which produces the appearance of sheets of water |
| the word is now applied more generally to mean an illusion of something pleasant which has no real existence |
| mirar | (Spanish) to look at, to check, to watch, to look after, to think, to consider, to be careful, to see, to face, |
| mirarse | (Spanish) to think twice, to look at one another, to look at each other |
| mirarse en el espejo | (Spanish) to look at oneself in the mirror |
| Mirilla | (Spanish f.) peephole, spyhole |
| mir kam zum Bewußtsein | (German) I realised |
| mir kam zum Bewußtsein daß | (German) I realised that |
| Mirliton | (Dutch, Italian m., English, German m., French m.) a membranophone in which a freely vibrating membrane distorts the sound used to excite it, for example, the kazoo |
| Miroloyia | (Greek) dirges sung by women as part of the cermonies following a death |
| Mirror | a term used to describe a part appearing upside down, which if set directly below the original part it would appear like the other reflected in a mirror lying between the two lines |
| Mirror canon | a musical palindrome, a canon that sounds the same when sung or played backwards |
| Misa | (Spanish f.) Mass, messe (French) |
| Misa baja | (Spanish f.) Low Mass, messe basse (French) |
| Misa cantada | (Spanish f.) sung Mass, messe chantée (French) |
| Misa católica | (Spanish f.) Mass of the Roman rite |
| Misa de Aguinaldo | (Spanish f.) see aguinaldo |
| Misa de campaña | (Spanish f.) outdoor Mass, messe en plein air (French) |
| Misa de cuerpo presente | (Spanish f.) funeral Mass |
| Misa de difuntos | (Spanish f.) Mass for the dead, messe de Requiem (French), messe des morts (French) |
| Misa de esponsales | (Spanish f.) betrothal Mass |
| Misa de Gallo | (Spanish f.) the word gallo ('rooster') associates the Mass with when it is held (the first sound of dawn or at the crowing of the rooster), the Christmas Eve Mass, or Mass held at midnight of Dec. 25, to formally welcome the Nativity of the Messiah |
| Misa del alba | (Spanish f.) morning Mass, première messe (French) |
| Misa del gallo | (Spanish f.) Christmas midnight Mass, messe de minuit (French) |
| Misa gregoriana | (Spanish f.) Mass using the Gregorian rite |
| mis à jour | (French) brought up to date |
| Misal | (Spanish m.) missal, hymn-book |
| Misa mayor | (Spanish f.) High Mass, grand-messe (French) |
| Misa negra | (Spanish f.) black Mass, messe noire (French) |
| Misa pontifical | (Spanish f.) papal Mass, messe pontificale (French) |
| Misa privada | (Spanish f., literally 'private mass') Low Mass |
| Misa rezada | (Spanish f., literally 'prayed mass') Low Mass |
| Misa solemne | (Spanish f.) messe solennelle (French) |
| Misatobue | (Japan) a modified shinobue in which an extra finger hole has been added at a the back near mouthpiece, so as to facilitate the production of sounds otherwise difficult to obtain on the shinobue. This hole is stopped by the thumb of the left hand |
- Misatobue from which this extract has been taken
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| Misa votiva | (Spanish f.) votive Mass (celebrated for a special intention) |
| miscelare | (Italian) to mix |
| Miscella | (Latin) a mixture stop in the organ |
| Miscellaneous | (English) of mixed composition or character, of various kinds |
| Miscellania | (Latin pl.) a collection of writings on miscellaneous subjects |
| Miscellany | (English from the Latin miscellania) a collection of writings on miscellaneous subjects, mixture, medley |
| mischen | (German) to mix, to master (a recording) |
| Mischpult | (German n.) sound mixer, mixer, mixing desk |
| Miscible | (English) capable of being mixed |
| Misconceive | (English) have a wrong idea or conception |
| (English) badly planned, badly organized, etc. |
| mise | (French) putting |
| mise au point | (French) focussing, the clarifying and illuminating of an obscurity |
| mise de voix | (French, literally 'placing the voice') messa di voce |
| mise de page | (French) the arrangement of printed matter on the page of a book, typographical design |
| mise en espace | (French) the staging of a play on an open stage in an amphitheatre |
| mise en scène | (French f.) the production or staging of a play |
| the use of the term has been extended include 'the background against which some action takes place' or 'the setting of a work of fiction' |
| mis en ordre | (French) arranged |
| mis en relief | (French) emphasized, risaltato (Italian), hervorgehoben (German) |
| Miserere | (English, German n., Latin, literally 'have mercy') named for its opening words, Miserere mei, Deus, the 51st Psalm sung in the Roman Office for the Dead and during Holy Week |
| a small bracket on the underside of a hinged seat arranged to give some support to a person standing in front of it |
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| Mishra raga | in Hindustani classical music, the mixture of two or more ragas |
| Mishrokitha | (Hebrew) probably the Chaldean name for a flute with two reeds (Daniel 3:5) |
| Misiva | (Spanish f.) missive (a short written note) |
| Misma nota | (Spanish f.) same note |
| mismo (m.), misma (f.) | (Spanish) same |
| Misnjaca | see hrvatski tanac |
| Misnice | bagpipe from Dalmatia (Croatia) and Herzegovina (Bosnia-Herzegovina), made of goatskin. The chanter is a double pipe with six holes on each side. One pipe is used as the drone and occasionally fingered, the other side used for the tune, in nearly the same register as the drone |
| Misolidio | (Italian) Mixolydian |
| Misomusist | not so much a passive ignorer of culture, as an active opponent of it |
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| Missa | (Latin) the Mass |
| Missa brevis | (Latin, literally 'short mass') a concise or less elaborate setting of the Mass |
| a setting of the Kyrie and Gloria only |
| Missa cantata | (Latin) a 'chanted' mass, a compromise between the missa solemnis and missa privata, a Low Mass accompanied by choral chants |
| Missa La sol fa re mi | the five-note theme from Josquin's 1502 Missa La sol fa re mi was borrowed by subsequent composers and used in vocal and instrumental compositions at least until 1626. Examples include vihuelist Diego Pisador's 1552 Fantasia del quarto tono sobre la sol fa re mi, lutenist Albert de Rippe's 1555 Fantasie XVII, Neapolitan composer Rocco Rodio's 1579 Quinta Ricercata, and Girolamo Frescobaldi's 1624 Capriccio sopra la, sol, fa, re, mi |
| Missal | a book of the Church containing all the texts and musical notation necessary for the celebration of the Mass |
| Missale | (Latin) missal |
| Missa privata | (Latin) Low Mass, a simplified form of the Mass in which a single Celebrant takes on the Deacon and Subdeacon roles and where the whole service is spoken |
| Missa pro defunctis | (Latin) requiem Mass |
| Missa solemnis | (Latin, literally 'solemn mass') High Mass, which includes singing by the Celebrant, deacon and subdeacon, as well as chanting or polyphonic singing by the choir |
| as a musical setting, a missa solemnis is elaborate, often symphonic, and suitable for liturgical use |
| Missa solennis | (Latin) missa solemnis |
| misshällig | (German) dissonant, discordant |
| Misshälligkeit | (German f.) dissonance, discordance |
| misshellig | (German) dissonant, discordant |
| Misshelligkeit | (German f.) dissonance, discordance |
| Missing fundamental | also called 'suppressed fundamental' or 'phantom fundamental'. A sound is said to have a missing, suppressed or phantom fundamental when its overtones suggest a fundamental frequency but the sound lacks a component at the fundamental frequency itself |
| Mission civilisatrice | (French f.) the duty of European nations to bring civilization to their colonial subject peoples |
| Mississippi saxophone | see 'harmonica' |
| Missklang (s.), Missklänge (pl.) | (German m.) discord, dissonance, cacophony |
| Misslaut | (German) dissonance |
| misslauten | (German) to sound discordantly |
| misslautend | (German) disonant, discordant |
| Missstimmung | (German) discord, dissonance |
| Misston (s.), Misstöne (pl.) | (German m.) false note |
| misstönend | (German) discordant (as in 'discordant note') |
| misterieux (m.), misterieuse (f.) | (French) mysterious, in a mysterious manner |
| misteriosamente | (Italian) mysteriously, in a mysterious manner |
| misterioso | (Italian) mysteriously, in a mysterious manner |
| Mistero | (Italian m.) mystery |
| Mistica | (Italian f.) mysticism |
| Mistico | (Italian m.) mystic |
| Mistral | (French) a strong colod north-west wind, the equivalent of the Italian maestrale |
| Mistura | (Italian f.) mix |
| Misura | (Italian f.) measure, bar, time |
| misurato | (Italian) measured, in strict time, a battuta (Italian), im Takt (German), im Zeitmaß (German), à mesure (French) |
| Misure |
| (Italian) in Renaissance dance there were four characteristic tempos and movements. Whereas the bassadanza remains in one time signature throughout its dance, balli of the fifteenth century could be composed of any of four different misura or measures. Each of the misura had a unique tempo, time signature, and a special way to approach the steps: |
| piva misura | considered the least important of the measures, usually written in 2/4 time (occasionally in 6/8 time), with the fastest steps of the four. It is danced as though it were in duple time. The term piva can also indicate a special step as well as a particular misura. The piva step is described as being a "fast double" , but it is unclear quite what this means |
| salterello misura | the measure, least important but one, usually written in 3/4 time (occasionally in 6/8 time), with the second fastest steps. The saltarello step, a double step which includes a hop, also appears in other misure. The saltarello misura has a time signature of 6/8 which is usually reconstructed with 6 beats per measure |
| quadernaria misura | usually written in 4/4 time, the quaternaria is the only dance misura of the fifteenth century that is not found as an independent dance. Faster than the bassadanza, this is a four-beat walking step with a stamp on the last beat
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| bassadanza misura | considered to be the most important of the measures, "the queen of measures", usually written in 6/4 time, with steps that are the slowest and most elegant just like the dance of the same name. The bassadanza is a slow, stately dance form, elegant in style, and often processional. It is usually reconstructed with either 3 or 6 beats per measure |
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| MIT | abbreviation of 'Massachusetts Institute of Technology' |
| mit | (German) by, with |
| mit Abzügen | see Abzug |
| mit Ach und Krach | (German) by the skin of one's teeth (something barely achieved or achieved at the very last minute) |
| mit Affekt | (German) with passion, with warmth |
| mit Anbetung | (German) con adorazione (Italian), adoringly, avec adoration (French) |
| mit Andacht | (German) devoutly, with devotion |
| mit anfassen | (German) lend a hand |
| mit angenehmen Registern | (German) with pleasing stops (in organ playing) |
| mit angenehmer Stimme | (German) sweetvoiced |
| mit anhören | (German) overhear |
| Mitarbeiter | (German m.) collaborator, co-worker |
| mit aufgehobener Dämpfung | (German) take away (or release) the dampers |
| mit Aufschwung | (German) in a lofty, impassioned style |
| mit Aufschwung, aber nicht eilen | (German) with impetus, but not rushing |
| mit Ausdehnung | (German) con ampiezza (Italian), with breadth, mit Weite (German), avec ampleur (French) |
| mit Ausdruck | (German) with expression, expressively |
| mit automatischer Dichtung | (German) selfsealing |
| Mitbadj | see mitbaq |
| mit bangt davor | (German) I dread it |
| Mitbaq | Iraqi double reed pipe |
| mit Begleitung | (German) accompanied |
| mit Behändigkeit | (German) con agilità (Italian) with nimbleness, with agility, with clean and light expression, avec agilité (French) |
| mit Beschlag belegen | (German) monopolize |
| mit Besen | (German) with the brush |
| mit Besen gestreift | (German) with the striped brush |
| mit Bestimmtheit | (German) for certain |
| mit Betrübnis | (German) con afflizione (Italian) or con accoramento (Italian), with grief, trübselig (German), attristé (French) |
| mit Bewegung | (German) with animation, con moto |
| mit Bitterkeit | (German) con amarezza (Italian), with sadness, with bitterness, with affliction, mournfully, avec amertume (French) |
| Mitbiq | the Iraqi double clarinet |
| see 'double clarinet' |
| mit Bleistift schreiben | (German) to write in pencil |
| mit bloßen Auge | (German) with the naked eye |
| mit Bünden versehen | (German) fretted, tastato (Italian) avec sillets (French) |
| Mitbürger | (German m.) fellow citizen |
| mit Dämpfer (s.), mit Dämpfern (pl.) | (German) with mute, with damper |
| mit dem | (German) with the |
| mit dem Bogen | (German) with the bow, coll'arco (Italian), avec l'archet (French) |
| mit dem Bogen geschlagen | (German) to be struck with the bow |
| mit dem Bogen schlagen | (German) to strike with the bow |
| mit dem Bogenstange | (German f.) col legno |
| mit dem Daumen | (German) with the thumb |
| mit dem Fuß aufstampfen | (German) to stamp one's foot |
| mit dem Knie | (German) with the knee |
| mit dem Kopf des Große-Trommel-Schlägels | (German) with the head of the bass-drum beater |
| mit dem Kopf zuerst | (German) head first |
| mit dem solo Part | (German) with the solo part |
| mit dem Stiel | (German) with the handle |
| mit dem Stiel des Große-Trommel-Schlägels | (German) with the handle of the bass-drum beater |
| mit dem Stock | (German) with the stick |
| mit den Becken scheiben | (German) with cymbals |
| mit den Fingern | (German) with the fingers |
| mit den Fingernägeln | (German) with the fingernails |
| mit den Fingerspitzen | (German) with the fingertips |
| mit den Füßen stampfen | (German) to stamp one's feet |
| mit den Nägel | (German) with the fingernail, with a nail, with a pin |
| mit den Nägeln | (German) with the fingernails, with nails, with pins |
| mit der Fläche | (German) with the flat |
| mit der | (German) with the |
| mit der Bogenstange | (German) with the wood (of the bow), col legno (Italian) , avec le bois (French) |
| mit der Hand | (German) with the hand |
| mit der Handfläche | (German) with the flat of the hand |
| mit der Handwurzel | (German) with the wrist |
| mit der linken Hand | (German) with the left hand |
| mit der rechten Hand | (German) with the right hand |
| mit der Singstimme | (German) with the voice |
| mit der Stimme | (German) colla parte |
| mit der Zeit | (German) in time |
| mit der Zunge anstoßen | (German) lisp |
| mit Drahtbesen | (German) with the wire-brush |
| mit durchaus ernstem und feierlichem Ausdruck | (German) with a serious and solemn expression throughout |
| mit Eile | (German) with haste |
| miteinander | (German) with each other, together |
| miteinander abwechseln (bei) | (German) to take turns (with) |
| mit einem Finger | (German) with one finger |
| mit einem Male etwas wuchtiger | (German) all at once somewhat heavier |
| mit einem Nagel Glissando | (German) glissando with a nail |
| mit einigem Ausdruck | (German) with some expression |
| mit einiger Freiheit | (German) somewhat freely |
| mit Eisenstab | (German) with an iron-stick |
| mit Empfindung | (German) with feeling, with emotion |
| mit Emphase | (German) with emphasis |
| Mitered pipe | on an organ, a pipe bent to fit into limited space |
| Mites | see 'bow mites' |
| mit etwas drängendem Charakter | (German) with a somewhat forward-pressing character |
| mit Feuer | (German) with fire, with ardour, with warmth |
| mit Filzschlägel | (German) with a felt mallet |
| mit Filzschlägeln | (German) with felt mallets |
| mit Flanellschlägel | (German) with the flannel mallet |
| mit Flanellschlägeln | (German) with flannel mallets |
| mit Fröhlichkeit | (German) con allegrezza (Italian), con allegria (Italian), joyfully, cheerfully, gaily, with lightness, avec allégresse (French) |
| mit ganz schwachen Registern | (German) with very soft stops |
| mit gedämpfter Stimme sprechen | (German) to speak in a damped voice, to speak in an undertone |
| mit Gefühl | (German) with feeling, with expression, with soul |
| mit Geläufigkeit | (German) with promptness |
| mit Gemüt | (German) with much feeling and expression |
| mit Gemüth | (German) with much feeling and expression |
| mit Gemüthlich | (German) soulfully |
| mit Gemütlich | (German) soulfully |
| mit geschlossenem Mund | (German) with mouth closed |
| mit Geschwindigkeit | (German) with speed |
| mit Glockenhammer | (German) with chime-mallet |
| mit Glockenspielschlägel | (German) with bell mallet, with the glockenspiel mallet |
| mit Gummischlägel | (German) with the rubber mallet |
| mit große | (German) in a dignified manner, grandiose |
| mit großem Ton | (German) with a full tone |
| mit großer Ergriffenheit | (German) deeply affected, moved |
| mit großer Freiheit | (German) with great freedom, very freely |
| mit großer Geschwindigkeit | (German) with great speed |
| mit großer Kraft | (German) with great vigour |
| mit großer Wärme | (German) with great warmth, with great fervour, very ardently |
| mit große Trommel Schlägel | (German) with bass-drum stick |
| mit größter Geschwindigkeit | (German) at full speed |
| mit größter Kraft | (German) with full force, con tutta la forza (Italian) |
| mit halber Stimme | (German) half voice, mezza voce (Italian), à mi-voix (French) |
| mit Hammer | (German) with the hammer |
| mit Hand anlegen | (German) lend a hand |
| mit hartem Filzschlägel | (German) with a hard felt mallet |
| mit hartem Schlägel | (German) with a hard stick |
| mit Hingabe | (German) with abandon, abbandonatamente (Italian), abbandono (Italian), avec abandon (French) |
| mit höchster Kraft | (German) with greatest power |
| mit höchster Kraftentfaltung | (German) with the greatest unfolding of power |
| mit höherem Tempo | (German) quicker |
| mit Holzschlägel | (German) with the wooden mallet |
| mit Holzschlägeln | (German) with wooden mallets |
| mit Humor | (German) with humour, whimsically |
| mitigando | (Italian) placando (Italian), appeasing, besänftigend (German), en apaisant (French) |
| mit innigem Ausdruck | (German) with heartfelt expression |
| mit Innigkeit | (German) with deep emotion |
| mit innigster Empfindung | (German) with deepest emotion |
| mitja pausa | | (Catalan f.) minim rest (half rest), a rest half the value of a semibreve rest (whole rest) |
|
| mit Jazzbesen | (German) with the wire-brush |
| mit Keckheit | (German) pertness, confidently, with vigour and boldness, in a bravura style |
| mit Keckheit vorgetragen | (German) with a vigorous performing style |
| mit Kette | (German m.) with chain |
| mit Kette und weichem Schlägel | (German m.) with chain and soft stick |
| Mitklang | (German m.) resonance |
| mitklingende Töne | (German m. pl.) overtones, upper partials |
| mit Korkschlägel | (German) with a cork mallet |
| mit Korkschlägeln | (German) with cork mallets |
| mit Kraft | (German) with strength, vigorously, energetically, powerfully, con forza |
| mit langsamen Schritt | (German) slowpaced (writing) |
| Mitlaut | (German) concord, consonance, consonant |
| Mitlauter | (German) concord, consonance |
| mit lauter Stimme | (German) in a loud voice |
| mit Liebenswürdigkeit | (German) con garbo (Italian), con amabilità (Italian), tenderly, with sweetness, gracefully, with elegance, with grace and gentleness, avec amabilité (French) |
| mit Lebhaftigkeit | (German) with animation |
| mit Lederschlägel | (German) with a leather mallet |
| mit Leichtigkeit | (German) with facility, lightly, easily, with ease, con agevolezza Italian), con facilità (Italian), avec aisance (French) |
| Mitleid | (German n.) mercy |
| mit Leidenschaft | (German) with passion, with strong emotion |
| mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck | (German) with passionate expression |
| mitleidig | (German) pitying |
| mit leiser Stimme | (German) or unter der Stimme(German), sotto voce (Italian), sottovoce (Italian), under the breath, in lowered tones, softly, as an aside, in an undertone, à voix basse (French) |
| mit Liebe | (German) con amore (Italian), with love, lovingly, with affection, with devotion, fondly, tenderly, avec amour (French) |
| mit Marimbaschlägel | (German) with a marimba mallet |
| mit matter Oberfläche | (German) frosted |
| mit Metallschlägel | (German) with a metal stick |
| mit Nachdruck | (German) with emphasis, accented |
| mit nacktem Oberkörper | (German) bare to the waist |
| Mitos | (Greek) thread, musical strings woven from flax |
| Mitote | (Spanish m.) Mexican dance, family party (Latin America), fuss (Latin America), row (Latin America), uproar (Latin America), gossip (Mexico) |
| mit Paukenschlägel | (German) with a timpani mallet |
| mit Paukenschlägeln | (German) with timpani mallets |
| mit Perlen besetzt | (German) set with pearls |
| Mitred pipe | see 'mitered pipe' |
| Mitres | the joints at the corner of a string instrument (e.g. a violin) where all joins are at the diagonal rather than at the square |
| Mitrib | (Arabic) musicians |
| mit Rute | (German) with brush, with switch |
| mit Ruten | (German) with brushes |
| mit Saiten | (German) snares on |
| mit sanften Stimmen | (German) with soft stops |
| mit Schlägel | (German) with a mallet, with a stick |
| mit Schlägel geschlagen | (German) beaten with sticks |
| mit Schlägelkopf | (German) with the mallet head |
| mit Schlägeln | (German) with mallets, with sticks |
| mit Schnelligkeit | (German) with speed |
| Mitschnitt | (German m.) live recording |
| mit Schwammschlägel | (German) with a sponge mallets |
| mit Schwammschlägeln | (German) with sponge mallets |
| mit Schwung | (German) swingingly, buoyantly |
| mit Seele | (German) with feeling, with soul |
| mit Sehnsucht | (German) ardently, in a style expressive of yearning |
| mit Sordinen | (German) with mutes |
| mit Sorgfalt | (German) con cura (Italian), con accuratezza (Italian), with care, avec soin (French) |
| mit Stahlbesen | (German) with the wire-brush |
| mit starken Stimmen | (German) with loud or strong stops |
| mit steigerndem Ausdruck | (German) with intensified expression |
| mit Strenge | (German) rigourously |
| mit Stentorstimme | (German) in a stentorian voice |
| mit Tamtamschlägel | (German) with a tam-tam mallet, with a gong mallet |
| Mitte | (German f.) middle |
| Mitteilung | (German f.) announcement, communication |
| Mittelalter | (German n.) Middle ages |
| mittelalterlich | (German) medieval |
| Mittel-C | (German n.) middle C |
| Mittelcadenz | (German f.) the semi- or half-cadence, sometimes called the 'imperfect cadence' |
| Mitteleinschnitt | (German) mediatio (Latin) |
| Mitteleuropa | (German) central Europe, particularly the Balkan states |
| mittelleise | (German) moderately soft (volume of sound) |
| in terms of volume the equivalent terms are mezzo piano or mezzopiano (Italian), halbleise (German), mi-doux (French) |
| Mittellosigkeit | (German f.) lack of funds |
| mittelstark | (German) or halbstark (German), mezzo forte (Italian), mezzoforte (Italian), mi-fort (French), moderately loud |
| Mittelstimme (s.), Mittelstimmen (pl.) | (German f.) the mean or middle part or voice (usually the tenor), an inner voice |
| Mittelstück | (German n.) middle joint |
| mit Teller(n) | (German) with crash cymbal(s) |
| Mittelton | (German) the mediant |
| mitteltönige | (German) mean-tone |
| mitteltönige Stimmung | (German f.) mean-tone tuning |
| mitteltönige Temperatur | (German f.) mean-tone temperament |
| Mittenabstand | (German m.) distance between centres |
| mittere | (Latin) send |
| mittl. | abbreviation of mittlere (German: medium (voice) - (voix) médiane (French)) |
| mittlere | (German) medium, middle |
| mittlere Abweichung | (German f.) average deviation |
| mittlere Lebenserwartung | (German f.) average life expectancy |
| mittleren Alters | (German) middle aged |
| mittlere Osten, die | (German f.) Middle East |
| mittlere Phase | (German f.) middle period |
| mittlerer | (German) median, average, mean, middle, medium (middle), median |
| mittlere Reife | (German f.) intermediate level (standard of difficulty, etc.) |
| mittlere Teile | (German f.) middle |
| mittlerweile | (German) by now, in the interim, in the meantime, by this time, meanwhile |
| mit tonloser Stimme | (German) in a toneless voice |
| mit Triangelstock | (German) with a triangle beater |
| mit Trommelstock | (German) with a sidedrum stick, with a snaredrum stick |
| mit ungebundenem Humor | (German) with unconstrained humour, burlando |
| mit Unterbrechungen | (German) intermittent, intermittently |
| mit Verschiebung | (German) with delay, lingering, retardation |
| (German) with the soft pedal |
| mit Verstärkung | (German) with reinforcement (i.e. doubling) |
| mit Vibraphonschlägel | (German) with the vibraphone mallet |
| mit Vibration | (German) with vibration |
| mit vielem Ausdruck | (German) with strong expression |
| mit vielem Nachdruck | (German) with strong emphasis |
| mit vollem Chor | (German) with full chorus |
| mit voller Lautstärke | (German) at full sound, à plein son (French) |
| mit voller Orgel | (German) with full organ, à plein jeu (French) |
| mit voller Stimme | (German) with full voice, a voce piena (Italian), à pleine voix (French) |
| mit Wärme | (German) with warmth, passionately, ardently |
| mit Wasser übergießen | (German) to pour water over |
| mit weichem Filzschlägel | (German) with a soft felt-stick |
| mit weichem Schlägel | (German) with a soft stick |
| mit weinerlicher Stimme | (German) in a whining voice |
| mit Weite | (German) con ampiezza (Italian), with breadth, mit Ausdehnung (German), avec ampleur (French) |
| Mitwirkung | (German f.) cooperation |
| mit Würde | (German) with dignity |
| mit Xylophonschlägel | (German) with a xylophone mallet |
| mit Xylophonschlägeln | (German) with the xylophone mallets |
| mit zarten Stimmen | (German) with soft-sounding stops |
| mit Zartheit | (German) with tenderness, with delicacy |
| mit Ziffer | (German) followed by a number |
| mit Zuneigung | (German) con affetto (Italian), with affection, with warmth, with passion, with tenderness, with emotion, liebevoll (German), avec affection (French) |
| mit zwei Backen paarweise | (German) with a pair of cymbals |
| mit zwei Münzen | (German) with two coins |
| mit zwei Schlägeln | (German) with two sticks |
| Mix | the phase following a stage of multitrack recording, or the product of that phase, during which the final balance of all tracks to each other in terms of volume and timbre is determined |
| the term 're-mix' is used in popular music for the translation of a recorded work into a different style using electronic manipulation. Sections can be stretched, through the repetition of previously released material, and individual tracks might be re-produced, either by using different mixing technology (for example, using echo, different equalization, etc.) or by actual re-recording using additional musicians, often recruited from the production team. These results are known as 're-mixes', to differentiate them from the original mixes found on 45s and LPs |
| re-mixing, the further processing of recorded material, after the initial release, led to a number of categories: |
| dub mix | the oldest of the 'mixing' categories, usually an instrumental version of the original song |
| club mix | named for the venue specific to the style, for example, 'High Time', referring to dance venues in New York City |
| House mix, Hip-Hop mix, etc. | a mix named for a particular dance music styles |
| mix named after the author of a particular version, usually a well-known DJ |
Acapella mix
or
Percappella mix | a mix using only vocals, without instruments |
| Bonus track mix | a version stripped of all instrumentation except the percussion and, perhaps, a bassline, although the term also applies to an additional track on an album consisting of an entirely different song, maybe one that is released in no other form |
radio edit
or
7-inch edit | a mix whose duration and arrangement conforms with standards used in radio programming, usually identical to the original album and / or 7-inch single version |
|
| Mix | from its neighbours, the Virgin Islands has imported various pan-Caribbean genres of music, including calypso from Trinidad and reggae from Jamaica. Most popular music in the modern Virgin Islands is a blend of these styles, as well as American hip hop music, and is referred to as mix |
| Mixage | (French m.) sound mixture |
| Mixar | (Portuguese) mix, mixing |
| Mixar novamente | (Portuguese) remix |
| Mixed cadence | an old name for a cadence formed with the subdominant, dominant and tonic chords |
| see 'cadence (harmonic)' |
| Mixed canon | also called 'accompanied canon', a polyphonic work where some parts are in canon with one another while others are independent or 'free' |
| Mixed chorus | a choir formed of both adult male and adult female voices, usually the four principal voice types, soprano, contralto, tenor and bass |
| Mixed media | a work that includes musical, dramatic, verbal, visual, literary elements combined in unusual ways |
| Mixed metres | while time signatures usually express a regular pattern of beat stresses continuing through a piece (or at least a section), sometimes composers place a different time signature at the beginning of each bar, resulting in music with an extremely irregular rhythmic feel |
|
| Mixed motion | moto misto (Italian), gemischte Bewegung (German), mouvement mixte (French), gemengde beweging (Dutch), motion where more than one variety of motion occurs at once between several different parts |
| Mixed registration | also 'mixed tone' or 'mixed voice', vocal adjustments having qualities of both light and heavy register |
| Mixed tone | see 'mixed registration' |
| Mixed voice | see 'mixed registration' |
| Mixed voices | mixed chorus |
| Mixer | (English, German m.) (electronics) a device for combining, controlling and routing audio signals |
| (French) to mix |
| Mixing console | (English, Mixer-Console (German f.)) in professional audio, a mixing console, mixing desk (Brit.), or audio mixer, also called a sound board or soundboard, is an electronic device for combining (also called "mixing"), routing, and changing the level, tone, and/or dynamics of audio signals. A mixer can mix analog or digital signals, depending on the type of mixer. The modified signals (voltages or digital samples) are summed to produce the combined output signals |
|
| Mixolídio | (Portuguese) Mixolydian |
| Mixolidio (m.), Mixolidia (f.) | (Spanish) Mixolydian |
| Mixolydian mode | the seventh ecclesiastical mode |
| in Greek theory, the Mixolydian is the Hypolydian mode inverted: a descending scale of a whole tone followed by two inverted Lydian tetrachords (each being two whole tones followed by a semitone descending). This is the equivalent of playing all the 'white notes' of a piano from B to B, or B C D (E) | E F G A | B. This happens to be theoretically the same as the Hyperdorian mode, but Mixolydian seems to have been the preferred name. It also seems that this Mixolydian mode was little used by the ancient Greeks, and that it was deemed unfit for any kind of music |
 |
| a mode consisting of a rising sequence of intervals T-T-S-T-T-S-T, (T=tone or whole-step, S=semitone or half-step) |
|
|
| mixolydien (m.), mixolydienne (f.) | (French) Mixolydian |
| Mixolydisch | (German n.) Mixolydian (mode) |
| mixolydisch | (German, Dutch) Mixolydian |
| mixolydische Kadenz | (German f.) Mixolydian cadence |
| mixolydischer Modus | (German m.) Mixolydian mode |
| mixolydische Tonleiter | (German f.) Mixolydian scale |
| Mixtape | or 'mix tape', a home-made compilation of songs (typically copyrighted music taken from other sources) recorded in a specific order, traditionally onto a compact audio cassette. The songs can be sequential, but a true, seamless mix from start to finish can be made by beatmatching the songs and creating overlaps and fades between the end of one song and the beginning of another |
- Mixtape from which this extract has been taken
|
| Mixtur | (German f., literally 'mixture') see 'mixture, mixture stops' |
| Mixtura | (Spanish f.) mixture |
| Mixtura acuta | (Latin) an acute mixture stop in an organ |
| Mixture | although parallel major and minor scales have the same tonic, their pitch content is different. Since these scales share the same tonics, the same scale degree numbers and consequently the same or nearly the same function can be assigned to pitches with different names. For example, E natural and Eb are both scale degree 3 in C major and C minor, respectively. Since these pitches share the same functional name, they can substitute for one another. Eb can appear in a piece in C major and still function as scale degree three and vice versa. The introduction of pitches from the parallel scale is called mixture. The minor mode has a kind of built in mixture, since you can always introduce the sixth and seventh scales degrees from the parallel major. Composers have used mixture for a variety of reasons |
| see 'mixture stops' |
| Mixtures | see 'mixture stops' |
| Mixture stops | or 'mixtures', compound auxiliary organ stops consisting of several ranks of pipes that sound simultaneously. Some, with high pitches corresponding to various harmonics or overtones of the notes on the keyboard, are used with 8', 4' and 2' stops to produce a brilliance and grandeur. These are especially useful in accompanying congregational singing. Others, lower-pitched, are solo stops when used in small combinations |
| Miya-daiko | Japanese shrine or temple drum |
| Mizik djel | also boula djel, vocalized percussion songs (i.e. mouth music) from Martinique and Guadeloupe which, while associated with traditional wakes, are not considered sacred music |
| Mizhavu | a large copper pot-drum that features in performances of kootiyattom |