#12 MUSICAL TERMS 

1.   Lento (Italian) – Tempo marking meaning Slow

2.   Libretto (Italian) – means ‘booklet’ – just the words (without the music) to a show or opera

3.   Lyrics – The words or text to a song

4.   Madrigal – A song sung by 3 to 8 parts, usually a capella and popular in the Renaissance era

5.   Maestro (Italian) – The conductor of an orchestra or choir

6.   Mambo – A ballroom dance of West Indian origin similar to the cha-cha or rumba

7.   Marcato (Italian) – With distinctness and emphasis (means ‘marked’) not quite an accent, not quite staccato

8.   Measure – The notes and rests comprised between two bar lines.  The number of beats is determined through the time signature.

9.   Melisma – A melodic ornament of grace.  In coloratura – it’s the acrobatic passages where one word is set to a variety of melodic pitches

10. Messa di voce (Italian) – To sing a long note at first pianissimo then growing to fortissimo then slowing going back to pianissimo < 0 >

11. Meter – In music, it is the symmetrical grouping of musical rhythms (duple, triple, compound)

12. Metronome – It keeps the time of music. 

13. Minstrels – In the Middle Ages, professional singers who sang songs to a simple instrumental accompaniment (usually the lute) Usually their own creations

14. Mirror canon – A canon that is the same whether played forward or backward

Schirmer Pocket Manual of Musical Terms, Edited by Theodore Baker, Macmillan Publishing Co., 1978