Music Reference Library
Explore the classical piano canon — composers, works, forms, collections, and musical terms curated for students and teachers.
108
Composers
7155
Works
991
Collections
81
Forms
968
Terms
Composers
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Musical Forms
View all →Air
A song-like or aria-like instrumental movement, typically in binary form with a lyrical, flowing character. In Baroque k...
Allemande
A moderate-tempo Baroque dance in common time (4/4), typically with a flowing sixteenth-note texture and a short upbeat....
Anglaise
A Baroque dance movement in binary form with a brisk duple meter, of English origin. It appears occasionally as an optio...
Arabesque
A decorative, flowing piece characterized by ornamental melodic lines, often with delicate filigree figuration. The titl...
Aria
A self-contained vocal or instrumental piece with a lyrical, songlike character. In keyboard music, an aria typically se...
Bagatelle
A short, light character piece of relatively modest technical demands and unpretentious character. The title means 'a tr...
Ballade
A large-scale, dramatic single-movement work with a narrative or epic quality. Typically in a compound meter and structu...
Barcarolle
A piece in 6/8 or 12/8 meter evoking the rocking motion of a Venetian gondola song. Typically gentle and lyrical with a ...
Collections
View all →Musical Terms
View all →- à tempo FrenchIn time, returning to the original tempo after a deviation. Saint-Saëns was notoriously strict about tempo and disliked lingering.
- Abbandonamente ItalianAbandonedly, with abandon — a Medtner favourite indicating a quality of emotional release or surrender, as if the player gives themselves over entirel...
- Abendmusiken GermanEvening concerts given by Buxtehude at the Marienkirche in Lübeck on the five Sundays before Christmas — among the earliest public concerts in Europe....
- Abzug GermanLiterally 'pull-off' — the light, quick release of a key after it has been pressed, fundamental to producing a clear, non-blurred staccato or detached...
- accord de la résonance FrenchChord of resonance — Messiaen's term for chords built from the natural overtone series above a bass note, using major thirds, tritones, and major seve...
- Adagio e cantabile ItalianSlow and in a singing style; Scarlatti's own marking for the Sonata K. 208 in A major, one of his most expressive slow movements.
- Adagio mesto ItalianSlow and mournful. Barber's marking for the third movement of the Piano Sonata.
- affekt GermanAffection or passion — the doctrine that each piece of music should express a single, unified emotional state throughout. In Froberger's suites and to...
- Affekt GermanAffect or emotion. In Baroque theory each piece or movement was intended to express a single unified emotional state throughout.
- Affekt GermanThe emotional or expressive content of a piece or movement — the primary feeling the music is designed to convey, according to Baroque doctrine.