I Can’t Sleep - Music Part 1 | Gentle Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: November 18, 2019

Ease into rest with calm bedtime reading about music in this first part of the series, created to help with insomnia and restless nights. This soothing episode begins exploring music’s origins, its role in human culture, and the universal power of sound and rhythm. Benjamin’s peaceful cadence makes learning relaxing, with no whispering or hypnosis—just calm, fact-filled storytelling to reduce stress and quiet the mind. Discover the beginnings of music while letting your body and thoughts settle. Press play, listen gently, and drift into sleep. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Music, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Music. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.

With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is part one of a two-part series about music. From Wikipedia.org. Music is an art form and cultural activity

whose medium is sound organized in time. General definitions of music include common elements such as pitch, which governs melody and harmony, rhythm, and its associated concepts, tempo meter, and articulation, dynamics, loudness, and softness, and the sonic qualities of timbre and timbre and texture, which are sometimes termed the color of a musical sound.

Different styles or types of music may emphasize, deemphasize, or omit some of these elements. Music is performed with a vast range of instruments and vocal techniques, ranging from singing to rapping. There are solely instrumental pieces, solely vocal pieces, such as songs without instrumental accompaniment, and pieces that combine singing and instruments. The word derives from Greek music, art of the muses. In its most general form, the activities describing music as an art form or cultural activity include the creation of works of music, songs, tunes, symphonies, and so on, a criticism of music, the study of the history of music, and the aesthetic examination of music.

Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings such as the harmony of the spheres, and it is music to my ears, point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, there is no noise, only sound. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Indeed, throughout history, some new forms or styles of music have been criticized as not being music, including Beethoven's Gross Fugue String Quartet in 1825,

early jazz in the beginning of the 1900s and hardcore punk in the 1980s. There are many types of music, including popular music, traditional music, art music, music written for religious ceremonies, and work songs such as shanties. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions such as classical music symphonies from the 1700s and 1800s,

through to spontaneously played improvisational music such as jazz and avant-garde styles of chance-based contemporary music from the 20th and 21st centuries. Music can be divided into genres, e.g. country music, and genres can be further divided into sub-genres, e.g. country blues and pop country are two of the many country sub-genres. Although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to personal interpretation, and occasionally controversial.

For example, it could be hard to draw the line between some early 1980s hard rock and heavy metal. Within the arts, music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art, or as an auditory art. Music may be played or sung and heard live at a rock concert or orchestra performance. heard live as part of a dramatic work, a music theater show or opera, or it may be recorded and listened to on a radio, MP3 player, CD player, smartphone, or as film score or TV show. In many cultures, music is an important part of people's way of life, as it plays a key role in religious rituals, right of passage ceremonies,

e.g. graduation and marriage, social activities, e.g. dancing. and cultural activities ranging from amateur karaoke singing to playing in an amateur funk band or singing in a community choir. People may make music as a hobby like a teen playing cello and a youth orchestra, or work as a professional musician or singer. The music industry includes the individuals who create new songs and musical pieces, such as songwriters and composers. individuals who perform music, which include orchestra, jazz band, and rock band musicians, singers, and conductors. Individuals who record music, music producers, and sound engineers. Individuals who organize concert tours and individuals who sell recordings, sheet music, and scores to customers. The word derives from Greek, music, art of the muses.

In Greek mythology, the nine muses were the goddesses who inspired literature. science and the arts, and who were the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, song lyrics, and myths in the Greek culture. According to the online etymological dictionary, the term music is derived from mid-13th century, music, from old French music, and directly from Latin, Musica, the art of music. Also including poetry, also the source of Spanish musica, Italian musica, old high German musica, German music, German music, Dutch music, Danish music. This is derived from the Greek music techna, art of the muses, from femme or musicos, pertaining to the muses, from muza muse. Modern spelling dates from the 1630s. In classical Greece,

the term music refers to any art in which the muses presided, but especially music and lyric poetry. Music is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace. When music was only available through sheet music scores, such as during the classical and romantic eras, music lovers would buy the sheet music of their favorite pieces and songs so that they could perform them at home on the piano. With the advent of sound recording, records of popular songs rather than sheet music became the dominant way that music lovers would enjoy their favorite songs. With the advent of home tape recorders in the 1980s and digital music in the 1990s,

music lovers could make tapes or playlists of their favorite songs and take them with them on a portable cassette player or MP3 player. Some music lovers create mixed tapes of their favorite songs, which serve as a self-portrait, a gesture, a friendship, prescription for an ideal party, and an environment consisting solely of what is most ardently loved. Amateur musicians can compose or perform music for their own pleasure and derive their income elsewhere. Professional musicians are employed by a range of institutions and organizations, including armed forces and marching bands, concert bands, and popular music, churches in synagogue,

symphony orchestras, broadcasting or film production companies, and music schools. Professional musicians sometimes work as freelancers or session musicians, seeking contracts and engagements in a variety of settings. There are often many links between amateur and professional musicians. Beginning amateur musicians take lessons with professional musicians. In community settings, advanced amateur musicians performed with professional musicians. in a variety of ensembles such as community concert bands and community orchestras. A distinction is often made between music performed for a live audience

and music that is performed in a studio so that it can be recorded and distributed through the music retail system or the broadcasting system. However, there are also many cases where a live performance in front of an audience is also recorded and distributed. Live concert recordings are popular in both classical music and in popular music, and in popular music forms, such as rock, where illegally taped live concerts are prized by music lovers. In the jam band scene, live improvised jam sessions are preferred to studio recordings. Composition is the act or practice of creating a song, an instrumental music piece,

a work with both singing and instruments, or another type of music. In many cultures, including Western classical music, the act of composed, also includes the creation of music notation, such as sheet music score, which is then performed by the composer or by other singers or musicians. In popular music and traditional music, the act of composing, which is typically called songwriting, may involve the creation of a basic outline of the song called the lead sheet, which sets out the melody, lyrics, and chord progression. In classical music, the composer typically orchestrates his or her own compositions, but in musical theater and pop music, songwriters may hire an arranger to do the orchestration.

In some cases, a songwriter may not use notation at all, and instead compose a song in her mind and then play or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written scores play and classical music. Even when music is notated relatively precisely, as in classical music, there are many decisions that a performer has to make, because notation does not specify all of the elements of music precisely. The process of deciding how to perform music that has been previously composed

and notated is termed interpretation. Different performers' interpretations of the same work of music can vary widely in terms of the tempos that are chosen, and the plain or singing style or phrasing of the melodies. Composers and songwriters who present their own music are interpreting their songs, just as much as those who perform the music of others. The standard body of choices and techniques present at a given time in a given place is referred to as performance practice,

whereas interpretation is generally used to mean the individual choices of a performer. Although a musical composition often uses music, musical notation and has a single author, this is not always the case. A work of music can have multiple composers, which often occurs in popular music when a band collaborates to write a song, or a musical theater when one person writes the melodies, a second person writes the lyrics, and a third person orchestrates the songs. In some styles of music such as the blues, a composer songwriter may create, perform, and record new songs or pieces without every writing them down in music notation. A piece of music can also be

composed with words, images, or computer programs that explain or notate how the singer or musician should create musical sounds. Examples range from avant-garde music that uses graphic notation, to text compositions such as Odin Sibbantagam, to computer programs that select sounds for musical pieces. Music that makes heavy use of randomness and chance is called aleatoric music and is associated with contemporary composers active in the 20th century, such as John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Vito Lutislavski. A more commonly known example of chance-based music is the sound of wind chimes, jingling

in a breeze. The study of composition has traditionally been dominated by examination of methods of practice of Western classical music, but the definition of composition is broad enough to include the creation of popular music and traditional music songs and instrumental pieces, as well as spontaneously improvised works like those of free jazz performers and African percussionists such as you drummers. In the 2000s, music notation typically means the written expression of music notes and rhythms on paper using symbols. When music is written down, the pitches and rhythm of the music, music, such as the notes of a melody, are notated.

Music notation also often provides instructions on how to perform the music. For example, the sheet music for a song may state that the song is a slow blues or a fast swing, which indicates the tempo and the genre. To read music notation, a person must have an understanding of music theory, harmony, and the performance practice associated with a particular song or pieces genre. written notation varies with style and period of music. In the 2000s, notated music is produced as sheet music, or for individuals with computer scorewriter programs,

as an image on a computer screen. In ancient times, music notation was put onto stone or clay tablets. To perform music from notation, a singer or instrumentalist requires an understanding of the rhythmic and pitch elements embodied in the symbols and their performance practice that is associated with a piece of music or a genre. In genres requiring musical improvisation, the performer often plays from music where only the chord changes and form of the song are written,

requiring the performer to have a great understanding of the music's structure, harmony, and the styles of a particular genre, e.g. jazz or country music. In Western art music, the most common types of written notation are scores, which include all the music parts of an ensemble piece and parts which are the music notation for the individual performers or singers. In popular music, jazz and blues, the standard musical notation is the lead sheet, which notates the melody, chords, lyrics, if it is a vocal piece,

and structure of the music. Fake books are also used in jazz. They may consist of lead sheets or simply chord charts, which permit rhythm section, members to improvise an accompaniment part to jazz songs. Scores and parts are also used in popular music and jazz, particularly in large ensembles such as jazz big bands. In popular music, guitarists and electric bass players often read music notated in tablature, often abbreviated as tab, which indicates the location of the notes to be played on the instrument using a diagram

of the guitar or bass fingerboard. Tableture was also used in the Baroque era to notate music for the lute, a stringed, fretted instrument. Musical improvisation is the creation of spontaneous music, often within or based on a pre-existing harmonic framework or chord progression. Improvisation is the act of instantaneous composition by performers, where compositional techniques are employed with or without preparation. Improvisation is a major part of some types of music such as blues, jazz, and jazz fusion, in which instrumental performers improvised solos, melody lines, and accompaniment parts. In the Western art music tradition, improvisation was an important skill during the Baroque era and during the classical era. In the Baroque era, performers improvised ornaments and Basso-continual keyboard players improvised chord voicings

based on figured-based notation. In the classical era, solo performers and singers improvised virtuoso cadenzas during concerts. However, in the 20th and 21st century, as common practice Western art music performance became institutionalized in symphony orchestras, opera houses, and ballets, improvisation has played a smaller role.

At the same time, some modern composers have increasingly included improvisation in their creative work. In Indian classical music, improvisation is a core component and an essential criterion of performances. Music theory encompasses the nature and mechanics of music. It often involves identifying patterns

that govern composers' techniques and examining the language and notation of music. In a grand sense, music theory distills and analyzes the parameters or elements of music, rhythm, harmony, harmonic function, melody, structure, form,

and texture. Broadly, music theory may include any statement, belief, or conception of, or about music. People who study these properties are known as music theorists. Some have applied acoustics,

human physiology, and psychology to the explanation of how and why music is perceived. Music has many different fundamentals or elements. Depending on the definition of element being used, these can include pitch, beat, or pulse, tempo, rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, style, allocation of voices, timbre or color, dynamics, expression, articulation, form, and structure. The elements of music feature prominently in the music curriculum of Australia, UK, and U.S.

all three curriculums identify pitch dynamics tambour and texture as elements but the other identified elements of music are far from universally agreed below is a list of the three official versions of the elements of music australia pitch tamber texture dynamics and expression rhythm form and structure U.K. Pitch, timbre, texture, dynamics, duration, tempo, structure. USA. Pitch, timbre, texture, dynamics, rhythm, form, harmony, style articulation. In relation to the UK curriculum, in 2013, the term appropriate musical notations, was added to their list of elements and the title of the list was changed from the elements of music

to the interrelated dimensions of music. The interrelated dimensions of music are listed as pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure, and appropriate musical notations. The phrase, the elements of music, is used in a number of different contexts. The two most common contexts can be differentiated by describing them as the rudimentary elements of music and the perceptual elements of music. In the 1800s, the phrases the elements of music and the rudiments of music were used interchangeably. The elements described in these documents referred to aspects of music that are needed in order to become a musician.

Recent writers, such as Estreya, seem to be using the phrase, elements of music in a similar manner. A definition which most accurately reflects this usage is the rudimentary principles of an art, science, etc., the elements of grammar. The UK's curriculum switched to the interrelated dimensions of music seem to be a move back to using the rudimentary elements of music. Since the emergence of the study of psychoacoustics in the 1930s, Most lists of elements of music have related more to how we hear music than how we learn to play it or study it.

C.E. Seashore in his book, Psychology of Music, identified four psychological attributes of sound. These were pitch, loudness, time, and timbre. He did not call them the elements of music, but referred to them as elemental components. nonetheless these elemental components link precisely with four of the most common musical elements. Pitch and timbre match exactly, loudness links with dynamics, and time links with the time-based elements of rhythm, duration, and tempo. This usage of the phrase, the elements of music, links more closely with Webster's new 20th century dictionary definition of an element as a substance which cannot be divided into a smaller formed by known methods.

And educational institutions lists of elements generally align with this definition as well. Although writers of lists of rudimentary elements of music can vary their lists depending on their personal or institutional priorities, the perceptual elements of music should consist of an established or proven list of discrete elements, which can be independently manipulated to achieve an intended musical effect. It seems at this stage that there is still research to be done in this area. Some styles of music place an emphasis on certain of these fundamentals, while others place less emphasis on certain elements. To give one example, while Bebopra Jazz makes use of very complex chords,

including altered dominance and challenging chord progressions, with chords changing two or more times per bar, and keys changing several times in a tune, funk places most of its emphasis on rhythm and groove, with entire songs based around a vamp on a single chord. While romantic-era classical music from the mid to late 1800s makes great use of dramatic changes of dynamics, from whispering Pianissimo sections to thunderous four,

Ortissimo sections, some entire Baroque dance suites for harpsichord from the early 1700s may use a single dynamic. To give another example, while some art music pieces such as symphonies are very long, some pop songs are just a few minutes long. Pitch is an aspect of a sound that we can hear, reflecting whether one musical sound, note, or tone is higher or lower than another musical sound, note or tone. We can talk about the highness or lowness of pitch in the more general sense, such as the way a listener hears a piercingly high piccolo note or whistling tone as higher in pitch than a deep thump of a bass drum. We also talk about pitch in the precise sense associated with musical melodies, bass lines, and chords.

Precise pitch can only be determined in sounds that have a frequency that is clear and stable enough to distinguish from noise. For example, it is much easier to listeners to discern the pitch of a single note played on a piano than to try to discern the pitch of a crash symbol that is struck. A melody, also called a tune, is a series of pitches, notes, sounding in succession, one after the other, often in a rising and falling pattern. The notes of a melody are typically created using pitch systems such as scales or modes. Melodies also often contain notes from the chords used in the song.

The melodies in simple folk songs and traditional songs may use only the notes of a single scale. The scale associated with the tonic note or key of a giving song. For example, a folk song in the key of C, also referred to as C major, may have a melody that uses only the notes of the C major scale. the individual notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. These are the white notes on a piano keyboard. On the other hand, B-Bop era jazz from the 1940s and contemporary music from the 20th and 21st centuries may use melodies with many chromatic notes, i.e. notes in addition to the notes of the major scale, on a piano, a chromatic scale would include all the notes on the keyboard, including the white notes and black notes.

and usual scales such as the whole tone scale. A whole tone scale in the key of C would contain the notes C, D, E, F, sharp, G, and A sharp. A low, deep musical line played by bass instruments such as double bass, electric bass, or tuba is called a bass line. Harmony refers to the vertical sounds of pitches and music, which means pitches that are played or sung together at the same time to create a chord. Usually this means the notes are played at the same time, although harmony may also be implied by a melody that outlines a harmonic structure, i.e. by using melody notes that are

played one after the other, outlining the notes of a chord. In music written using the system of major minor tonality, keys, which includes most classical music written from 1600 to 1900 and most western pop, rock, and traditional music. The key of a piece determines a scale used, which centers around the home note or tonic of the key. Simple classical pieces and many pop and traditional music songs are written so that all the music is in a single key. More complex classical, pop, and traditional music songs and pieces may have two keys, and in some cases three or more keys. Classical music from the Romantic era, written from about 1820 to 1900, often contains multiple keys, as does jazz, especially bebop jazz from the 1940s,

in which the key or home note of a song may change every four bars or even every two bars. Rhythm is the arrangement of sounds and silences in time. Meter animates time in regular pulse groupings called measures or bars, which in Western classical, popular, and traditional music often group notes in sets of two, e.g. 24 time, 3, e.g. 3. 3.4 time, also known as waltz time, or 3.8 time. Or 4, e.g. 4.m. meters are made easier to hear because songs and pieces often, but not always, place an emphasis on the first beat of each grouping. Notable exceptions exist, such as the backbeat used in much western pop and rock, and which a song that uses a measure that consists of four beats, called 4-4-time or common time,

will have accents on beats 2 and 4, which are typically performed by the drummer on the snare drum, a loud and distinctive sounding percussion instrument. In pop and rock, the rhythm parts of a song are played by the rhythm section, which includes chord playing instruments, e.g. electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, or other keyboard instruments. A bass instrument, typically electric bass, or for some styles such as jazz and bluegrass, double bass, and a drum kit player. Musical texture is the overall sound of a piece of music or song. The texture of a piece or song is determined by how the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic material, are combined in a composition,

thus determining the overall nature of the sound in a piece. Texture is often described in regard to the density or thickness and range or width between lowest and highest pitches, in relative terms as well as more specific, according to the number of voices in the relationship between those voices. For example, a thick texture contains many layers, of instruments. One of these layers could be a string section or another brass.

A thickness also is affected by the amount of the richness of the instruments. Texture is commonly described according to the number of and relationship between parts or lines of music. Monophony. A single melody, or tune, with neither instrumental accompaniment nor a harmony. part. A mother singing a lullaby to her baby would be an example. Heterophony, two or more instruments or singers playing singing the same melody. But with each performers slightly varying the rhythm or speed of the melody, or adding different ornaments to the melody.

Two bluegrass fiddlers playing the same traditional fiddle tune together will typically each vary the melody a bit, and each add different ornaments. Polyphony. Multiple independent melody lines that interweave together, which are sung or played at the same time. Coral music written in the Renaissance music era was typically written in this style. A round, which is a song such as row, row, row your boat, which different groups of singers all start to sing at different times, is a simple example. example of polyphony. Humophony. A clear melody supported by chordal accompaniment. Most Western popular music songs from the 19th century onward are written in this texture.

Music that contains a large number of independent parts, e.g. a double concerto accompanied by 100 orchestral instruments with many interweaving melodic lines, is generally said to have a thicker or denser texture, then I work with few parts, e.g. a solo flute melody accompanied by a single cello. Tambor, sometimes called color or tone color, is the quality or sound of a voice or instrument. Tambur is what makes a particular musical sound different from another, even when they have the same pitch and loudness. For example, a 440-hirts A note sounds different when it is played on oboe, piano, violin or electric guitar. Even if different players of the same instrument play the same note, their notes might sound different due to differences in instrumental technique, e.g. different

types of accessories, e.g. mouthpieces for brass players, reeds for oboe and bassoon players, or strings made out of different materials for string players, e.g. gut strings versus steel strings. even two instrumentalists playing the same note on the same instrument, one after the other, may sound different due to different ways of playing the instrument, e.g. two string players might hold the bow differently. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the perception of timbre include the spectrum, envelope, and overtones of a note or musical sound.

For electric instruments developed in the 20th century, such as electric guitar, electric bass, and electric piano, the performer can also change the tone by adjusting equalizer controls, tone controls on the instrument, and by using electronic effects, units such as distortion pedals. The tone of the electric hammond organ is controlled by adjusting drawbars. Expressive qualities are those elements in music that create change in music without changing the main pitches

or substantially changing the rhythms of the melody and its accompaniment. Performers, including singers and instrumentalists, can add musical expression to a song or piece by adding phrasing, by adding effects such as vibrato, with voice and some instruments such as guitar, violin, brass instruments, and woodwinds. Dynamics, the loudness or softness of a piece or a section of it. tempo fluctuations, e.g. Retardando or Acellarando, which are respectively slowing down and speeding up the tempo. By adding pauses or formatas on a cadence, and by changing the articulation of the notes,

e.g. making notes more pronounced or accented. By making notes more legato, which means smoothly connected, or by making notes shorter. expression is achieved through the manipulation of pitch such as inflection, vibrato, slides, etc. Volume. Dynamics, accent, tremolo, etc. Duration. Tempo fluctuations, rhythmic changes, changing note durations such as with legato and staccato, etc. Tambor, e.g. changing the vocal timbre from a light to a resonant voice.

and sometimes even texture, e.g. doubling the bass note for a richer effect in a piano piece. Expression therefore can be seen as a manipulation of all elements in order to convey an indication of mood, spirit, character, etc. And as such, cannot be included as a unique perceptual element of music, although it can be considered an important rudimentary element of music. In music, form, describes how the overall structure or plan of a song or piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections. In the early 20th century, Tin Pan Alley songs and Broadway musical songs were often in AABA 32 bar form, in which the A section repeated the same eight bar melody, and the B section provided a contrasty melody and or harmony for eight bars. From the

1960s onward, western pop and rock songs are often in verse-chorus form, which is based around a sequence of verse and chorus refrain sections, with new lyrics for most verses and repeating lyrics for the choruses. Popular music often makes use of strutphic form, sometimes in conjunction with the 12-bar blues. In the 10th edition of the Oxford Companion of Music, Percy Scholes defines musical form as a series of strategies designed to find a successful mean between the opposite extremes of unrelieved repetition and unrelieved alteration. Examples of common forms of Western music include the fugue, the invention, sonata allegro, canon, strafic, theme in variations, and rondo. Shull's states that European classical music had only six standalone forms, simple binary,

simple ternary, compound binary, rondo, air with variations, and fugue. Although musicologist Alfred Mann, emphasize that the fugue is primarily a method of composition that has sometimes taken on certain structural conventions, where a piece cannot readily be broken down into sectional units, though it might borrow some form from a poem, story, or program, it is said to be through composed. such is often the case with a fantasia, prelude, rhapsody, etude, or study, symphonic poem, bagatelle, impromptu, etc.

Professor Charles Kiel classified forms and formal detail as sectional, developmental, or variational. Sectional This form is built from a sequence of clear-cut units that may be referred to by letters, but also often have generic names such as introduction and coda, exposition, development, and recapitulation, verse, chorus, or refrain and bridge. Introductions and codas, when they are no more than that, are frequently excluded from formal analysis. All such units may typically be eight measures long. Sectional forms include strophic form. This form is defined by its unrelived repetition.

A A, A, A. Medley Medley, Popery is the extreme opposite that of unrelieved variation. It is simply an indefinite sequence of self-contained sections, A, B, C, D.

Sometimes with repeats, A, A, B, B, C, C, D. Examples include orchestral overtures, which are sometimes no more than a string of the best tunes of the musical theater show or opera to come. Binary form. This form uses two sections, A, B. Each often repeated, A, A, B. In 18th century Western classical music, simple binary form was often used for dances and carried with it the convention that the two sections should be in different musical keys, but same rhythm, duration, and tone. The alternation of two tunes gives enough

variety to permit a dance to be extended for as long as desired. Ternary form. This form has three parts. In Western classical music, a simple turnary form has a third section that is a recapitulation of the first, A, B, A. Often, the first section is repeated, A, A, B, A.A. This approach was popular in the 18th century operatic aria, and was called the capo, i.e. repeat from the top, form. Later, it gave rise to the 32-bar song, with the B section then often referred to as the middle eight. A song has more need than a dance of a self-contained form with a beginning and an end, of course.

Rondo form. This form has a recurring theme alternating with different, usually contrasting sections called episodes. It may be asymmetrical, A-B-A-C-A-D-A-E-A. or symmetrical. A-B-A-C-A-B-A. A recurring section, especially the main theme, is sometimes more thoroughly varied, or else one episode may be a development of it. A similar arrangement is in the Rittinello form of the Baroque Concerto Grosso. Arch form A-B-C-B-A resembles a symmetrical rondo without intermediate repetitions of the main theme.

it is normally used in a round. Variational forms are those in which variation is an important formative element. Theme in variations. A theme which in itself can be of any shorter form, binary, ternary, etc. forms the only section and is repeated indefinitely as in strophic form, but is varied each time, A, B, A, F, Z, A, so as to make a sort of sectional. chain form. An important variant of this, much used in 17th century British music and in the Pasicalia and Chacon, was that of the ground bass, a repeating bass theme or Basso-Ostonado, over and around which the rest of the structure unfolds, often but not always spinning polyphonic and contrapuntal threads, or improvising divisions and descants.

This is said by Scholes, 1977, to be the form par-execlantic. of unaccompanied or accompanied solo instrumental music. The rondo is often found with sections varied. A-A-P-A-Double-P-C-A-Triple-B-A-quadruple-P-B-A-quadruple-P, or A-B-A-B-A-B-A. Developmental forms are built directly from smaller units, such as motifs. A well-known classical piece with a motif is Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which starts with three short, repeated notes, and then a long note. In classical pieces that are based on motifs,

the motif is usually combined, varied, and worked out in different ways. Perhaps having a symmetrical or arch-like underpinning and a progressive development from beginning to end. By far the most important developmental form in Western classical music is Sonata. form. This form, also known as Sonata Form, First Movement form, compound binary, ternary, and a variety of other names, developed from the binary form

dance movement described above about is almost always cast in a greater turnary form, having the nominal subdivisions of a exposition, development, and recapitulation. Usually, but not always, the A parts, exposition, and recapitulation, respectively, may be subdivided into two or three themes or theme groups, which are taken asunder, and recombined to form the B part, the development, thus, e.g. A-A-A-B,

development of A-and-or-B, A-P-B, A-B-P-P-P-P-P, plus Coda. This developmental form is generally confined to certain sections of the piece as to the middle section of the first movement of a sonata, though 19th century composers such as Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner made valiant efforts to derive large-scale works purely or mainly from the motif.