Musical forms

The term musical form is used in two related ways:

• a generic type of composition such as the symphony or concerto
• the structure of a particular piece, how its parts are put together to make the whole; this too can be generic, such as binary form or sonata form

Musical form (the whole or structure) is contrasted with content (the parts) or with surface (the detail), but there is no clear line between the two. In most cases, the form of a piece should produce a balance between statement and restatement, unity and variety, contrast and connection.

There is some overlap between musical form and musical genre. The latter term is more likely to be used when referring to particular styles of music (such as classical music or rock music) as determined by things such as harmonic language, typical rhythms, types of musical instrument used and geographical origin. The phrase musical form is typically used when talking about a particular type or structure within those genres. For example, the twelve bar blues is a specific form often found in the genres of blues, rock and roll and jazz music.

"Form is supposed to cover the shape or structure of the work; content its substance, meaning, ideas, or expressive effects." (Middleton 1999)

Links

• Study Guide for Musical Form A Complete Outline of Standardized Formal Categories and Concepts by Robert T. Kelley

References

• DeLone et. al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0130493465.
• Lerdahl, Fred (1992). "Cognitive Constraints on Compositional Systems", Contemporary Music Review 6 (2), pp. 97-121.
• Richard Middleton. "Form", in Horner, Bruce and Swiss, Thomas, eds. (1999) Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture. Malden, Massachusetts. ISBN 0631212639.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

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