Students in grades 4 and 5 are going more in-depth about musical form this week. Here is an outline of the three forms we are focusing on: ABA, Rondo and Theme and Variation.
Musical Form
What is musical form?
Form is the order of the musical parts.
It describes the overall plan of a piece of music and how it is laid
out. We often split the music into
sections by letter. The letter “A” would
refer to the first section of music. The
letter “B” to the second section and “C” to the third section and so on. Each section in the music has a particular
sound and tune. Sometimes the sections
repeat or change just slightly. Let’s
look at three examples of musical form:
ABA, rondo and theme and variation.
ABA FORM
This form is in three parts and often called ternary
(meaning three). The first section
called A is repeated after the section section ends. The second section is called B. It is very simple and easy to recognize.
RONDO FORM
The word
rondo comes from the French word “Rondeau” and means a round. Rondos keep coming back ‘a-round’ to the A
section. Rondo form is a form where a
main theme returns often throughout, with different themes in between each
return - if A is the main theme, then the piece might run like so
(ABACADA). Section A always comes back
after a different section has been played.
It is
often the last part or section of a bigger piece. The music is usually fast and builds up
excitement. Some famous rondos were
written by Zoltan Kodaly, Wolfgang Mozart and Ludwig Beethoven. Beethoven’s famous rondo is called “Rage over
the lost penny.” He was often an angry
man but this song was actually not very angry sounding. It is quite happy and joyful.
THEME
AND VARIATION
You can
think of a theme and variations form as cupcakes and ingredients used to
decorate them. You start with a basic
cupcakes (the theme) and then add different decorations on top (these would be
the variations).
The
theme is the first melody that you hear.
It is usually the simplest sounding melody in the entire piece. If it were a cupcake, it would have no
decoration, frosting or filling. It
would be extremely simple.
A
variation is the music that sounds like the original theme, but is somehow
different. A composer can change the
theme by changing the rhythm patterns, the instruments used, adding extra
notes, and playing faster or higher or longer or shorter. It would be like a baker taking our plain
cupcake and adding chocolate frosting.
Then taking another plain cupcake and putting powdered sugar and
sprinkles on it. Each change to our
cupcake becomes a new variation. In the
song, each change creates a new sound.
