| f | forte, loud |
| Faburden (Eng.), Fauxbourdon (Fr.), Falsobordone (It.) | a part added to a plainsong melody that move at the same rate, a drone bass (e.g. as on a bagpipe or hurdy-gurdy), a tenor part in a metrical psalm tune that carries the tune, a refrain to the verses of a song, a line added above the top part (also called a 'descant') |
| Fach | (German) fold, as in 'zweifach' to mean 'two-fold' |
| Facile, Facilement | (French) easy, easily |
| Facilmente | (Italian) easily |
| Facilità | (Italian) ease, fluency, simplification |
| Fackeltanz | (German) a 'torch' dance |
| Fading, Fadding | an Irish dance of the 16th and 17th century |
| Fadinho, Fado | a type of Portuguese song and dance to guitar accompaniment and dating from the mid-19th century |
| Fagott (Ger.), Fagotto (It.) | bassoon |
| Fahren | (German) to go |
| Faible | (French) feeble, weak in tone |
| Faire | (French) to do, to make |
| Faites | (French) do, make |
| Fall | (Old English) cadence |
| Fall, Falle | (German) case, e.g.'Im Fall' meaning 'in case' |
| Falsettist | a singer who uses a method of voice production called 'falsetto' |
| Fancy | (English) an alternative to 'Fantasy', a composition mainly for viols in consort |
| Fandango | a lively Spanish dance in simple triple or compound duple time that accelerates as it progresses with sudden stops during which the dancers remain motionless and intervals during which the performers sing |
| Fanfare | a flourish of trumpets, a word used to describe a brass band (a band of wood and brass wind is called a 'Harmonie') |
| Fantaisie (It.), Fantasia (It., Eng.) | a piece with an improvisatory feel to it, a consort piece for viols, recorders, etc. with a strongly contrapuntal flavour, a 'fancy' |
| Fantastico (It.), Fantasque (Fr.), Fantastisch (Ger.) | fantastic, whimsical, capricious |
| Farandole | a lively dance in compound duple time, accompanied by pipe and tabor, from southern France and northern Spain |
| Farruca | an Andalucian dance of gypsy origin |
| Fassung | (German) version |
| Fast | (German) almost |
| Fastoso | (Italian) pompous |
| Fastosamente | (Italian) pompously |
| Fausset | (French) falsetto |
| Feierlich | (German) solemn (related to Holy Days), rejoicing (related to Holidays) |
| Feldpartita | (German) a type of partita or divertimento for wind band |
| Felice | (Italian) happy |
| Fermamente | (Italian) firmly |
| Fermata (It.), Fermate (Ger.) | a musical symbol (an arc above a single dot) placed over a note or rest to be extended beyond its normal duration |
| Fermer | (French) to close, to close off |
| Ferne | (German) distance |
| Feroce | (Italian) ferocious |
| Ferocità | (Italian) ferocity |
| Fertig | (German) ready, dexterous, fluent |
| Fervente, Fervido, Fervidamente | (Italian) fervent, fervid, fervidly |
| Fervore | (Italian) fervour |
| Fes | (German) the note 'F flat' |
| Feses | (German) the note 'F double flat' |
| Fest | (German) festival |
| Festa, Festevole, Festevolmente | (Italian) festival, merry, merrily |
| Festivo, Festivamente | (Italian) festive, festively |
| Festlich (Ger.), Festoso (It.) | festive |
| Feuer, Feurig | (German) fire, fiery |
| ff, fff | fortissimo, very loud |
| Fiacco | (Italian) weak, tired out |
| Fiata, Fiate | (Italian) time, times, (e.g. 'due fiate' meaning 'twice' or 'two times') |
| Fiato | (Italian) breath |
| Fiddle | colloquial name for a violin |
| Fier, Fière | (French) proud |
| Fierté | (French) pride, boldness of touch |
| Fierezza | (Italian) boldness of touch |
| Fiero | (Italian) fierce, fiery, haughty |
| Fife | a small member of the cross-blown flute family similar in pitch to that of the piccolo |
| Fifteenth | sometimes abbreviated to 15ma; an instruction to play two octaves above written pitch; on an organ, the name given to the 2-foot rank of pipes on the manual (the 2-foot rank is two octaves above the standard 8-foot rank on the manual) or a 4-foot rank of pipes on the pedal (which is two octaves above the 16-foot pipe on the pedal) |
| Figural or Figured (Eng.), Figuré (Fr.), Figurato (It.), Figural or Figuriert (Ger.) | a vocal piece in which the melody is accompanied or decorated with parts containing notes quicker than those of the melody although in solo vocal music these words have a meaning similar to 'coloratura' |
| Figured Bass | a shorthand method of indicating the harmonies (and any additional extemporisation felt suitable to the occasion) to be performed by the accompanying musician(s) when provided with no more than a bass line and the melody |
| Filer la voce, Filar it tuono | (Italian) messa di voce, a note sung and sustained with no change in volume |
| Filer la voix, Filer le son | (French) messa di voce, a note sung and sustained with no change in volume |
| Fin | (French) end |
| Fin, Fino | (Italian) as far as |
| Fine | (Italian) end |
| Fingerboard | the part of a stringed instrument where the player places his or her fingers to change the length of the vibrating string, in some cases these points will coincide with horizontal strips of metal or gut called frets (as on the guitar, the lute or the members of the viol family), in other cases the instrument will be 'unfretted' (as on the members of the violin family) |
| Fingersatz | (German) fingering |
| Fioritura | (Italian) the extemporised decoration of melodies by singers and instrumentalists |
| Firmo | (Italian) firm |
| Fis | (German) the note 'F sharp' |
| Fisis | (German) the note 'F double sharp' |
| Five, The | a group of Russian composers whose members were Balakiref, Cui, Borodin, Mussorgsky amd Rimsky-Korsakof |
| Flageolett or Flageolettöne (Ger.), Flageolet (Enf.) | a small six-holed whistle rather like a recorder but with two thumbholes played with both thumbs |
| Flamenco | a traditional form of Spanish folk-music with singing, dancing and instrumental accompaniment |
| Flat | a sign which lowers the pitch of a note by one semitone, to play or sing under the general pitch |
| Flatter | (French) to caress |
| Flautando, Flautato | (Italian) to produce flute-like sounds, i.e. harmonics, on a stringed instrument |
| Flauti | (Italian) flutes |
| Flauto | (Italian) flute |
| Flauto dolce | (Italian) recorder |
| Flebile, Flebilmente | (Italian) mournful, mournfully |
| Flehend | (German) entreating |
| Flessibile, Flessibilità | (Italian) flexible, flexibility |
| Fliessand | (German) flowing |
| Fling | a vigorous Scottish dance |
| Flotter | (French) to float, referring to the undulating motion of the violin bow |
| Flourish | a fanfare |
| Flüchtig | (German) fleet, agile |
| Flügel | (German) the grand piano |
| Fluidezza, Fluidità | (Italian) fluidity |
| Fluido | (Italian) fluid |
| Flûte | (French) flute |
| Focoso | (Italian) fiery |
| Fois | (French) time, as in 'première fois' meaning 'first time' |
| Folge | (German) succession, series, continuation |
| Folgen | (German) to follow |
| Folgt | (German) follows |
| Folia, Follia | originally a Portuguese dance but which was a popular theme for composers writing 'theme with variations' over three hundred and fifty years |
| Foot | a term used to describe the pitch (but, in general, not the length) of an organ pipe, i.e. 2-foot, 4-foot, 8-foot, etc. - the term arises from the natural length of the lowest note on the normal organ (C, two leger lines below the bass clef) which is 8 feet. A pipe is raised an octave by halving its length, so that a rank of pipes playing an octave above the 8-foot register is called the 4-foot register, while the register an octave below, is called the 16-foot register. Intermediate length mixture stops also feature on the organ to produce, when in combination with standard stops, unusual tone colours |
| Forlana or Forlano (It.), Forlane (Fr.) | a popular old Italian dance in compound duple time |
| Format de poche | (French) pocket-sized, as in 'pocket-score' |
| Fort | (German) forwards, continually, away (silence a stop on the organ) |
| Forte | (Italian) loud, abbreviated 'f' |
| Fortemente | (Italian) strongly |
| Fortissimo | (Italian) very loud, abbreviated 'ff' or 'fff' |
| Forza | (Italian) force, vigour |
| Forzando | (Italian) forcing |
| Forzato | (Italian) forced |
| Fougueux, Forgueuse | (French) impetuous |
| Fox-trot | an American ballroom dance, a cross between ragtime and a march, which can be slow or quick |
| fp | fortepiano, 'loud, then immediately soft' |
| Frais, Fraîche | (French) fresh |
| Fraîcheur | (French) freshness |
| Franc, Franche | (French) frank, open-hearted, bluff |
| Français, Française | (French) French |
| Française | a round dance in triple or compound duple time |
| Franchezza (It.), Franchise (Fr.) | freedom of spirit, boldness |
| Frapper | (French) to strike |
| Frappant, Frappé | (French) striking, struck |
| Frauenchor | (German) women's choir |
| Freddamente, Freddezza, Freddo | (Italian) coldly, coolness or indifference, cold |
| Fredonner | (French) to hum |
| Frei, Freie | (German) free |
| Frenetico, Frenetica | (Italian) frenzied |
| Frescamente, Fresco | (Italian) coolly or freshly, fresh or cool |
| Frets | horizontal strips fixed in or tied around the fingerboard of some stringed instruments to act as guides to where the fingers should be placed (normally close above the fret) to stop for different notes |
| Fretta | (Italian) haste |
| Frettolosamente | (Italian) hurried |
| Freude | (German) joy |
| Freudig | (German) joyful |
| Frisch | (German) brisk, lively |
| Fröhlich | (German) happy |
| Froid | (German) cold |
| Froidement | (French) coldly |
| Frosch | (German) the nut of a violin bow |
| Frottola | an unaccompanied madrigal of the late 15th and early 16th centuries |
| Früher | (German) earlier, previously |
| Fugato | a passage in a fugal style |
| Fughetta | a short fugue |
| Führend | (German) leading |
| Füllstimme | (German) a middle voice in a polyphonic composition generally of little musical importance |
| Funébre (Fr.), Funebre (It.) | funeral |
| Fünf | (German) five |
| Fünfstimmig | (German) in five parts |
| Fuoco | (Italian) force and speed |
| Für | (German) for |
| Furia | (Italian) fury |
| Furiosamente | (Italian) furiously |
| Furioso, Furibondo | (Italian) furious |
| Furiant | a rapid, poly-rhythmic dance type from Bohemia |
| Furieux, Furieusement | (French) furious, furiously |
| Furore | (Italian) fury, enthusiasm |
| Furry Dance | an ancient processional dance from Cornwall, also called the 'Floral Dance' or 'Flora' |
| Fuyant | (French) fleeing |
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