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​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Through-Composed Form

In music theory about musical form, the term through-composed means that the music is relatively continuous, non-sectional, and/or non-repetitive. A song is said to be through-composed if it has different music for each stanza of the lyrics. This is in contrast to strophic form, in which each stanza is set to the same music. Sometimes the German durchkomponiert is used to indicate the same concept.

In general usage, a 'through-composed' work is one based on run-on movements without internal repetitions. (The distinction is especially characteristic of the literature of the art-song, where such works are contrasted with strophic settings.)

Many examples of this form can be found in Schubert's "Lieder", where the words of a poem are set to music and each line is different, for example, in his Lied "Der Erlkönig" ("The Elf-King"), in which the setting proceeds to a different musical arrangement for each new stanza and whenever the piece comes to each character, the character portrays its own voice register and tonality. Another example is Haydn's 'Farewell Symphony'.

"Happiness Is a Warm Gun", by The Beatles, is an example of this form's application in popular music. Furthermore, a good deal of Captain Beefheart's oeuvre is through-composed. No section of Ary Barroso's 1939 samba "Brazil" repeats; however, a second set of lyrics in Portuguese allows the melody to be sung through twice.
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Musical Form - Ternary
 

From Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form, usually schematicized as A–B–A. The first and third parts (A) are musically identical, or very nearly so, while the second part (B) in some way provides a contrast with them. The B section is often called the trio, especially in minuets and scherzi. Examples include Schumann's "Folk Song", Album for the Young (Op. 68, No. 9) and Chopin's Prelude in D-Flat Major (Op. 28).

The symmetrical construction of this scheme (aba) provides one of the familiar shapes in Western music; ternary form can be found in music from the Middle Ages (as in the common arrangement antiphon-verse-antiphon in Gregorian chant) to the present day.

Although any kind of aba pattern may be correctly defined as ternary, the term most precisely denotes the form exemplified by the minuet and trio of the Baroque suite and the Classical symphony and sonata, as well as the da capo aria of the Baroque cantata and oratorio and 18th-century opera. In the Classical minuet, the minuet section and the trio section must each comprise at least a period or a double period and must end on an authentic cadence; that is, each section is relatively complete within itself. The trio section follows the minuet and is usually in a different key. Then the minuet is repeated; this repetition may be indicated by the term da capo, “from the head”), or it may be written out in full, especially if it is varied in some way. Ludwig van Beethoven and his successors usually replaced the symphonic minuet with a scherzo, a movement similar in form to the minuet but much faster in tempo.

The standard aba is often described as a simple ternary form, as distinct from a compound ternary form, which may be abacaba or abacdaba with the c or the cd in a different key; this pattern approximates rondo form (in which a particular melody or section is periodically restated).

Sonata form has sometimes been considered an expanded category of ternary form, with its three sections of exposition, development, and recapitulation, but this characterization is misleading. Sonata form, the most highly developed of the Classical forms, in fact evolved historically from binary form into a more-complex structure that belongs in a distinct category of its own.
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Musical Form - Binary

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Structure

Most strictly, a piece in binary form is characterized by two complementary, related sections of roughly equal duration, which come up frequently. The first section will start in a certain key, and will usually modulate to a related key:
compositions in major keys will typically modulate to the dominant, the fifth scale degree above the tonic
compositions in minor keys will typically modulate to the relative major, the major key centered on the third scale degree above the tonic; alternatively the first section could close in the dominant minor, or with an imperfect cadence in the original key.
The second section of the piece begins in the newly established key, where it remains for an indefinite period of time. After some harmonic activity, the piece will eventually modulate back to its original key before ending. More often than not, especially in 18th-century compositions, the A and B sections are separated by double bars with repeat signs, meaning both sections were to be repeated.
Binary form is usually characterised as having the form AB, though since both sections repeat, a more accurate description would be AABB. Others, however, prefer to use the label AAâ². This second designation points to the fact that there is no great change in character between the two sections. The rhythms and melodic material used will generally be closely related in each section, and if the piece is written for a musical ensemble, the instrumentation will generally be the same. This is in contrast to the use of verse-chorus form in popular musicâ”the contrast between the two sections is primarily one of the keys used.

Further distinctions

A piece in binary form can be further classified according to a number of characteristics:
Simple vs. rounded
Occasionally, the B section will end with a "return" of the opening material from the A section. This is referred to as rounded binary, and is labeled as ABAâ². In rounded binary, the beginning of the B section is sometimes referred to as the "bridge", and will usually conclude with a half cadence in the original key. Rounded binary is not to be confused with ternary form, also labeled ABAâ”the difference being that, in ternary form, the B section contrasts completely with the A material as in, for example, a minuet and trio. Another important difference between the rounded and ternary form is that in rounded binary, when the "A" section returns, it will typically contain only half of the full "A" period, whereas ternary form will end with the full "A" section.
Rounded binary or minuet form:
A :||: B A or A'
I(->V) :||: V(or other closely related) I
If the B section lacks such a return of the opening A material, the piece is said to be in simple binary.
Simple
A->B :||: A->B
I->V :||: V->I
Slow-movement form
A' A"
I->V I->I
Many examples of rounded binary are found among the church sonatas of Vivaldi including his Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Continuo, First Movement, while certain Baroque composers such as Bach and Handel used the form rarely.

Sectional vs. continuous
If the A section ends with an Authentic (or Perfect) cadence in the original tonic key of the piece, the design is referred to as a sectional binary. This refers to the fact that the piece is in different tonal sections, each beginning and ending in their own respective keys.
If the A section ends with any other kind of cadence, the design is referred to as a continuous binary. This refers to the fact that the B section will "continue on" with the new key established by the cadence at the end of A.

Symmetrical vs. asymmetrical
If the A and B sections are roughly equal in length, the design is referred to as symmetrical.
If the A and B sections are of unequal length, the design is referred to as asymmetrical. In such cases, the B section is usually substantially longer than the A section.
The asymmetrical binary form begins to be more common than the symmetrical type from about the time of Beethoven onwards, and is almost routine in the main sections of Minuet and Trio or Scherzo and Trio movements in the works of many composers from Beethoven onwards. In such cases, occasionally only the first section of the binary structure is marked to be repeated.
Although most of Chopin's nocturnes are in an overall ternary form, quite often the individual sections (either the A, the B, or both) are in binary form, most often of the asymmetrical variety. If a section of this binary structure is repeated, in this case it is written out again in full, usually considerably varied, rather than enclosed between repeat signs.

Balanced binary
In some simple continuous binary forms, there is a kind of "rhyme" between the closing gesture of the first reprise and the closing gesture of the second. In other words, the cadential material at the end of the first reprise (in the key of the dominant) will return, transposed to the tonic, at the end of the second reprise. This is referred to as balanced binary.



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​MUSICAL FORM - SONATA

(from The Free Dictionary and Wikipedia)
SONATA - A type of instrumental composition that arose in Italy in the 17th century, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata, a piece sung. Thus many early concertos, suites, and sets of variations were called sonatas.
Baroque Sonata.
During the baroque period, the term Sonata began to identify two specific types: the sonata de chiesa, (church sonata), and the sonata da camera, (chamber sonata). Both were written most commonly for two melody instruments, usually violins or flutes, with a bass instrument and a keyboard instrument. The former, intended for church performance, was generally in four movements, two of them slow; the latter was usually a suite of dances.
In the late 17th cent. these two types merged into the outstanding baroque chamber music form, the trio sonata. This form was brought to perfection in the works of Arcangelo Corelli and François Couperin and adopted in the sonatas of J. S. Bach and Handel.
Sonata in the Classical Period
The classical sonata's movements are usually fast-slow-fast, and a minuet or scherzo is often inserted before the last movement. The usage of sonata as the standard term for such works began somewhere in the 1770s. Haydn labels his first piano sonata as such in 1771, after which the term divertimento is used very sparingly in his output. The term sonata was increasingly applied to either a work for keyboard alone (see piano sonata), or for keyboard and one other instrument, often the violin or cello.
Initially the most common layout of movements was: fast-slow-fast
- Allegro, which at the time was understood to mean not only a tempo, but also some degree of "working out", or development, of the theme.
- A middle movement which was, most frequently, a slow movement: an Andante, an Adagio, or a Largo;
- A closing movement was generally an Allegro or a Presto, often labeled Finale. The form was often a Rondo or Minuet.
Increasingly instrumental works were laid out in four, not three movements, a practice seen first in string quartets and symphonies, and reaching the sonata proper in the early sonatas of Beethoven.
The four-movement layout was by this point standard for the string quartet, and overwhelmingly the most common for the symphony. The usual order of the four movements was:
- An allegro, which by this point was in what is called sonata form, complete with exposition, development, and recapitulation.
- A slow movement, an Andante, Adagio or Largo.
- A dance movement, frequently Minuet and trio or – especially later in the classical period; a Scherzo and trio.
- A finale in faster tempo, often in a sonata–rondo form.
Beethoven's output of sonatas: 32 piano sonatas, plus sonatas for cello and piano and violin and piano.
Romantic period
Among works expressly labeled sonata, some of the most famous were composed in this period. After the classical era the most significant development was the use of one thematic idea in all movements, in each of which the basic idea is transformed in mood and character. This type of sonata was fully realized in the Sonata in B Minor of Franz Liszt. The sonata was closely tied in the Romantic period to tonal harmony and practice.
Among piano sonatas alone, there are the three of Frederic Chopin, those of Felix Mendelssohn, the three of Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt's Sonata in B Minor, and later the sonatas of Johannes Brahms and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Famous Sonatas:
-Three Sonatas for Solo Violin (JS Bach, Baroque period)
-Devils Thrill Sonata (Giuseppe Tartini, Baroque period
-Piano Sonata no.14 - 'Moonlight sonata' (Beethoven, Classical period)
-Piano Sonata no.8 in A minor (Mozart, Classical period)
-Piano Sonata no. 2 in B flat minor (Chopin, Romantic period)
-Sonata after a Reading of Dante (Franz Liszt, Romantic period)
-Sonata for 2 pianos and percussion (Bela Bartok, 20th Century/Contemporary)

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