Musical form  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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The term musical form refers to two related concepts:

• the type of composition (for example, a musical work can have the form of a symphony, a concerto, or other generic type -- see Multi-movement forms below)
• the structure of a particular piece (for example, a piece can be written in binary form, sonata form, as a fugue, etc. -- see Single-movement forms, below)

There is some overlap between musical form and musical genre. The latter term is more likely to be used when referring to particular styles of music (such as classical music or rock music) as determined by things such as harmonic language, typical rhythms, types of musical instrument used, and geographical origin. The phrase musical form is typically used when talking about a particular type or structure within those genres. For example, the twelve bar blues is a specific form often found in the genres of blues, rock and roll and jazz music.

See also

• Developing variation
• List of musical forms by era
• Song structure