Pause: A short period in an individual voice in which there should be relative quiet. Useful when turning to the next page in the score, breathing, emptying the horn of salvia, coughing, etc. Is rarely heard in baroque music. Today the minimum requirements for pauses in individual pieces are those of the Musicians Union (usually one per bar, or 15 minutes per hour).

Score: A pile of all the individual orchestral voices, transposed to C so that nobody else can understand anything. This is what conductors follow when they conduct, and its assumed that they have studied it carefully. Very few conductors can read a score.

Messiah: An oratorio by Handel performed every Christmas by choirs that believe they are good enough, in cooperation with musicians who need the money.

Gregorian chant: A way of singing in unison, invented by monks to hide snoring.

Atonality: Disease that many modern composers suffer from. The most prominent symptom is the patients lacking ability to make decisions.

Rubato: Expression used to describe irregular behaviour in a performer with sensations of angst in the mating period. Especially common amongst tenors.

English horn: A woodwind that got its name because its neither English nor a horn. Not to be confused with French horn, which is German.