1. Introduction
Musical form is the way a musical composition is designed to make it coherent and nice.
The main element of musical form is repetition. This is because two reasons:
· Memory: Melodic repetition helps us to better remember them. Memory plays an important role in our taste for music because generally we like melodies that we can remember easily. This issue is very well known by commercial radio stations that repeat more often the songs they want to be liked by the listeners.
· Aesthetic: Humans tend to like repetition of patterns. In nature and generally in art we look for symmetries and patterns (a face, flower, a crystalized mineral, a gothic cathedral…). In music you can achieve that by mean of melodic repetition.
But if there is too much repetition we get tired. A good musical piece must to set up systems for organizing and dosing repetitions, and combine them with changes.
We can find repetition in all possible musical levels: melodic motives, musical phrases, sets of phrases and broader sections.
Kinds of repetition
There are three ways of presenting repetitions:
· Identic repetition: All musical materials are represented exactly the same way.
· Variation: the repetition is presented with some changes in some aspect (harmony, rhythm, ornamentation…)
· Imitation: in polyphonic textures, the melody of one voice is presented some way in any of the other voices.
Some formal structures have been created along history. Composers usually adapt their melodies to those structures.
2. Identic repetition forms
In these kind of forms, musical phrases are repeated exactly in the same way. Among them we can highlight the following ones:
2.1 Strophic form
It is a typical vocal music form (songs). Musical repetitions are linked in this case to a poetic structure.
Poems are organized in verses and strophes. In a strophic form each verse is musicalized with a musical phrase. In the first strophe you can choose between changing and repeating the musical phrase when passing to the next verse. This is possible because all verses have the same length, so you can fit, it you want, the same melody in all of them. Once you have completed the first strophe the rest of them have exactly the same music than this one.
This is the oldest known musical form. We can found it in the older music preserved and in traditional music as well.
The refrain
The refrain is a particular section in which both music and lyrics are repeated. Refrains are usually catchier than the rest of the song. In refrains songs usually become choral. Because of that it is also called chorus.
Strophic from in modern music
Music derived from rock and pop, often uses a particular kind of strophic form that combine vocal sections with others exclusively instrumentals.
Vocal sections
There are two kind of vocal sections: The strophes and the refrains. These are different either by its musical as his narrative functions.
· The strophes: They mainly have a narrative function. It is the place for telling the story. They generally are very simple at a melodic level. Melodies are sometimes reduced to a mere recitation.
· The chorus or refrains are sections that repeat both music and lyrics. The plot stops, and the lyrics are referred to some remarkable aspect of the character of the song. Music, instead, becomes more important. Musical phrases are wider in length and pitch, and melody became catchier, growing its musical interest.
Strophes and chorus can be combined in many different ways.
Instrumental sections
There are usually two instrumental sections.
· Introduction: It is usually short but it has an important role. This section presents the accompaniment. In rock and roll the RIFF is shown. Riff is a short melodic motive repeated all along the song usually played by guitars or bass guitars.
· Solo: In this section one instrument, usually the guitar develops a melody that originally was improvised, backed up by the rhythmic and harmonic base of the riff.
Solos are more important in rock than in pop music, and derive from the complex improvisations of the blues solos.
2.2 Binary form
It is used in many instrumental music styles. Its first written testimonies appear in dance music in the renaissance but it has been used for longer for sure. Currently they are very used in traditional music all over Europe.
They are formed by two sections A and B that are repeated always in the same way: AABB. Each of these sections contains a variable number of phases than can be repeated or not.
Section A generally is formed by two phrases: the first one (a) with open ending and a second one (b) with closed ending that acts as an answer.
Section B is usually wider. Sometimes is formed by 4 phrases.
Popular song “Twinkle winkle” has its roots in a dance that works that way.
A A B B
ab ab ccab ccab
Being linked to dance this form usually has two other characteristics:
· Rhythms are clear and well-marked. They have a strong rhythmic regularity that generally is remarked by stressing the strong beats.
· Regular Phrasing. Phrases have the same number of beats and tend to be organised in an ask-answer structure. That way they are very predictable and you can deduce when the part is going to change even the first time you listen to the song. This is very important in order to do the changes in choreography when dancing.
With this structure tunes are short. So, tunes are repeated many times and linked with other with the same rhythm to allow people to dance for longer periods. There are particular dances that link different rhythms as well.
These different dance tunes link together are called “set dances”.
2.3 Ternary forms
They are forms with 3 sections that are repeated that way: ABA
Usually B section contrast with A from the harmonic and rhythmic points of view.
Several ternary forms have been developed along history. The most important of them are the minuet, the aria da capo and the sonata allegro.
· The minuet: it is also an instrumental form derived from dance. It is written in a ¾ beat and was popularized in the classical period.
· Aria da Capo: it is a kind of vocal form with ternary pattern. It usually has an instrumental section intercalate between each different vocal section. It appears in baroque opera music.
· Sonata allegro: Is a very complex ternary form developed in the classical period (1750-1830). It joins together melodic and harmonic aspects. From the point of view of the repetition of the melodies it has 3 parts. The first one (A) works as an exposition where two different musical themes are presented. The part B is called development and the two themes presented in the exposition are fragmented and recombined. The repetition of A acts as a re-exposition. All the musical material presented in the exposition reapers again in a more conclusive way.
In a there are also an harmonic plan linked to the form.
2.4 Rondeaux
It is another instrumental form derived from dance. It was particularly appreciated in the French Baroque Era.
It consists in the repetition of an A section among others that changes.
For better remember that section is usual repeating A once at the beginning. The resultant structure is like this:
AABACADA……….
Section A usually has an inner phrasing very similar to that of a binary form, alternating open and closed endings.
Solo concerto
It is an orchestral form very popular in the Baroque Era. It shares many features with rondeaux.
It consists in the contrasting alternation of a big orchestral mass called “tutti”, with a solo section. In the solo section sounds a single instrument accompanied by others. The tutti section uses the same melodic material reappearing each time in different tonality.
Its structure therefor would be as follows:
Tutti( A)- solo (B)- Tutti (A)- Solo (C)- Tutti (A)- solo (D)-Tutti (A)
2.5 Suit
It is an instrumental form that is made by different dances with different rhythms one after another.
Each dance works as a different movement in a broader composition and are structured as any of the musical forms seen before.
Suites were originated as dances but along time they become stylized music for being listening to. Most of classical musical forms such as sonatas and symphonies derive from the idea of suits.
3. Variation forms
Variation is an important way of melodic repetition in all musical styles. In variation forms this element become in the bases for making form.
A melody is presented in a very simple way in the first place. After that, composers make successive presentations of the same theme with different variations. Each new variation is usually more complex than the former one. The variations can be melodic, rhythmic, harmonic, or any of them combined.
The main theme in this kind of forms is usually a popular dance tune or song, well known by the auditory. This makes easier for the listener the understanding of this form.
Generally each variation explores a particular aspect of the variation technic. First variation could be focus in rhythmic changes, second variations in changes in ornamentation and so on. Through the process of variation changes accumulates progressively in a way that sometimes the last variation scarcely resembles the original theme.
The typical structure of a theme with variations would be
Theme-variation I. V II,V III,………etc
Historically these forms have received different names in different historical periods and places. We can find them called variations, diferencias, pasacalles, chaconas, and with many other names.
4. Imitation forms
Imitation is a musical technic that uses a very particular kind of melodic repetition. It appears in polyphonic compositions when one of the simultaneous voices repeats melodic material that has been used in other voices before. This repletion can be literal or varied.
Imitation is not very used, and certainly not in modern music. Nevertheless it has been very used in religious music from the baroque and renaissance periods.
Josquin des Prez and Johan Sebastian Bach has been the most renowned musicians that have used imitation technics.
4.1 Canon
It is a polyphonic composition which simultaneous voices repeating just the same melodies. Each voice starts some time after the former one.
Composers use this technic in sections of compositions. Long compositions using this technic are not very common.
4.2 Fugue
It is the most important imitative form. It first appears in the Baroque era and it has and structure vaguely similar to the rondeaux.
It consists in the presentation of a melodic theme called subject that is repeated in the imitative way. This section reappears in different tonalities between other simpler polyphonic sections called divertimentos. The divertimentos use different melodic material.
Fugues use to be integrates as movements of bigger compositions.
5. Free forms
It is possible, although less frequent, that composers make their own formal pacification different of any other known form.
We are going to see some of the most remarkable kinds of free forms:
5.1 Free forms by sections
Sometimes a composer can use a system of identic repetition different of that we have studied. He can imagine a plan ABBA, ABCBA, or any other. This kind of forms are rarely used because is very interesting that the listener will be able to expect (in general terms) what is going to happen in the composition. Other way the composer couldn’t play with those expectations.
That kind of free forms can be found called improntus, bagatellas, ect.
5.2 Programmatic music
It is music which musical form is determined by some kind of literary program. Music pretends to describe a story. Repetitions, the melody character, the accompaniments, and other musical resources are intended to create an emotional climate that describes properly what’s happening in the narration. Nevertheless there are no lyrics. The story is told only by musical means.
This kind of form was widely used in the romanticism (19th century). Romantic composers were interested in telling by musical means the emotions that can be telling by words.
This kind of compositions has inherited musical technics that comes from two different traditions.
· Dramatic music. From the baroque era musician has been composing dramatic styles such as opera. In opera music is part of a story theatrically represented. The story is told using words but the emotion of feelings relied in music. You can see that in an instrumental example of opera in the concitatto style of Monteverdi.
· Music that pretends to mimic sound of nature: From the Middle Ages we have compositions that try to imitate bird songs, storms and many other natural sounds. These sounds were used in many kinds of musical compositions. Vivaldi famously did it in The Four Seasons concertos.
All this musical procedures are very used today in music for movies. One of the main targets of films soundtracks is being a support for the feelings of the action. We are able to immediately recognise a love theme or music for action. Music helps to make psychological profiles of the characters.
