Musical form

In music, form refers to the structure of a musical composition or performance. In his book, Worlds of Music, Jeff Todd Titon suggests that a number of organizational elements may determine the formal structure of a piece of music, such as "the arrangement of musical units of rhythm, melody, and/or harmony that show repetition or variation, the arrangement of the instruments (as in the order of solos in a jazz or bluegrass performance), or the way a symphonic piece is orchestrated", among other factors.^[1] It is, "the ways in which a composition is shaped to create a meaningful musical experience for the listener."^[2]

These organizational elements may be broken into smaller units called phrases, which express a musical idea but lack sufficient weight to stand alone.^[4] Musical form unfolds over time through the expansion and development of these ideas. In tonal harmony, form is articulated primarily through cadences, phrases, and periods.^[2] "Form refers to the larger shape of the composition. Form in music is the result of the interaction of the four structural elements," of sound, harmony, melody, and rhythm.^[3]

Although, it has been recently stated that form can be present under the influence of musical contour, also known as Contouric Form.^[5] In 2017, Scott Saewitz brought attention to this concept by highlighting the occurrence in Anton Webern's Op.16 No.2.

Compositions that do not follow a fixed structure and rely more on improvisation are considered free-form. A fantasia is an example of this.^[6] Composer Debussy in 1907 wrote that, "I am more and more convinced that music is not, in essence, a thing that can be cast into a traditional and fixed form. It is made up of colors and rhythms."^[7]

The arrangement of the into unaccented and accented beats, the cells of a measure that, when harmonized, may give rise to a motif or figure.

pulse

The further organization of such a measure, by repetition and , into a true musical phrase having a definite rhythm and duration that may be implied in melody and harmony, defined, for example, by a long final note and a breathing space. This "phrase" may be regarded as the fundamental unit of musical form: it may be broken down into measures of two or three beats, but its distinctive nature will then be lost. Even at this level, the importance of the principles of repetition and contrast, weak and strong, climax and repose, can be seen.^[9]^[a] Thus, form may be understood on three levels of organization. For the purpose of this exposition, these levels can be roughly designated as passage, piece, and cycle.

variation

It may have an at the beginning.

introduction

Following the introduction, the exposition is the first required section. It lays out the thematic material in its basic version. There are usually two themes or theme groups in the exposition, and they are often in contrasting styles and keys and connected by a transition. In the end of the exposition, there is a closing theme which concludes the section.

The exposition is followed by the development section in which the material in the exposition is developed.

After the development section, there is a returning section called recapitulation where the thematic material returns in the tonic key.

At the end of the movement, there may be a , after the recapitulation.^[16]

coda

AABA a.k.a. American Popular

ABAB

ABAC a.k.a. Verse/Chorus/Verse/Bridge

ABCD a.k.a.

Through-composed

Twelve-bar blues

Cyclical forms[edit]

In the 13th century the song cycle emerged, which is a set of related songs (as the suite is a set of related dances). The oratorio took shape in the second half of the 16th century as a narrative recounted—rather than acted—by the singers.

Developing variation

List of musical genres by era

Musical analysis

Program music

Chester, Andrew. 1970. "Second Thoughts on a Rock Aesthetic: The Band". The New Left Review 1, no. 62 (July–August): 78–79. Reprinted in On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word, edited by Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin, 315–19. New York: Pantheon, 1990.

Keil, Charles. 1987. "Participatory Discrepancies and the Power of Music". Cultural Anthropology 2, No. 3 (August): 275–83.

Cadwallader, Allen. 1990. "Form and Tonal Process. The Design of Different Structural Levels". Trends in Schenkerian Research, A. Cadwallader ed. New York, etc.: Schirmer Books: 1-21.

Laskowski, Larry. 1990. "J.S. Bach's 'Binary' Dance Movements: Form and Voice-Leading", Schenker Studies, H. Siegel ed. Cambridge: CUP: 84-93.

Schmalfeldt, Janet. 1991. "Towards a Reconciliation of Schenkerian Concepts with Traditional and Recent Theories of Form", Music Analysis 10: 233-287.

Beach, David. 1993. "Schubert's Experiments with Sonata Form: Formal-Tonal Design versus Underlying Structure", Music Theory Spectrum 15: 1-18.

Smith, Peter. 1994. "Brahms and Schenker: A Mutual Response to Sonata Form", Music Theory Spectrum 16: 77-103.

Smith, Charles J. 1996. "Musical Form and Fundamental Structure: An Investigation of Schenker's Formenlehre". Music Analysis 15: 191-297.

Burnham, Scott. 2001. "Form", Cambridge History of Western Music Theory, Th. Christensen ed. Cambridge: CUP: 880-906.

Webster, James. 2009. "Formenlehre in Theory and Practice", Musical Form, Forms, and Formenlehre: Three Methodological Reflections, P. Bergé ed. Leuven: LUP: 123-139.

Hooper, Jason. 2011. "Heinrich Schenker's Early Conception of Form, 1895-1914". Theory and Practice 36: 35-64.

Schmalfeldt, Janet. 2011. In the Process of Becoming: Analytic and Philosophical Perspectives on Form in Early Nineteenth-Century Music, New York: Oxford University Press.

Cecchi, Alessandro (ed.). 2015. Schenker's Formenlehre. Rivista di Analisi e Teoria Musicale XXI, No. 2.

Lessons in Music Form by Percy Goetschius, 1904

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