Years ago, I worked out a handy, one page document that is a list of French and German musical terms based on words encountered in leading solo works for horn (Hindemith Sonata, En Foret, etc.). That PDF list (Updated 2025) is at the link below:
It is really worth the effort to understand the clear instructions of composers!
Unfortunately, many horn students come into a lesson without looking up or understanding various terms in various works. I must also have done this as a young student, but by the time of my advanced studies I certainly did not. One teacher in particular — Verne Reynolds — if you did not have the terms all down you could expect at least a “pencil drop;” it was not OK. Which I can understand, too; he was also a composer and marked everything in his music with great care, wanting you to follow each instruction.
Guessing can be good, or bad
Especially with German, some terms are cognates to English words, and some mean very different things. For example, vorwärts does mean forward, but breiter means broadly. You should try to guess, but be aware that the term may mean the opposite of what you thought.
Print resources?
At one point I had it in my syllabus that students were recommended to purchase the Schirmer Pronouncing Pocket Manual of Musical Terms, a very handy book that has almost every common term in it. And also there is a good list at the back of the Arthur LeBar horn excerpt book.
Online resources? Be careful …
And now people, of course, use Google Translate for many terms … which has dangers. It can give “unusual” translations that don’t get at the meaning. For example, “keck” is a very important term in Mahler 5. Google Translate at one point would tell you that meant “pert,” and looking it up today as I update this article in May of 2025 it says of all things “cheeky.” But the best translation for our musical purposes is “bold.” You should always double check meanings, especially if the translation you find does not make sense.
Allmählich lebhafter and more
To close, there really is no excuse to not know what allmählich lebhafter means if you are working on taking Till to a high level. Look up the terms; don’t let any one be a mystery.
UPDATED 2025
