Are you a foreign student at a German music university? You can use any number of internet tools to decipher German musical terms.
- Google Translate
will give you the most obvious and immediate translation of a phrase or term.
Out of context, you may or may not get the proper result. - Dict.cc
provides almost all possible meanings of words including even the most specialized musical terms. - Musical Terms/Musikbegriffe
is an online English-German/German-English music glossary.
I too was confronted with strange terms when I first started studying music in a German-speaking country.
Here are two examples.
Satz
If you use Google Translate out of context, you will get the word “sentence” which specifically relates to language.
The online glossary of Musical Terms translates "Satz" as “movement”, meaning a single piece in a larger musical form. But the word “Satz” can also imply the way music is “set”, that is, harmonized or organized polyphonically or even instrumentally arranged.
At the same time, in the non-musical, physical sense, “ein Satz” is a leap.
Wer fängt den Spatz mit einem Satz? Die Katz.
Who catches the sparrow with a single leap? The cat.
The coffee grains at the bottom of a cup are called "Kaffeesatz"!
Here are just a few musical terms with the root “Satz”:
deutscher Begriff | Bedeutung (auf Englisch) |
|---|---|
Satz | movement of a large scale work or harmonisation, polyphonic setting or arrangement |
Ansatz | generally "approach" but also means embouchure (mouth position) |
Einsatz | cue from a conductor or entry of a voice or instrument |
Vordersatz | antecedent phrase |
Nachsatz | consequent phrase |
Hauptsatz | primary theme |
Nebensatz | secondary theme |
Ecksatz | First or last movement of a large scale work |
Chorsatz / Instrumentalsatz | choral setting / instrumental setting |
Tonsatz / Satzlehre | the study of arranging notes harmonically, contrapuntally - setting two or more voices and/or instruments together |
Ersatz | substitute or alternative |
Ton
The German word „Ton“ is very close to the English word „tone“ and can have the same meaning. “Ein Ton” can signify a single note. “Der Ton” signifies sound, tone quality, or timbre. It equally means “mood” or even “clay”.
Putting “Ton” and “Satz” together, you get “Tonsatz”, which is the art of arranging notes harmonically and contrapuntally - setting two or more voices and/or instruments together. “Tonsatz” is a delightful subject taught at most music schools and universities.
Here are just a few musical terms with the root “Ton”:
Bariton | Baritone |
Betonung | stress, emphasis, accent |
Halbton / Ganzton | half step / whole step |
monoton | monotonous |
Tonart | key or tonality of a work |
Tonhöhe | pitch |
Tonlage | vocal or instrumental range |
Tonlänge | note value in terms of length |
Tonleiter | scale |
Tonsatz | the study of arranging notes harmonically, contrapuntally - setting two or more voices and/or instruments together |
Tontechnik | audio engineering |
Tontrager | audio media |
Tonumfang | ambitus, range |
Tritonus | tritone |
Vertonung | setting of a text to music |