Musical Form

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.