This is an article on the terminology used to describe the music of Italy

Music of Italy

The music of Italy ranges across a broad spectrum of opera and instrumental classical music and a body of popular music drawn from both native and imported sources. Music has traditionally been one of the cultural markers of Italian national and ethnic identity and holds an important position in...

. There is also an article on Italian musical terms used in English

Italian musical terms used in English

A great many musical terms are in Italian. This is because many of the most important early composers in the renaissance period were Italian, and that period is when numerous musical indications were used extensively for the first time...

.

Italian music terminology consists of words and phrases used in the discussion of the music of Italy

Music of Italy

The music of Italy ranges across a broad spectrum of opera and instrumental classical music and a body of popular music drawn from both native and imported sources. Music has traditionally been one of the cultural markers of Italian national and ethnic identity and holds an important position in...

. Some Italian music terms are derived from the common Italian language

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

. Others come from Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, or Neapolitan

Neapolitan language

Neapolitan is the language of the city and region of Naples , and Campania. On October 14, 2008 a law by the Region of Campania stated that the Neapolitan language had to be protected....

, Sicilian

Sicilian language

Sicilian is a Romance language. Its dialects make up the Extreme-Southern Italian language group, which are spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands; in southern and central Calabria ; in the southern parts of Apulia, the Salento ; and Campania, on the Italian mainland, where it is...

, Sardinian

Sardinian language

Sardinian is a Romance language spoken and written on most of the island of Sardinia . It is considered the most conservative of the Romance languages in terms of phonology and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum....

 or other regional languages of Italy. The terms listed here describe a genre, song form, dance, instrument, style, quality of music, technique or other important aspect of Italian music.

Dances

• alessandrina: A skipping dance from the area around Pavia
  Pavia
  Pavia , the ancient Ticinum, is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It is the capital of the province of Pavia. It has a population of c. 71,000...
  
  
• alta danza: Early Spanish name for the saltarello
• argismo: A Sicilian term for the tarantella healing ritual, from argia, spider
• ariosa: A Carnival dance
• balùn: A folk dance
• ballarella: A variant name for the saltarello
  Saltarello
  The saltarello was a lively, merry dance first mentioned in Naples during the 13th century. The music survives, but no early instructions for the actual dance are known. It was played in a fast triple meter and is named for its peculiar leaping step, after the Italian verb saltare .-History:The...
  
  
• ballo di baraben: A ritual dance
• bas de tach: A Carnival dance
• crellareccia: A wedding dance in the sonata per la sposa of Alta Sabina
• bal drabces: A Carnival dance
• danza dei coltelli: The dance of the knives, a knife dance
  Weapon dance
  The weapon dance employs weapons—or stylized versions of weapons—traditionally used in combat in order to simulate, recall, or reenact combat or the moves of combat in the form of dance, usually for some ceremonial purpose. Such dancing is quite common to folk ritual in many parts of the world...
  
   derived from the tarantella
  Tarantella
  The term tarantella groups a number of different southern Italian couple folk dances characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in 6/8 time , accompanied by tambourines. It is among the most recognized of traditional Italian music. The specific dance name varies with every region, for instance...
  
  
• forlana: Venetian term for the furlana
  Furlana
  The furlana is an Italian folk dance from the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. In Friulian, furlane means Friulian, in this case Friulian Dance...
  
  
• friulana: Venetian term for the furlana
• furlana: A folk dance, from Campieli, favored in Venice
• furlane: Venetian term for the furlana
  Furlana
  The furlana is an Italian folk dance from the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. In Friulian, furlane means Friulian, in this case Friulian Dance...
  
  
• frullana: Venetian term for the furlana
• gagliarda: Italian term for the galliarde
• gagliarde: Italian term for the galliarde
• giga: A skipping dance from the area around Pavia
  Pavia
  Pavia , the ancient Ticinum, is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It is the capital of the province of Pavia. It has a population of c. 71,000...
  
  
• ballo dei Gobbi: A Carnival dance, dance of the hunchbacks
• ballo liscio: A ballroom dance
• ballo di Mantova: A folk skipping dance
• monferrina
  Monferrina
  -Italian folk dance:Monferrina is a lively Italian folk dance in 6/8 time named after the place of its origin, Montferrat, in the Italian region of Piedmont. It has spread from Piedmont throughout Northern Italy, in Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and even into Switzerland...
  
  : A 6/8 dance historically associated with Monferrato and the valleys of Fassa
  Fassa
  Fassa is a minor Christian-democratic political party in the province of Trentino, Italy, which seeks to represent the Ladin minority in the Province and especially that living in Fascia Valley...
  
   and Rendena
• muleta: A Carnival dance
• pas in amur: A Carnival dance
• passo brabante: An alternate term for the saltarello
  Saltarello
  The saltarello was a lively, merry dance first mentioned in Naples during the 13th century. The music survives, but no early instructions for the actual dance are known. It was played in a fast triple meter and is named for its peculiar leaping step, after the Italian verb saltare .-History:The...
  
  
• passu'e trese: A Sardinian folk dance
• perigurdino: A skipping dance from the area around Pavia
  Pavia
  Pavia , the ancient Ticinum, is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It is the capital of the province of Pavia. It has a population of c. 71,000...
  
  
• piana: A skipping dance from the area around Pavia
• povera donna: A skipping dance from the area around Pavia, a Carnival ritual dance
• pizzica tarantata
  Pizzica
  Pizzica is a popular Italian folk dance, originally from the Salento peninsula and later spreading throughout all the Puglia region, the Corsica region and eastern Basilicata. It is part of the larger family of tarantella dances.-Dancing the pizzica:The traditional pizzica is danced while...
  
  : An old form of the tarantella
  Tarantella
  The term tarantella groups a number of different southern Italian couple folk dances characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in 6/8 time , accompanied by tambourines. It is among the most recognized of traditional Italian music. The specific dance name varies with every region, for instance...
  
  
• rezianka zagatina: A folk dance
• roncastalda: A folk skipping dance
• rose e fiori: A Carnival dance
• ruggero: A folk skipping dance
• russiano: A folk dance, said to originate in Russi
  Russi
  Russi is a comune in the Province of Ravenna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 60 km east of Bologna and about 14 km southwest of Ravenna....
  
  
• sa seria: A Sardinian folk dance
• saltarella: A variant name for the saltarello
• saltarelle: A variant name for the saltarello
• saltarello
  Saltarello
  The saltarello was a lively, merry dance first mentioned in Naples during the 13th century. The music survives, but no early instructions for the actual dance are known. It was played in a fast triple meter and is named for its peculiar leaping step, after the Italian verb saltare .-History:The...
  
  : A widespread, leaping folk dance, originally in 3/4 time, and later in 3/8 and 6/8, derived from a court dance that evolved from the galliarde and was originally known in Spain as the alta danza, from saltare, to leap
• savatarelle: A variant name for the saltarello
• sos gocios: A Sardinian folk dance
• sos mutos: A Sardinian folk dance
• sposina: A skipping dance for brides from the area around Pavia
  Pavia
  Pavia , the ancient Ticinum, is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It is the capital of the province of Pavia. It has a population of c. 71,000...
  
  
• stuzzichetto: A variant name for the saltarello
  Saltarello
  The saltarello was a lively, merry dance first mentioned in Naples during the 13th century. The music survives, but no early instructions for the actual dance are known. It was played in a fast triple meter and is named for its peculiar leaping step, after the Italian verb saltare .-History:The...
  
  
• su ballu: Popular Sardinian dances
• ta matianowa: A folk dance
• ta palacowa: A folk dance
• ta panawa: A folk dance
• tammorriata or tammuriata: A Campanian couple dance, accompanied by lyric songs called strambotti and tammorra tambourines
• tarantel: An alternate term for the tarantella
• tarantella
  Tarantella
  The term tarantella groups a number of different southern Italian couple folk dances characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in 6/8 time , accompanied by tambourines. It is among the most recognized of traditional Italian music. The specific dance name varies with every region, for instance...
  
  : A couple dance in 6/8 time, intended to cure the supposedly poisonous bite of the tarantula
  Tarantula
  Tarantulas comprise a group of often hairy and often very large arachnids belonging to the family Theraphosidae, of which approximately 900 species have been identified. Some members of the same Suborder may also be called "tarantulas" in the common parlance. This article will restrict itself to...
  
  
• tarantismo: An Apulian term for the tarantella healing ritual
• tarantolati: The tarantella ritual as it is practiced in Puglia
• tarentella: An alternate term for the tarantella
  Tarantella
  The term tarantella groups a number of different southern Italian couple folk dances characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in 6/8 time , accompanied by tambourines. It is among the most recognized of traditional Italian music. The specific dance name varies with every region, for instance...
  
  
• tarentule: An alternate term for the tarantella
• ballo tondo: An alternate term for ballu tundu
• ballu torrau: A Sardinian folk dance
• trescone: A folk dance, one of Italy's oldest
• ballu tundu: The launeddas
  Launeddas
  The launeddas is a typical Sardinian woodwind instrument, consisting of three pipes. It is polyphonic and played using circular breathing. An ancient instrument, dating back to at least the 8th century BC, launeddas are still played during religious ceremonies and dances...
  
   dance
• ballu tzopu: A Sardinian folk dance
• ballo della Veneziana: A 2/2 dance of Venetian origin

Instrumentation

• arpicelli: The Viggiano
  Viggiano
  Viggiano is a town and comune in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. It is bounded by the comuni of Calvello, Corleto Perticara, Grumento Nova, Laurenzana, Marsicovetere, Montemurro....
  
   harp
• bena: A Sardinian clarinet
  Clarinet
  The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
  
  
• bifora
  Bifora
  The bifora or pifara was a Sicilian double reed instrument of the oboe family, related to the ancient shawm and particularly to the piffero of the northern Italian Apennines. Much larger than the piffero, and made in one piece, it was employed together with drums in ceremonial processions,...
  
  , also pifara: a Sicilian double reed instrument of the oboe family, related to the shawm and to the piffero
• bunkula: A cello
  Cello
  The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
  
  .

• cannacione: A historical, rural form of lute
• cembalo: A hammered dulcimer
  Hammered dulcimer
  The hammered dulcimer is a stringed musical instrument with the strings stretched over a trapezoidal sounding board. Typically, the hammered dulcimer is set on a stand, at an angle, before the musician, who holds small mallet hammers in each hand to strike the strings...
  
  
• chitarra: A guitar, also a voice in trallalero
  Trallalero
  Trallalero is a kind of polyphonic folk music from the Ligurian region of Genoa, in the north of Italy. It is traditionally performed by men, though there are some female performers in the modern era...
  
   ensembles that imitates the guitar
• chitarra battente: A four- or five-steel stringed guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  , beating guitar
• chiterra: A Sardinian guitar
• ciaramella: A single-reed pipe, or oboe
  Oboe
  The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
  
  , also a bagpipe in Alta Sabina
• citira: A violin
• du' bottë: Abruzzese double bass diatonic accordion
• firlinfeu: A panflute
• fisarmonica: A chromatic piano accordion
• friscalettu: A Sicilian folk flute
• ghironda: A hurdy-gurdy most common in Emilia, Lombardy and Piedmont
• launeddas
  Launeddas
  The launeddas is a typical Sardinian woodwind instrument, consisting of three pipes. It is polyphonic and played using circular breathing. An ancient instrument, dating back to at least the 8th century BC, launeddas are still played during religious ceremonies and dances...
  
  : A Sardinian clarinet, played using circular breathing
• lira: A three-stringed bowed fiddle, played on the knee, most common in Calabria
• mandola: A string instrument similar to both the guitar and mandolin
  Mandolin
  A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
  
  
• mandolino: An Italian lute
  Lute
  Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
  
   with eight or twelve strings
• müsa: A bagpipe
• organetto
  Organetto
  Organetto refers to two distinct instruments. The medieval organetto was a portable pipe instrument, while the modern organetto is a popular Italian folk instrument allied to the accordion....
  
  : A diatonic button accordion
  Accordion
  The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
  
   which accompanies the saltarello, and has largely replaced the bagpipe
• piffaro
  Piffero
  The piffero or piffaro is a double reed musical instrument with a conical bore, of the oboe family.It is used to play music in the tradition of the quattro province, an area of mountains and valleys in the north-west Italian Apennines which includes parts of the four provinces of Alessandria,...
  
  , piffero: A double-reed shawm
  Shawm
  The shawm was a medieval and Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family made in Europe from the 12th century until the 17th century. It was developed from the oriental zurna and is the predecessor of the modern oboe. The body of the shawm was usually turned from a single piece of wood,...
  
  
• piva: A kind of Lombard bagpipe
• putipù: A friction drum
• raganelle: A cog rattle
  Rattle (percussion)
  A rattle is a percussion instrument. It consists of a hollow body filled with small uniform solid objects, like sand or nuts. Rhythmical shaking of this instrument produces repetitive, rather dry timbre noises. In some kinds of music, a rattle assumes the role of the metronome, as an alternative to...
  
  
• ribeba: An alternate term, rebab
  Rebab
  The rebab , also rebap, rabab, rebeb, rababah, or al-rababa) is a type of string instrument so named no later than the 8th century and spread via Islamic trading routes over much of North Africa, the Middle East, parts of Europe, and the Far East...
  
  , for the scacciapensieri
• scacciapensieri: A mouth harp
  Jew's harp
  The Jew's harp, jaw harp, mouth harp, Ozark harp, trump or juice harp, is thought to be one of the oldest musical instruments in the world; a musician apparently playing it can be seen in a Chinese drawing from the 4th century BC...
  
   found in the Alpine north and Sicily, care-chaser
• simbalo: A tambourine
• solitu: A Sardinian traditional shepherd's flute
• surdulina: A bagpipe from Basilicata
• tamburello: A small frame drum, used to accompany the tarantella, also a tambourine

• tamburini: A tambourine
  Tambourine
  The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
  
  
• tammora: A large frame drum
• tamura: A large frame drum
• torototela: A bowed, one-string fiddle, most common in northeast Italy
• triangulu: A Sardinian triangle
• triccheballacche: A Neapolitan percussion instrument, built with mallets attached to a wooden frame, wooden clapper
• tromba degli zingari: An alternate term, trumpet of the Gypsies, for the scacciapensieri
• trunfa: A Sardinian jaw harp, or mouth harp, trump, similar to the scacciapensieri

• tumborro: A Sardinian tambourine
  Tambourine
  The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
  
  
• zampogna: A southern Italian bagpipe, most commonly with two drones and two conical chanters
• zampogna a paro: A single-reed and two- or three drone zampogna, found in Calabria and Sicily
• zampogna zoppa: A mostly double-reed and variably droned zampogna, found in central Italy

Songs, formats and pieces

• addio padre: A post-war political song
• ajri: A form of Albanian-Calabrian multi-part song
• asprese: A form of multi-part song from Lazio
• banda comunale: A local, civic band
• a bandieri bella: A form of Calabrian secular multi-part song
• baride: Sicilian brass band
  Brass band
  A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
  
  s
• basso: A kind of song in Dignano
  Dignano
  Dignano is a comune in the Province of Udine in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about 80 km northwest of Trieste and about 25 km west of Udine....
  
  
• bei: A kind of Tuscan polyphony, especially known near Monte Amiata
  Monte Amiata
  Mount Amiata is the largest of the lava domes in the Amiata lava dome complex located about 20 km NW of Lake Bolsena in the southern Tuscany region of Italy.-Geology:...
  
  , also bei-bei
• bitinada: A singing style for three men, most common in Rovigno in Istria
• boare: work song
  Work song
  A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song....
  
  s
• canti alla boara: A kind of lyric song associated with the cantaustorie
• buiasche: A kind of polyphonic song from the village of Bogli
• butunada: A song form peculiar to Rovigno
• camminareccia: A piece of wedding music in the sonata per la sposa of Alta Sabina
• canzone a ballo: A dance song
• canzone Italiana: Italian song
• canzone Napoletana
  Canzone Napoletana
  Canzone Napoletana, sometimes referred to as Neapolitan song, is a generic term for a traditional form of music sung in the Neapolitan language, ordinarily for the male voice singing solo, although well-represented by female soloists as well, and expressed in familiar genres such as the lover's...
  
  : A kind of popular song from Naples, Neapolitan song
• canzune: A Sicilian term for lyric songs
• canti a catoccu: A kind of lyric song
• canti carnascialeschi: Carnival songs
• cepranese: A form of multi-part song from Lazio
• cioparedda: A form of Calabrian multi-part song
• concertini: Small, violin-based ensembles most common in Emilia, Bagolino and Resia
• canto a coppia: A kind of central Italian two-part singing similar to canti a vatoccu
• cozzupara: A form of Calabrian multi-part song
• canto a dispetto: A Tuscan term, song of the despised, equivalent to canto a vatoccu
• endecasillabo: A central Italian song form with phrases of eleven syllables
• canti alla falciatora: Scything songs
• fogli volanti: Printed popular songs called in English broadside
  Broadside
  A broadside is the side of a ship; the battery of cannon on one side of a warship; or their simultaneous fire in naval warfare.-Age of Sail:...
  
  s, most commonly used for Italian ballad
  Ballad
  A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
  
  s
• giustiniane: A kind of popular historic song, named after Leonardo Giustiniani
• laude
  Laude
  The lauda or lauda spirituale was the most important form of vernacular sacred song in Italy in the late medieval era and Renaissance. Laude remained popular into the nineteenth century....
  
  : Strophic songs, often in Latin
• canti lirici: Italian lyric songs, or canto lirico-monostrifici
• canti alla longa: A kind of lyric song
• maggi a serenata: A maggio love song
• maggio della anime purganti: A maggio song for the souls in Purgatory
  Purgatory
  Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven...
  
  
• maggio delle ragazze: A maggio song for young girls
• maggio drammatico
  Maggio drammatico
  Literally, "plays of May" the Maggio drammatico refers to medieval musical and dramatic rituals at planting time in central Italy, typical of many agrarian societies. Their origins, however, are certainly prehistoric...
  
  : A music and drama celebration held during maggio
• maitinade: A kind of dance song, most common in Trento
  Trento
  Trento is an Italian city located in the Adige River valley in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. It is the capital of Trentino...
  
  ; it is composed of six-line stanzas of eleven syllables per line
• mantignada: A song form peculiar to Sissano
• metitora: A form of two-part song from Lazio
• canti alla mietitora: Harvesting songs
• mondine: A kind of rural, woman's folk song
• canto alla monmarella: work song
  Work song
  A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song....
  
  s
• montasolina: A form of multi-part song from Lazio
• ninna nanna: A folk lullaby
  Lullaby
  A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process. As a result they are often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in every culture and since the ancient period....
  
  
• a oli oledda: A form of Calabrian multi-part song
• orazioni: A kind of Sicilian narrative folk song
• canti degli orbi: A kind of Sicilian narrative folk song, associated with blind musicians
• orologio della passione: An alternate term, used in musical collections, for the canto della passione
• ottava rima
  Ottava rima
  Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio....
  
  : An eight line song, most common in Central Italy, especially Lazio, Tuscany and Abruzzo
• pajarella: A form of Lazio multi-part song
• canto della passione: A central Italian begging song, performed before Easter, also known as orologio della passione (clock of the passion)
• alla pennese: A kind of two-part singing from Lazio, similar to canti a vatoccu
• canto a pennese: A work song
  Work song
  A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song....
  
  
• canti a pera: A kind of lyric song from Gallesano
• piagnereccia: A piece of wedding music in the sonata per la sposa of Alta Sabina
• poeti contadini: An alternate term, peasant poets, for ottava rima
• polesane: A kind of dance song
• canti de questua: Begging songs
• recchia: A kind of central Italian two-part singing similar to canti a vatoccu
• a recchione: A form of multi-part song from Lazio
• a reuta: A form of Lazian multi-part song
• rispetti: A kind of lyric song
• a rosabella: A form of Calabrian multi-part song
• serenata: A love song
• sonata per la sposa: A musical ritual from Alta Sabina
• sonetto: A lyrical form consisting of four lines of seven syllables
• canti alla stesa: A kind of lyric song
• stornelli: A kind of solo lyric song, from the Provençal estorn, to challenge
• stornello: A Sicilian folk song
• storia: A kind of southern, long song
• strambotti: A kind of lyric song, from the Provençal  estribar, to lash
• stranotti: A kind of lyric song
• strina: A form of Calabrian multi-part song
• tenores
  Tenores
  Cantu a tenore is a style of polyphonic folk singing characteristic of the Barbagia region of the island of Sardinia , even though some other Sardinian sub-regions bear examples of such tradition....
  
  : Sardinian polyphonic chant
• testamenti: A kind of Carnival song
• tiir: A kind of polyphonic
  Polyphony
  In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
  
   song from Premana
  Premana
  Premana is a comune in the Province of Lecco in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 70 km northeast of Milan and about 20 km north of Lecco...
  
   in Lombardy
• trallalero: A kind of Genoese polyphony
• canti a vatoccu: A kind of polyphonic lyric song, usually for two to three women, songs in the manner of a bell clapper, most common in Umbria, and the Apennines of Abruzza and the Marche
• verolana: A form of multi-part song from Lazio
• villanella
  Villanella
  In music, a villanella is a form of light Italian secular vocal music which originated in Italy just before the middle of the 16th century...
  
  : A form of Calabrian multi-part song
• villotte: A kind of lyric song with verses of 8 or 11 syllables
• a voca regolare: A form of Calabrian multi-part song
• a voca diritta: A form of Calabrian multi-part song
• vjersh: A form of Albanian multi-part song found in Calabria and Basilicata

Techniques

• accordo: A multi-part singing technique, also canto ad accordo
• basci: The bass voice in a trallalero ensemble
• bassu: The bass voice of the Sardinian tenores
• boghe: The lead vocalist of a Sardinian tenores ensemble
• chitarra: A guitar, also a voice in trallalero ensembles that imitates the guitar
• contra: The counter-vocalist of the Sardinian tenores
• controbasso: The baritone vocalist of the trallalero tradition
• contrubassu: Alternate term for controbasso, the baritone vocalist of the trallalero tradition
• cuntrètu: A falsetto
  Falsetto
  Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
  
   voice
• mesa boghe: The middle voice of the Sardinian tenores
  Tenores
  Cantu a tenore is a style of polyphonic folk singing characteristic of the Barbagia region of the island of Sardinia , even though some other Sardinian sub-regions bear examples of such tradition....
  
  
• primmu: The tenor voice in a trallalero ensemble

Other terms

• bandautore: A cantautore who composes music for a band
• bello ideale: An aesthetic idea which embraced a predominant melody
  Melody
  A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
  
   and other elements, beautiful ideal
• boghe ballu: In Sardinian, harmony
  Harmony
  In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
  
  , or a danceable singing rhythm, literally we dance with our voice
• cantastorie: Itinerant musicians, now most commonly found in Sicily
• cantautori: Popular, modern singer-songwriter
  Singer-songwriter
  Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
  
  s
• carnevale: The Italian Carnival
  Carnival
  Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
  
  
• carnevale de Bagolino: A very famous Carnival, in the town of Bagolino
  Bagolino
  Bagolino is a comune in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, Italy, in the valley of the river Caffaro, on the right side of Valle Sabbia. Bagolino is famous for the cheese named Bagòss and the carnival....
  
  , Brescia
  Brescia
  Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...
  
  
• condanna della vecchiaccia: An Umbrian ceremony that heralds the return of spring, the condemnation of the crone
• maggio
  Maggio
  -Things:*Maggio drammatico*Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is an annual opera festival which was founded in April 1933 by conductor Vittorio Gui-People:*Christian Maggio is an Italian football midfielder...
  
  : A May celebration
• mamutones: Masked performers in processions in Mamoiada
  Mamoiada
  Mamoiada is a comune in the Province of Nuoro in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 110 km north of Cagliari and about 12 km southwest of Nuoro...
  
   in Sardinia
• scacciamarzo: A spring holiday
• sega la vecchia: An old mid-Lent ceremony, the sawing of the witch
• tarantate: Women who had been supposedly poisoned by the tarantula bite, and intended to cure themselves through the tarantella ritual
• tratto marzo: A spring holiday
• urlatori: A shouter, an expressive vocalist
• la vecchia: A carnevale ritual from Pontelangiorno
• veglie: A central Italian musical gathering