Music Notation is a universal language, understood by flautists, cellists, pianists and more. In fact, apart from a few guitarists' obsession with reading nothing but tablature or tab, it's pretty much totally universal. Unlike tab, it tells you what you must achieve, not how you must achieve it, and it leaves sufficient room for the player to consider alternative fingerings, for example.
But whilst it expresses pretty concisely the pitch and relative lengths of all the notes, it gives little clue whether the music is fast and furious, or slow and gentle. It gives few indications about how to shape the music.
"Italian Terms" is a catch-all name for the narrative or descriptive mark-ups that express, in plain language, how to shape the piece. Italian is used simply because it provides a standard vocabulary that, once learned, is understood the world over.
This page defines some of the more common terms. There is a page of humorous definitions here!
| Accelerando or Accel | Becoming gradually faster | |
| Ad lib or Ad Libitum | At (the performer's) pleasure | |
| Adagio | Slow and leisurely | |
| Affetuoso | Tenderly | |
| Affretando | Hurrying, pressing onwards | |
| Agitato | Agitated | |
| Allargando | Broadening out, often with an increase in tone | |
| Allegretto | Slightly less than Allegro ("A little allegro") | |
| Allegro | Lively, reasonably fast | |
| Amoroso | Loving | |
| Andante | Literally Walking - at a moderate pace | |
| Andantino | Usually a little faster than Andante. Can sometimes mean the opposite! | |
| Animato | Animated | |
| A piacere | At pleasure | |
| Appassionato | Passionately | |
| Assai | Very | |
| A tempo | Become normal speed after a diversion | |
| Attacca | Go on straight away | |
| Ben, bene | Well (Ben Marcato : Well marked) | |
| Bis | Twice | |
| Brillante | Sparkling, brilliant | |
| Brio | Vigour. (Con Brio : With Vigour) | |
| Calando | Decreasing tone and speed | |
| Cantabile or Cantando | In a singing style | |
| Capo | The beginning (literally, the head) | |
| Capriccio | A caprice - a piece in light-hearted style | |
| Coda | (Literally tail) - a passage to conclude a piece or movement | |
| Col, colla | With the | |
| Come | As (Come Prima : As At First) (Come Sopra : As Above) | |
| Comodo | Convenient (usually in the sense of "at a convenient pace") | |
| Con | With (Con Moto : With Movement) | |
| Crescendo or cresc | Getting louder | |
| Da | From, of | |
| Da Capo or D C | From the beginning | |
| Dal Segno or D § | From the sign (§) | |
| Deciso | Decisively, firmly | |
| Decrescendo | Becoming gradually softer | |
| Delicato | Delicately | |
| Diminuendo or dim | Becoming gradually softer | |
| Dolce | Sweetly | |
| Dolore | Grief, sorrow | |
| En dehors (Fr) | Prominently or emphasised | |
| Energico | With energy | |
| Espressivo or Espress | With expression, with feeling | |
| Estinto | As quiet as possible (literally extinguished) | |
| Felice | Happy | |
| Feroce | Fierce | |
| Fine | The end. DC Al Fine - back to the start, end at Fine | |
| Forte or f | Loud | |
| Fortissimo or ff | Very Loud | |
| Forzando or fz or sfz | With a strong accent (literally forced) | |
| Fuoco | Fire | |
| Furioso | Furiously | |
| Giocoso | Gay, merry | |
| Giusto | Strict, exact (Giusto tempo : In strict time) | |
| Grandioso | Grandly | |
| Grave | Very Slow | |
| Grazioso | Gracefully | |
| Impetuoso | Impetuously | |
| Incalzando | Increasing speed, with an implication of increasing thickness of sound | |
| Lacrimoso | Sadly (literally tearfully) | |
| Langsam (Ger) | Slow | |
| Largo | Slow and stately, broad | |
| Larghetto | Less slow than Largo | |
| Legato | Smoothly | |
| Leggerio | Lightly | |
| Lento | Slowly | |
| Loco | (Literally place or in place) - restore normal pitch after 8va | |
| Ma | But (Ma non troppo : But not too much) | |
| Maestoso | Majestically | |
| Mancando | Dying away | |
| Marcato | Marked, accented | |
| Marcia | A march | |
| Marziale | Martial (not to be confused with marital!) | |
| Meno | Less (Meno Mosso : Less Movement) | |
| Mesto | Sadly | |
| Mezzo forte or mf | Moderately Loud | |
| Mezzo piano or mp | Moderately Soft | |
| Misterioso | Mysteriously | |
| Moderato | Moderately (applied to tempo) | |
| Molto | Much | |
| Morendo | Dying away | |
| Mosso | Movement | |
| Moto | Movement | |
| Non troppo | Not too much | |
| Obbligato | Cannot be omitted | |
| Op. or Opus | Work (a published composition) | |
| Ossia | Or (denoting a choice) | |
| Passionato | Passionately | |
| Patetico | With feeling or pathos | |
| Perdendosi | Dying away | |
| Pesante | Heavily | |
| Piacevole | Pleasingly | |
| Piangevole | Plaintively | |
| Pianissimo or pp | Very soft | |
| Piano or p | Soft | |
| Piu | More (Piu Mosso : More movement) | |
| Pizzicato or pizz | Literally plucked (but on the guitar, deliberately damped) | |
| Pochettino | Rather little | |
| Pochissimo | Very little | |
| Poco | A little (Poco a poco : Little by little or gradually) | |
| Precipitato, Precipitoso | Impetuously | |
| Presto | Very quick | |
| Prestissimo | As fast as possible | |
| Primo | First | |
| Quasi | As if, almost | |
| Rallentando or Rall | Becoming gradually slower | |
| Rinforzando | Reinforcing | |
| Risoluto | Boldly | |
| Ritardando or Ritard | Becoming gradually slower | |
| Ritenuto or Rit | Held back (Slower at once) | |
| Ritmico | Rhythmically | |
| Rubato | Robbed, stolen - making a note or notes longer at the expense of others | |
| Scherzo | A Joke | |
| Scherzando | Playfully | |
| Sec, Secco | Detached (literally dry) | |
| Segno | A § sign (See D §) | |
| Semplice | Simple | |
| Sempre | Always | |
| Senza | Without | |
| Sforzando or sf or sfz | With a sudden accent | |
| Simile | In a similar manner | |
| Slargando/Slentando | Gradually slower | |
| Smorzando | Dying away | |
| Soave | Gentle, smooth | |
| Sopra | Above | |
| Spiritoso | Spirited | |
| Staccato or stacc | Short, detached | |
| Strepitoso | Noisy, boisterous | |
| Stringendo | Gradually faster | |
| Subito or Sub | Suddenly | |
| Tacet (Lat) | It is silent | |
| Tempo | The speed of the music | |
| Tempo di gavotta | In the time (and style) of a gavotte | |
| Tempo Primo or Tempo I | Resume the original speed | |
| Teneramente | Tenderly | |
| Tenuto or ten | Held | |
| Tranquillo | Quietly | |
| Troppo | Too much. (Ma non troppo - but not too much) | |
| Vivace | Lively, Quick | |
| Volante | Flying | |
| VS (Volti Subito) | Turn the page quickly |
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