| y | (French) there, on it, on them, in it, in them |
| (Spanish) and |
| y. | abbreviation of 'yard', 'year', 'young', 'youngest' |
| Ya | the Chinese festal ode, one of the forms of poetry found in the Shi Jing |
| ya | (Spanish) already, now, later, immediately, soon |
| Ya-ah-ga-wasta | North-American duct flute |
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| Yabugan | (Inner Mongolia) one of the forms of Mongolian quyi known as haolaibao, specifically one in which the singer makes musical sounds with the voice, and then produces words to match a tune. Yabugan is divided into solos and duets, and further into narration, satire, and the singing of praises |
| yacer | (Spanish) to lie |
| Yacht rock | a variation of popular soft rock that peaked between the years of 1976 and 1984 |
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| ¿ya ha sonado la campana? | (Spanish) has the bell gone yet? |
| ya he publicado con anterioridad | (Spanish) I've had my work published before |
| Yahoo | a coarse, filthy, smelly, bestial, barbaric, bipedal creature only vaguely resembling a human |
| the term yahoo has also become a popular outcry or exclamation when a speaker is engaged in something boisterous |
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| Yajna | ritual or religious sacrifice |
| Yak | Korean three-hole pipe |
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| Yakumogoto | (Japan) two-stringed zither devised by Nakayama Kotonushi in 1820 as an instrument for ritual performance. It is placed on a support stand. Both strings are plucked simultaneously with a ryuso (pick) worn on the index finger of the right hand, while pressing the strings against the kan-dokoro (a guide for pitch placement) with a tenkan (tube) worn on the middle finger of the left hand |
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| Y'allternative | see 'alternative country' |
| Yallyh-dancing | with its roots in 5th millennium B.C. Sharur, this dancing style in characteristic of the Nakhchivan rgion of Azerbaijan. There were over 100 different yallyh-dancing styles, which had been developed over many centuries and passed on from generation to generation. Only about 20 of these styles are still being danced. Some of them are named for a particular village (Garkhun, Kechili, Arynj, Khanagha), while others for the composer of the melody (e.g. Sarkhanyh) |
| Yamato uta | or waka, a genre of Japanese poetry |
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| yámbico | (Spanish) iambic, giambico (Italian), iambisch (German), iambique (French) |
| Yambo | (Spanish m.) iambus, giambo (Italian m.), Jambus (German m.), iambe (French m.) |
| Yambú | one of the three most popular forms of Cuban rumba, traditionally performed on the cajones. It is a slow to medium tempo duple meter style and is danced by male-female couples but does not include the vacunáo of the rumba guaguancó |
| Yamschik | (Russian) or yamstchik, the driver of a Russian coach |
| Yang Ge | a style of dance very popular in the north China countryside, in which the dancers typically pass a red silk ribbon around their waist and swing the body to music |
| Yanggeum | or yanggum, Korean hammered dulcimer, derived from European dulcimers |
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| Yanggum | see yanggeum |
| Yangqin | (English, German n.) a Chinese hammered dulcimer, also called hudie qin (butterfly-qin), shanmian qin (fan-surface-qin) and daqin (dulcimer). Originating in Persia and Arabia, it entered China sometime towards the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It is played with two hammers. It is important in opera and as a member of instrumental ensembles for its crisp tone quality, wide tonal range as well as chord and quick arpeggio capability. It also has a rich solo repertory |
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| ya no | (Spanish) no longer |
| ¡ya no aguanto más! | (Spanish) I can't take any more! |
| ya no es el mismo de antes | (Spanish) he's not the same person any more |
| Yanqui | (Spanish m./f.) American, Yank, Yankee |
| Yaogu | (Chinese) Chinese temple or flower drum. The name indicates that the drum is tied to the waist, with gu meaning drum |
- Yaogu from which this information has been taken
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| Yaoqin | Chinese wind harp |
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| Yaourt | (French m.) yoghurt |
| Yaourtière | (French f.) yoghurt maker |
| ya que | (Spanish) since |
| Yarabi, el | (Pacific coast of Ecuador) popular sentimental dance music |
| Yaraki | Aboriginal term for the didjeridu |
| Yaravi | a lament from the Andes |
| Yard | (Old English geard) in theatre architecture during the Renaissance, the yard is the central area open to the area in theatres such as the Globe. Groundlings typically stood in this spot, unlike the more prodigal audience members who paid extra for a seat in the balconies. Admission in the yard in public theatres cost a penny in Shakespeare's day |
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| Yardcore | an alternative name for raggacore |
| Yarghul | Palestinian drone and chanter double-clarinet |
| see 'double clarinet' |
| Yarn | (Old English gearn) an informal name for a long, rambling story or anecdote - especially one dealing with adventure or tall-tales |
| spun thread, especially for knitting, weaving, etc |
| Yarrow | perennial plant, especially milfoil |
| ya se había amañado a su nueva casa | (Spanish) he had already settled into his new home |
| Yashmak | (Arabic) the veil concealing the face below the eyes, worn by Moslem women in public |
| y así sucesivamente | (Spanish) and so on |
| ¡y así es como me lo agradece! | (Spanish) and this is all the thanks I get! |
| Yasl-khani | (Iran) improvised songs of humor and satire from Bushehr |
| Yataga | Mongolian zither, on which the strings are plucked, constructed as a box with a convex surface and an end bent towards the ground. It is more complex than most of its counterparts. In the past it was a court instrument and the strings symbolized the levels of the palace hierarchy |
| Yate | (Spanish m.) yacht |
| ¡ya te ajustaré las cuentas! | (Spanish) I'll get even with you! |
| ya te avisé | (Spanish) I told you so |
| Yatga | see yataga |
| ya vamos para allá | (Spanish) we're on our way (over) |
| Yawl | a kind of ship's boat or sailing- or fishing-boat |
| Yawn | to open the mouth wide and inhale, especially when sleepy or bored |
| to gape, to be wide open |
| the act of yawning, a boring idea or activity |
| Yawner | a boring show (colloquial) |
| Yayli tambur-cümbüs | see cümbüs |
| Yayue | (Chinese) Chinese ritual music, some of which has survived in manuscript |
| Yazheng | a bowed zither of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the precursor to the erhu |
| y compris | (French) including |
| yd | abbreviation of 'yard' |
| yds | abbreviation of 'yards' |
| yearb. | abbreviation of 'yearbook' |
| Yearbook | an annually published book or journal, especially one containing information or statistics about that year in particular |
| Yeast | a commercial leavening agent containing yeast cells, used to raise the dough in making bread and for fermenting beer, etc. |
| Yeast extract | a mixture of brewers yeast and salt, high in flavour, protein and vitamin B |
| Yegua | (Spanish f.) mare |
| Yehu | (China) a soft-sounding spiked bowed lute |
- Yehu from which this information has been taken
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| Yeismo | (Spanish m.) pronounciation of the Spanish 'll' like the Spanish 'y' |
| yel. | abbreviation of 'yellow' |
| Yellow brass | the standard alloy of brass used for musical instruments composed of approximately 70% copper and 30% zinc |
| Yellowing | in paper, a process that changes the colour of white paper to yellow or to brown as a result of its interaction with chemical residue left behind from when the paper was manufactured. Only papers made with chemical pulp age this way. However exposure to heat, light, moisture, smoke and other elements can also yellow any paper. Usually a slow process, the speed of yellowing is dependent on the amounts of adverse exposure or their combination |
| Yelmo | (Spanish m.) helmet |
| Yem. | abbreviation of 'Yemen', 'Yemeni' |
| Yema | (Spanish f.) bud, yolk (egg), sweet |
| Yema del dedo | (Spanish f.) fingertip |
| Yeoman | (Middle English yeman) in early Middle English, the term referred to freemen or freeholders, lower-class peasants who had obtained their freedom from serfdom, and as members of the new bourgeoisie were thus free to join guilds, purchase lands, or work as day labourers for hire. The term later came to mean in particular an attendant servant or lesser official who serves in a royal or noble household for paid wages rather than feudal obligations |
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| Yermo | (Spanish m.) wasteland |
| yermo | (Spanish) uninhabited, barren (uncultivated) |
| Yerno | (Spanish m.) son-in-law |
| Yerro | (Spanish m.) mistake |
| yerto | (Spanish) stiff |
| Yeso | (Spanish m.) gypsum, plaster |
| Yeso mate | (Spanish m.) plaster of Paris |
| Yeti | (Tibetan) an abominable snowman, a quasi-human creature as yet unidentified said to leave tracks above the snowline in the Himalayas |
| Yeux | (French m. pl., plural of oeil, literally 'eye') eyes, look (figurative: expression) |
| Yeux bleus | (French m. pl.) blue eyes |
| Yeux bridés | (French m. pl.) slit eyes |
| yeux cernés, les | (French) with rings under one's eyes |
| Yeve | yeve is believed to be a 'Stone' or 'Thunder' god that falls from the sky during or after a rainstorm. This religious society is one of the most powerful and secretive among cults in the southeastern Ewe territories of West Africa. Among the Anlo-Ewe, it is also known as xebieso, hu or tohono. Yeve has a strong historical relations with the Yoruba Shango deity of Nigeria and Fon Xevieso of Benin. Yeve music and dance is distinct from other Ewe musical types because of its general structure. It is considered a suite of seven to nine dance forms or movements. Each movement is related to specific phases of worship. The major dance forms or movements include: sovu, husago, sogbadze, afovu and adavu |
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| Yé-yé | (French) a pop music style that emerged from Southern Europe in the early 1960s, part of a counterculture inspired by UK and American rock and roll, and became known through the work of French singer-songwriters Serge Gainsbourg and Françoise Hardy |
| Yew | (German Eibe, French If, Dutch Venijnboom, European Species: Taxus baccata: Average Weight: 38 to 48 pounds per cubic foot) a very hard wood that splits poorly due to interlocked grain and is weatherproof. In the Medieval period it was used for carving, fence posts, and bows |
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| Yhdistävä sulkumerkki | (Finnish) brace |
| Yhteissointi | (Finnish) harmony |
| Yid. | abbreviation of 'Yiddish' |
| Yidaki | didjeridu |
| Yidaqui | didjeridu |
| Yiddish | (English, French m.) Ashkenazic Jews, or Ashkenazim, came from Northern and Eastern Europe, and Russia. Yiddish, a combination of medieval German and Hebrew, developed among Ashkenazim around 1100. Trading contacts between communities and periodic migrations in the face of persecution gradually turned Yiddish into a universal language for Northern and Central European Jews. After the early 1800s, the majority of American Jews were Ashkenazim. Much of the food, vocabulary, and culture considered Jewish in the U.S. today is actually Ashkenazic. Yiddish language communities arose in large cities, especially New York, where Yiddish theatre and literature flourished. Isaac Bashevis Singer is probably the most famous American author to write in Yiddish, while Sholem Aleichem wrote Yiddish tales from Russia. At its peak before World War II, 11 million people spoke Yiddish. Today some 5 million Ashkenazim around the world speak Yiddish |
| Yinqing | (China) hand-held bell on the end of a short pole |
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| Yksiäänisesti | (Finnish) unison |
| Yksiäänisyys | (Finnish) homophony |
| Ylidominantti | (Finnish) superdominant |
| Ylinouseva intervalli | (Finnish) augmented interval |
| Ylitoonika | (Finnish) supertonic |
| YMCA | abbreviation of 'Young Men's Christian Association' |
| y mettre la dernière main | (French) to put the finishing touches on |
| Yo | (Spanish m.) ego |
| yo | (Spanish) I |
| y.o. | abbreviation of 'years old' (following a number) |
| y.o.b. | abbreviation of 'year of birth' |
| y.o.d. | abbreviation of 'year of death' |
| Yodel | (English, from the German Jodel) also yodle, Tyrolean singing style where the performer alternates frequently between the natural chest voice and falsetto tones |
| Yodle | see yodel |
| Yodler | a performer who, when singing, alternates frequently between the natural chest voice and falsetto tones |
| Yodo | (Spanish m.) iodine |
| yo estaba antes | (Spanish) I was here first |
| Yoga | (English, German m./n., French m., Italian m., Spanish m.) Hindu system of meditation and asceticism designed to effect reunion with the universal spirit, and its system of physical exercises and breathing control |
| Yogh | a letter shape used in writing Middle English. It represented a Germanic, gargling sound in the back of throat no longer used in Modern English, but surviving as an often silent digraph <gh> in words like knight, caught, and laugh |
| Yoghourt | (Turkish) or, in English, yoghurt, fermented sour milk |
| Yogi | (Hindi) a Hindu ascetic, a devotee who practises yoga |
| Yogur | (Spanish m.) yogurt |
| yo he estado por ahí | (Spanish) I've been around there |
| Yoik | see joik |
| Yojo | see ryuteki |
| Yoke | synonymous with headstock, the more common term in America for the inverted U-shaped frame, formerly wooden but now metal, in which a bell is suspended when it is to be swung |
| Yokobue | see ryuteki |
| Yokolee | (Montserrat) local name for the ukulele |
| y.o.m. | abbreviation of 'year of marriage' |
| yo mismo | (Spanish) I myself |
| Yom Kippur | (Hebrew) the day of Atonement, the annual Jewish fast observed on the tenth day of the seventh month |
| Yomkwo | a raft zither from the Birom people of Nigeria, made from a number of reeds bound together to form a raft and from which the strings are formed |
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| Yongdo | (Korean) four drums placed vertically on a pole, in a criss-cross pattern |
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| Yonggo | (Korean) the name given to the chwago when it is used in tae-ch'uita (Korean royal processional music) |
| yo prefiero ir a mi aire | (Spanish) I prefer doing my own thing (colloquial) |
| Yorks | abbreviation of 'Yorkshire' |
| Yorkshire Bleeps and Bass | also called 'Yorkshire techno', a short-lived (1989-1991) local musical movement in the city of Sheffield in the UK |
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| Yoruba | term used to describe the Nigerian (Yoruba) people, their language, folklore and musical styles. It is one of the most influential African populations in Cuba, the Caribbean and northern South America, particularly the northern regions of Brazil |
| Yoruba traditional music | Yoruba traditional music includes a very wide range of musical expression from drumming to vocal music, to aro, agogo (metal bells), and so on. Much of Yoruba traditional music focuses on the Yoruba orisa, the pantheon of traditional dieties. Much of the music is also used for praise of patrons at a wide range of Yoruba social occasions |
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| yo soy así | (Spanish) that's the way I am |
| Yotsudake | see yotsutake |
| Yotsutake | or yotsudake, Japanese Okinawan bamboo clappers or castanets |
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| Yotzer (s.), Yotzrim (pl.) | (Hebrew) a dance creator or choreographer who selects a particular piece of music, usually Israeli, and arranges a set of steps to fit with that music |
| Yougoslave | (French m./f.) Yugoslavian |
| yougoslave | (French) Yugoslavian |
| Yougoslavie | (French f.) Yugoslavia |
| Young classicism | an idea promulgated by Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) that views music as a simultaneous mixture of old and new styles, "the mastery, the sifting and the turning to account of all the gains of previous experiments and their inclusion in strong and beautiful forms". Busoni believed that Liszt's operatic fantasies are different from the "plebeian pot-pourri" and that the transcription is a legitimate art form, because (a) Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, and Brahms wrote quality transcriptions, (b) notation itself is the transcription of an abstract idea, (c) performances are all transcriptions, (d) some great compositions sound like transcriptions, and (e) transcriptions are like variations, which also change original music |
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| Young, John (c.1672-c.1732) | a London-based music printer, publisher and instrument maker, of a musical family, was apprenticed to John Clarke (music seller and publisher) and had his own business from c. 1695. On his trade card he styles himself a 'musicall instrument seller' |
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| Young man sonnets | the first seventeen sonnets in the Shakespearean collection published in 1609 |
| Youyou | Arabian heavy drum played only by women |
| Yovoringo | a Mandinka wrestling rhythm |
| yo ya no me asombro por nada | (Spanish) nothing surprises me any more |
| y penser | (French) to think of it |
| yr | abbreviation of 'year', 'younger', 'your' |
| yrbk | abbreviation of 'yearbook' |
| yrly | abbreviation of 'yearly' |
| yrs | abbreviation of 'years', 'yours' |
| yst | abbreviation of 'youngest' |
| Yü | (Chinese) a Chinese scraper, used in Confucian temple workship, carved in the shape of a tiger, the sound of which is produced by scraping it with a split bamboo stick |
| Yudhishthira | eldest of the Pandava Princes, celebrated for his right conduct |
| Yue | (China) end-blown flute |
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| Yue fu | Chinese poems composed in a folk song style. The term literally means "music bureau", a reference to the government organization originally charged with collecting or writing the lyrics |
- Yue fu from which this extract has been taken
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| Yüeh ch'in | (Chinese) or yue qin, a Chinese mandolin, with a moon-shaped soundbox (hence its alternative name moon mandolin although the soundbox can be octagonal or hexagonal), and similar to the long-necked ruan with 2 strings normally tuned a 4th or 5th apart, to which two additional strings can be added, tuned in unison with the other 2 strings creating 2 courses, commonly used to accompany performances such as operas and narratives; also known as sixian, moon lute, Chinese lute, moon guitar or moon violin |
| tuning | range |
| g-d-g'-d'' | g-d''' |
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| Yuëh-fu | (Chinese, 'music bureau') a form of Chinese poetry in mixed meter and short lines, with a five-word line being most common. The number of stanzas was likewise variable. The conventions of the genre include a monologue or dialogue presented in dramatic form revolving around some misfortune. The name comes from the music bureaus that were a fixture of Chinese decoration. These bureaus contained sheets of popular songs and ballad-type lyrics |
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| Yue-Oper | (German f.) Yue opera |
| Yue opera | Shaoxing Opera is a relatively new local Chinese opera popular in the southern regions of the Yangtze River. It originated in Shenxian County, Zhejiang Province, which belonged to the Yue State in ancient times, so it was popularly known as Yue Opera. Yue Opera has a history of about 80 years. It was derived from a kind of story-singing. At first, it was performed with a small drum and hardwood clappers for rhythm and later, choral and orchestral accompaniment was added. It drew some musical elements from Shao Opera and subsequently formed its own character |
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| Yue qin | see yüeh ch'in |
| Yugo | (Spanish m.) yoke |
| Yugoslavo | (Spanish m.) Yugoslav |
| yugoslavo | (Spanish) Yugoslav |
| Yuka | long cylindrical drums of Congolese origin |
| Yukar | a form of epic poetry from the minority Ainu of the north of Japan. The stories typically involve Kamui, the god of nature, and Pojaumpe, an orphan-warrior |
| Yun-lo | or yunluo, Chinese cloud gong, ten small gongs of different pitches suspended in a wooden frame |
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| Yunluo | (English, German n.) in German, also Yün-lo, see yun-lo |
| Yunque | (Spanish m.) anvil, enclume (French), Amboß or Amboss (German), incudine (Italian) |
| Yunta | (Spanish f.) yoke |
| Yuppie | (English, French m./f.) young ambitious professional person working in a city (the term is derived from 'young urban professional') |
| Yurupari | ritual dance of the Indians of the Brazilian Amazon basin, said to protect the young male dancers against feminine seduction |
| Yutong | (China) long cylindrical drum |
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| yuxtaponer | (Spanish) juxtapose |
| y va que arde | (Spanish) and that's enough |
| YWCA | abbreviation of 'Young Women's Christian Association' |
| YYS | acronym for the 'Music Research Institute (of the Chinese Academy of Arts)' |
