Form in Music

A well-circulated definition of music is "organized sound."  When you organize sound into something recognizable (such as a song), it follows a formal structure.  If it doesn't, it is not music.  It is noise.

Some songs are "through-composed" and don't divide nicely into recognizable sections.  Most, however, are easily broken down into recognizable sections where certain sections are repeated and contrasting material is juxtaposed or layered in between.  A whole song is made up of the sum of its parts. Smaller sections make up the whole piece and tend to follow a pattern.  If you can teach your students to unlock the pattern, the song is much easier to learn. 

Patterning begins in kindergarten and I often refer to "the pattern" when teaching a song.  I am always asking my students, "Is it the same or different?"  "Have we heard this before or is this new material?" This requires higher level thinking because they must be able to recall the melodic and rhythmic structure of the previous phrase or section of a piece of music and then compare/contrast what we just learned with what was previously learned.

Notice the boat/bucket icon under the 2-part form.  This is a visual representation of the song "Yankee Doodle."  "Yankee Doodle" is a song that is written in "AB Form." 

Consider the lyrics:
A:   Yankee Doodle went to town a-riding on a pony; stuck a feather in his cap and called it "Maccaroni"
B:   Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle dandy; mind the music and the step and with the girls be handy.

A song that is written in AB Form simply repeats the pattern AB AB AB, etc.

Now notice the icon for the 3-part form.  You see a yellow cowgirl, a blue cowboy and a yellow cowgirl.  A song that follows this pattern is written in what we call ABA Form.  A perfect example would be "Shoo-Fly."

Consider the lyrics:
A:   Shoo-fly, don't bother me; Shoo-fly, don't bother me; Shoo-fly, don't bother me for I belong to somebody.
B:  I feel, I feel, I feel; I feel like a morningstar; I feel, I feel, I feel; I feel like a morningstar, oh  [contrasting]
A: Shoo-fly, don't bother me; Shoo-fly, don't bother me; Shoo-fly, don't bother me for I belong to somebody.

ABA Form is a song wherein the opening and closing sections are exactly the same (words/music) and the section in the middle is contrasting material (different words/music).

Verse/Refrain is another formal structure that many songs follow

The column on the left is the structural outline of "It's a Small World" by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman.  The verse tells the story; the refrain is the repeated part.

Consider the lyrics:
v. 1  It's a world of laughter, a world of tears
        It's a world of hope and a world of fears
        There's so much that we share, that it's time we're aware
        It's a small world after all

Refrain
It's a small world after all,
It's a small world after all,
It's a small world after all
It's a small, small world

v.2  There is just one moon and one golden sun
       And a smile means friendship to everyone
      Though the mountains divide and the oceans are wide
      It's a small world after all

We mapped the formal structure of "It's a Small World" together as a class and then I turned them loose to discover the formal structure of a spiritual entitled, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit."  This activity provided an opportunity for application and concluded our lesson on Form in Music.

When we study form in music, we cross curricular lines in several subject areas.  Math - patterning and sequencing; Language Arts - verse/stanza, poetry, lyrical speech, rhyming words; Social Studies - the Revolutionary War (Yankee Doodle) and the origin of the "spiritual" from the days of slavery and why it was culturally significant.  When music education is taught properly, it encompasses all of our core curricula and enhances learning that is taking place in other content areas.

Until next time...