Meticulous and not so Meticulous Music Form

Do you need a frame for your newly drawn picture? Do you work better within set limits? Well then, enter into the wonderful world of compositional form. Here’s a list of some commonly use ones:

• binary form;
• ternary form;
• fugue;
• sonata form;
• rondo;
• theme and variations;
• strophic form;
• through-composed form;
• AABA form;
• twelve bar blues;
• verse-chorus form.

Just when you think you have nothing to do but sit around and watch television all weekend, along comes all of these forms and out comes your manuscript paper!

Some of the above forms are rather simple and some are quite complex. For example, through-composed form has different material in each new section of a piece, but a fugue has a more systematic format and includes terms like exposition, episode, subject, answer (real or tonal), counter-subject, stretto, redundant entry, etc…

Clarity comes from knowledge. Get all the knowledgeable answers that you need with respect to music form from Ready, Set, Compose!

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