musical form

Introduction

      the structure of a musical composition. The term is regularly used in two senses: to denote a standard type, or genre, and to denote the procedures in a specific work. The nomenclature for the various musical formal types may be determined by the medium of performance, the technique of composition, or by function.

Principles of musical form

      Music exists in time; as an aesthetician, Susanne K. Langer, put it in Feeling and Form, “music is time made audible.” The proper perception of a musical work depends in the main on the ability to associate what is happening in the present with what has happened in the past and with what one expects will happen in the future. The frustration or fulfillment of such expectations and the resulting tensions and releases are basic to most musical works.

      Musical form depends, therefore, on the disposition of certain structural units successively in time. The basic principles can be discerned from a brief consideration of melody, which may be defined as an organized succession of musical tones. This succession of tones consists of component parts, structural units, the principal of which is the phrase—a complete musical utterance, roughly corresponding to what can be sung or played in one breath or played with a single stroke of the bow. A melody, then, ordinarily consists of a succession of phrases, in which there may occur repetition (the same phrase repeated), contrast (a completely different phrase), or variation (musical variation) (the phrase altered, but in such a way that its identity remains perceptible). The relation between these component phrases is important for form. There may, for instance, be a complementary grouping of phrases as antecedent and consequent or “question and answer.” The phrases may or may not be equal in length. Some writers, pressing the analogy between music and language, also distinguish larger groupings of phrases: into periods, sentences, paragraphs, and the like. Most musical forms are thus not only additive but also hierarchical: phrases are conjoined to produce a melody, which in turn may be a constituent part of a larger work. A melodic entity that functions as an element in a larger whole is called a theme.

      Coherence may be produced by the use of a motive or figure, i.e., short elements consisting ordinarily of two to four notes. But whereas the motive is usually characterized by a striking interval or rhythmic arrangement, the figure consists of entirely conventional elements (a scale segment, notes of a chord, etc.). Finally, coherence may also be achieved by the consistent use of a rhythmic pattern.

      A few examples will serve to illustrate these points. The various phrases have been identified by slurs (phrase marks) and by lowercase letters (the exponential numbers designate variations), whereas larger groupings are designated by capital letters. In the hymn tune “Bethany,” by Lowell Mason, shown below, the eight phrases may be grouped in pairs to produce the scheme:

      This four-phase arrangement with statement, repetition (here with variation at the cadence), contrast, and restatement is extremely common in the traditional and art music of the West.

      Other schemes based on repetition and contrast abound. The famous “Largo” from Antonín Dvořák's New World Symphony, Opus 95, goes like this:

      Here the scheme is:

      This common arrangement is known as three-part form. Coherence is provided by the use of a rhythmic motive,

      (marked “x” in the second example).

      A common device is melodic sequence, in which the phrase is repeated but in transposition, as in the refrain of the Christmas carol “O Come All Ye Faithful.”

      Different from the above procedures is an English traditional song, “How Should I Your True Love Know” (example follows). The phrase structure here is a b c d, so that there is no repetitive plan. Such a melody is said to be through-composed. In some through-composed melodies a rhythmic pattern may appear throughout to promote coherence.

      Other elements contribute to formal organization in music. Among those having solely to do with pitch are range or register—whether most of the activity is high, low, or in the middle, or combinations of these, and whether the range of pitches used is large or small; types of melodic motion,

      whether conjunct (i.e., by step along the scale) or disjunct (by leaps); and the use of different types of scales or modes. Factors included in music's temporal aspect include tempo, whether fast or slow, as well as duration; i.e., whether individual notes are long or short (the gradually increasing use of constantly shorter note values, for instance, is associated with acceleration and accumulation, thus with increasing intensity). Among the harmonic aspects, there is key, or tonality (set of interrelated notes and chords, based on a major or minor scale), whereby the reassertion of a key following the intervention of other keys may produce an effect akin to the restatement of a phrase after a contrasting one has been heard; in this respect, cadences (cadence) (sections giving the impression of conclusion) are of crucial importance in defining key. Still other factors include the use of dynamics (loud and soft); timbre, or tone colour, especially in the employment of unusual instruments or combinations of instruments; texture, whether monophonic (monophony) (consisting of a single melodic line) or polyphonic (polyphony) (many-voiced), be it contrapuntal (having simultaneous independent melodic lines) or homophonic (one voice leading melodically, supported by chordal procedures); and, in vocal music, whether the text is set syllabically (one note to a syllable) or melismatically (many notes to a syllable).

Formal types

      Four basic types of musical forms are distinguished in ethnomusicology: iterative, the same phrase repeated over and over; reverting, with the restatement of a phrase after a contrasting one; strophic, a larger melodic entity repeated over and over to different strophes (stanzas) of a poetic text; and progressive, in which new melodic material is continuously presented (thus synonymous with through-composed). The following discussion deals first with Western and then with non-Western music.

Iterative and reverting types

      Iterative types, not common in Western music, may be found in the recitation tones of Gregorian chant, in which, for example, each line of a psalm is sung to the same melodic formula. Far more common, however, are reverting types. In the Middle Ages there existed the fixed forms used in songs, such as the French ballade (ballad) (a a b), virelai (A b b a A), and rondeau (A B a A a b A B), the Italian ballata (A b b a A) and the German bar form (a a b), where the patterns of repetition and contrast correspond to poetic forms. (In the representations of the reverting types in songs, lowercase letters refer to the same music set to different words, while capital letters indicate that both text and music are the same.) Since the Baroque period (c. 1600–c. 1750) there has been binary, or two-part form, such as a b. A variety of binary form particularly prominent in the dances of the 18th century is the rounded binary form, the two sections of which are a and b a (i.e., with a final return to original material in the second section), each of which is repeated, part one being heard twice before part two begins: ‖: a :‖ ‖: b a :‖ (‖: and :‖ indicate the enclosed material is to be repeated).

Binary

      The rounded binary form took on great importance in the late 18th century, when it was expanded and elaborated into what is known as sonata form (also called sonata-allegro or first movement form), which may be represented thus: ‖: exposition :‖ ‖: development recapitulation :‖, whereby the kinship to the ‖: a :‖ ‖: b a:‖ structure of rounded binary form is clear. Ordinarily, in the exposition the principal musical themes are stated; in the development they are subjected to a process of working out and variation; and, finally, in the recapitulation they are restated. Sometimes the scheme is enlarged by adding a slow introduction before the exposition or a coda (concluding passage) at the end, or both. This formal principle, usually treated with a certain freedom, has been of basic importance in Western instrumental music since the mid-18th century.

Ternary (ternary form)

      Another basic reverting type is ternary (three-part) form, a b a, also known as “song form” because of its frequent use in that genre, as well as in character pieces for piano. The form dominates the aria in late Baroque opera (the da capo aria, in which the final statement of a is not written out, but the performers simply follow the written instruction da capo, meaning “from the beginning,” and repeat the first part). The da capo principle also appears in the instrumental minuet and scherzo with trio.

rondo

      On a larger scale are refrain schemes, in which contrasting episodes appear between statements of the refrain. In instrumental music this is found most often in a five-part arrangement, the rondo, frequently a b a c a b a; but many departures from the form occur, most common being the replacement of c by a development passage, usually based on the rondo theme. This important variant, known as the sonata-rondo, is particularly associated with Joseph Haydn. The refrain principle also appears in the rondeau of 18th-century French harpsichord music, in which there is no set limit to the number of episodes. The third movements of concertos, with the reversions of the tutti or ritornello (passage for full orchestra) and the intervening episodes for the solo instrument or instruments, are also of this type, as occasionally are large operatic arias.

Strophic types

      The strophic type is seen in hymns and traditional ballads, in which different poetic strophes (strophe) are set to the same melody. Thus, while the melody of a single stanza may accord with one of the reverting types, the hymn or ballad as a whole is strophic; this also applies to the fixed forms of medieval music and to many other types of song, simple and complex.

      The instrumental equivalent of the strophic type is variation (or theme and variation) form, in which a musical theme (musical variation), often a complete melody with a harmonic accompaniment, is stated and then repeated a number of times, but with variations. A clear example of the relation between variation and strophic form is the chorale-partita of the Baroque era, a keyboard piece based on a hymn, with each varied statement of the hymn tune corresponding to a strophe of the hymn text. But the structure is more common in independent instrumental compositions, often of considerable dimensions (e.g., Beethoven's Diabelli Variations for piano). In the Baroque a common type was the ostinato, or variations on a ground, in which the composition was built on a recurring melodic or harmonic pattern, generally in the bass, the accompanying parts being varied with each statement of the pattern, as in Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor for organ or his “Chaconne” from the Partita in D Minor for unaccompanied violin. This procedure is also found in early operatic arias in the strophic variation form, in which each statement of the ostinato corresponds to a strophe of the aria's text. In the 19th century Brahms made impressive use of the ostinato (finales of the Variations on a Theme by Haydn and the Symphony No. 4 in E Minor).

Progressive types

      The progressive type is common in songs and instrumental pieces of the 19th and 20th centuries but is also found in earlier music (e.g., in the melodies used for the Gloria and Credo of the mass in plainchant) and in the prose, or sequence (c. 9th–c. 12th centuries), the phrases of which are arranged in pairs (a a b b c c d d, etc.), and its instrumental equivalent, the estampie. Polyphonic (polyphony) forms using a cantus firmus or basic melody (often a plainchant excerpt) also belong to the progressive type and include the liturgical organum, the early motet, and the conductus from the medieval era, as well as many chorale-preludes for organ of the Baroque. If, however, the cantus firmus itself is in one of the reverting forms, then the polyphonic setting will frequently follow suit.

      The most important forms of Renaissance polyphony also belong to the progressive type, since the characteristic procedure was to give each line of the text its own musical phrase, as in the Renaissance motet and other types of secular polyphonic music. The same applies to the instrumental contrapuntal forms of the late Renaissance and Baroque: the ricercare, canzona, invention, and fugue. Other progressive types include intonations, preludes, toccatas, and fantasias for lute and keyboard of the 16th, 17th, and early 18th centuries, in which the thematic material consists primarily of figurative elements (scale passages, arpeggiated chords, trills, turns, and the like); in larger works of this kind—by Bach for instance—passages in fugal style are often also present. Finally, there is simple binary form (a b), often found in early dances and in large operatic arias of the Classical period (Mozart and Beethoven).

Western compound forms

Early history

      With the larger forms of instrumental music there are extended musical pieces, usually called movements, which in their succession and totality make up a larger whole. An important unifying factor is key: a single key often dominates the work, others being used for contrast. This idea goes back at least to the Baroque, when two formal types were established: the first is the sonata da camera, or chamber sonata, consisting of a series of dances in the same key (also known as partita and, later, suite). By J.S. Bach's time (1685–1750) a set arrangement of dances was common: allemande (moderate duple time), courante or corrente (fast triple time), saraband (slow triple time), and gigue (fast duple or quadruple time), usually with some other dance inserted between the saraband and the gigue. The other type is the sonata da chiesa, or church sonata, which consists of four movements, again all in the same key, in a slow–fast–slow–fast succession. The distinction between the two types is explicit in Bach's sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin: the sonatas are in the “church” form, whereas the partitas are suites. Other large forms of Baroque music are the two types of overture: the French, in two parts, the first slow and stately, the second fast and fugal; and the Italian, in three movements in the succession fast–slow–fast, the middle movement usually in a different key. The instrumental concerto after 1700 usually employed the same scheme as the Italian overture.

The sonata

      Around 1750 a combination of these types produced the forms most common in the standard repertory of concert music. The sonata became a piece for either a keyboard instrument or a solo instrument accompanied by keyboard. It ordinarily consisted either of three movements in the arrangement fast–slow–fast or of four, with a minuet inserted between the slow movement and the finale; but there are examples of two-movement sonatas, notably by Beethoven, and even of one-movement sonatas (e.g., by Domenico Scarlatti, the Italian-born composer to the Spanish court). Usually all movements except the slow one (and sometimes the trio, as well) are in the same key. The first movement typically is cast in the sonata form, the slow movement in one of the reverting schemes (often ternary), and the finale either in sonata or rondo form; but variation form may appear in any of these movements.

      This large form is also used in chamber music, particularly the string quartet, and in the large form of orchestral music, the symphony, both of which ordinarily have four movements. Notable exceptions to this are the late quartets of Beethoven as well as those of the 20th-century composer Béla Bartók, the latter in two instances using what is called the “arch form,” a large reverting arrangement, A B C B A, each element being a separate movement; there are innumerable other exceptions. The concerto, on the other hand, adheres more to the older three-movement form. The various kinds of late 18th-century entertainment music (cassation, divertimento, nocturne, serenade, and the like) may employ any of a number of arrangements, ranging from three movements all the way to six or more.

cyclic form

      Some authorities believe that since the 18th century such sonata-form compositions have been organized by the use of a few musical thematic motives, often submitted to considerable variation throughout. Compositions organized in such a way are said to be in cyclic form. While this becomes important in the 19th century, the extent to which it characterizes the Classical period is a matter of some controversy at present.

Fantasias (fantasia) and program music

      Simultaneously a much freer form was cultivated, beginning in the late 18th century, the fantasia, primarily for keyboard, notably in the hands of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Consisting of an indefinite number of highly contrasting sections, surprise and expression were of prime significance.

      The fantasia, along with the overture to a play or opera, was the precursor of the large forms of orchestral program music of the 19th century, in which an extramusical content (usually a narrative of some kind), called the program, is expressed in the composition. There are two main types: the program symphony, associated with Hector Berlioz, in which the norms of symphonic form are for the most part preserved, and the symphonic poem, associated with Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss, in which the composer allows the extramusical subject matter to determine the structure of the composition. Some 19th-century concert overtures by German composers such as Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann belong to this type of composition. Important here is the association of musical themes with aspects of the program, the themes being used throughout the work, often in varied forms.

      Another arrangement is called the suite, which no longer consists exclusively of dances but also of instrumental pieces of all kinds. Usually some common element runs throughout: a cyclic theme may be used, as in Schumann's Carnaval or the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures from an Exhibition, or the music may originally have been intended for use with a play (Mendelssohn's music to A Midsummer Night's Dream or the Norwegian Edvard Grieg's for Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt).

opera and oratorio

      Among the large forms of vocal music, opera and oratorio are the most significant. Both are extended works in which a narrative is set to music. While an opera is performed in a theatre, an oratorio is a concert piece. Both may be either sacred or secular. A special type of oratorio is the Passion, the setting of New Testament accounts of Christ's crucifixion. The cantata may be regarded as a smaller form of oratorio.

      Operas and oratorios ordinarily consist of several musical genres: recitative (imitating the manner of speech), aria, ensemble and choral pieces, often with instrumental interludes and an overture (most overtures of the late 18th and 19th centuries being cast in sonata form). Opera often includes ballets and large sectional finales at the ends of acts. With respect to the oratorio, Handel greatly increased the role of the chorus in his work with this genre (especially Israel in Egypt), an example seized upon by his successors. Oratorios also differ from operas in that they frequently make use of a testo (narrator), who relates the events of the action, usually set in recitative style. Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex (1927) combines the two traditions.

      Whereas operas are usually composed as a series of enclosed musical forms, the German composer Richard Wagner (Wagner, Richard) devised a special kind, known as music drama, in which the music is continuous and in which the distinction between recitative, aria, and ensemble is largely eliminated. Instead, Wagner used a flexible melodic line which he referred to as “tone speech.” Wagner also greatly increased the role of the orchestra, stressing the technique of thematic development and transformation borrowed from instrumental music and further associating each theme with an aspect of the operatic plot, such themes being known as leitmotivs (“leading motifs”).

The mass

      Another large vocal form is the mass, the earliest polyphonic settings of which date from the 14th century. At first the mass was set in cantus firmus style, each movement built on the appropriate Gregorian chant melody, as in the mass of the French composer Guillaume de Machaut. In the 15th century a Burgundian composer, Guillaume Dufay, and his contemporaries developed the cyclic mass, in which a single cantus firmus was employed throughout. This idea was extended in the parody mass, built by elaborating thematic material taken from an existing polyphonic work, usually a motet or chanson; most 16th-century masses are of this kind. In the Baroque mass, each segment of the text is treated as an independent composition (aria, duet, chorus), similar to the procedure in a cantata or oratorio, except that no recitatives are used. J.S. Bach's Mass in B Minor is of this type.

      In the 16th and 17th centuries, Monteverdi and others grouped madrigals into a kind of cycle around a particular subject; should a dramatic text be involved, the form is known as a madrigal comedy. In the 19th century and after, similarly grouped songs with piano accompaniment are known as a song cycle (e.g., those by Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann).

20th-century modifications

      In the 20th century many composers have continued to use the traditional forms, although in other respects their work makes significant departures from what had been established. Others have virtually discarded them. Radically new elements have been introduced to serve as structural units: instead of the traditional phrases and motives, composers have come to employ what they call “sound events,” combinations of textures, types of timbre, aggregates of different simultaneously sounding pittches, and the like. An early example is afforded by the notion of the melody of timbres—the Klangfarbenmelodie of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton von Webern. The broadest possible range is included in the conception of a sound event: not merely tones but also noises; in fact, sounds of all kinds. These sound events have been arranged in a complex manner. An important principle of organization has been serialism, originally applied only to pitch, so that the pitch content of the work is decided by reiterations of a series (set or row) of pitches that has been determined in advance (e.g., in the 12-tone compositions of Schoenberg and Webern). Since 1945 the serial principle has been extended to other aspects of music as well: durations, dynamics, and types of attack and tempi, as in the music of the French composer Olivier Messiaen and the German Karlheinz Stockhausen. Other composers, including Stockhausen and the Greek Yannis Xenakis, have used numerical relationships to determine the structure of compositions mathematically. Still others have conceived of form as a dynamic interaction between contrasting and continually evolving sound events—the French composer Edgard Varèse and the American Elliott Carter. Simultaneously, there are works, such as those of the American John Cage, in which the form is not predetermined by the composer but left to chance, such pieces being called indeterminate or aleatory. These statements apply particularly to electronic music.

Non-Western forms

Elements of structure

      In many non-Western civilized cultures, such as those of India and Middle Eastern Islamic countries, music for the most part is not written down in advance of the performance but improvised upon framework-like patterns. In effect a composition exists only in its performance. Problems are presented by the different scales and intervals, rhythmic patterns, timbres, inflections, and the like. Or, again, a type of polyphony known as heterophony may result from the discrepancies that occur when several different singers or players simultaneously vary the same melodic line. In Japanese gagaku music, in which improvisation is not a factor, the beats often vary in duration, producing what is known as “elastic rhythms,” akin to the Western tempo rubato. Much non-Western music is functional: each piece has a specific purpose and is associated with certain events, actions, or situations, which often determine the musical structure.

      Important elements of form in non-Western music are melody types (melody type) and rhythmic patterns. By melody type is meant a melodic formula using a recognized scale, stressing particular tones and using specific configurations of intervals, which can provide the basis for a larger piece. In a given society or culture there ordinarily exists a large repertory of these melody types from which the musician, following convention, selects those for use in his rendition. The use of rhythmic patterns for form is seen, for instance, in colotomic structure, in which the composition is marked off in temporal entities by the differing but regularly recurring entrances of particular musical instruments in a set order.

      In the music of nonliterate cultures, simple iterative and strophic structures predominate. These are characterized by short phrases and the frequent use of alternation between a soloist and the group (the “call-and-response” pattern). Such pieces, often associated with dancing, usually belong to specific rituals of one kind or another.

      In literate cultures comprehensive theoretical music systems often exist, with elaborate musical forms. Nonetheless, the conception of propriety, that each musical piece has a certain function, is dominant. While strophic forms continue to be important, as in the Indian gat, the umui religious chants of the Ryukyu Islands (both of which also use variation), and in the popular music of most cultures, there are also such large musical forms as those related to the Indian rāgas, the Arabic maqāmāt (melody types), and the music of the gamelan (gong and percussion ensembles) of Java and Bali.

Specific formal patterns

      The term rāga (raga), meaning colour or passion, refers not only to a scale but also to the melody type. It has given rise to several musical forms, among them the ancient northern dhurpad and the shorter type known as khyāl in the North and kīrtana in the South. These may be vocal, instrumental, or both, the main performer or performers being accompanied by a drone played by a bass lute and by the reiteration of an extended rhythmic pattern (the tāla) by a drum. While much variety is possible, a typical formal arrangement includes a prelude which states the rāga (scale and melody type) in its simplest form and continues with a number of contrasting sections that differ in the degree of elaboration of the rāga, the register exploited, and the rapidity of the notes and figuration, usually reaching a climax near the end, in which daring variations on the rāga in the uppermost register are played or sung in very rapid tempo; the performance may conclude with a return to the character of the prelude. Interludes or linking passages, related to the prelude, are often present, so that an irregular reverting scheme results.

      The Arabic maqām, roughly equivalent to the rāga, provides the basis, among others, for the bashraf, a reverting type not unlike the Western rondo, and the nawba, an extended multisectional performance with some resemblance to the suite. In Java and Bali particularly noteworthy is the gending (musical composition) for the gamelan, which may take one of several progressive sectional forms in which the colotomic principle is important: the large gending agen, usually bipartite, a slow movement followed by a fast one, and the shorter gending gangsaran, used as preludes and interludes.

F.E. Kirby Ed.

Additional Reading

Comprehensive treatments of form in Western music are Hugo Leichtentritt, Musikalische Formenlehre, 3rd ed. (1927; Eng. trans., Musical Form, 1951); and R.E. Tyndall, Musical Form (1964); a shorter treatment is in Grosvenor Cooper, Learning to Listen (1957). For form in traditional and non-Western music, see Bruno Nettl, Folk and Traditional Music of the Western Continents (1965); Music in Primitive Culture (1956); and William P. Malm, Music Cultures of the Pacific, the Near East and Asia (1967). See also, generally, the relevant articles in Willi Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. rev. (1969), a good source on any musical subject; Donald Jay Grout, A History of Western Music (1960), the best general history of music to date; Adam Carse, The History of Orchestration (1925, reprinted 1964), a detailed look at the evolution of the orchestra and musical instruments; Nicolas Rimsky-Korsakov, Principles of Orchestration, with Musical Examples Drawn from His Own Works, ed. by Maximilian Steinberg, 1 vol. (1964; originally published in Russian, 1910), still one of the best texts for the serious student; Romain Goldron, Ancient and Oriental Music (1968), examples of non-Western music and instruments. Later monographs include David Epstein, Beyond Orpheus: Studies in Musical Structure (1979); and Ethan Mordden, A Guide to Orchestral Music: The Handbook for Non-Musicians (1980).

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