Structure and Form

You learned in the melody and harmony tutorials that Form in music is the organization of musical elements in time.

In a musical composition, pitch, tone color (timbre), dynamics, rhythm, melody and texture interact to produce a sense of shape and structure.  These are all important elements when composing for multimedia.



All parts of a composition are interrelated. 

Techniques that create musical form:

Repetition - A repeated musical idea
Contrast - Change of mood, forward motion, conflict.
Variation - Some original melodic features are retained while others are changed.

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Original Theme

Repeated Theme

Contrasting Theme

Variation Theme

Types of Musical Form

Common musical forms:
AB - Binary
ABC - Ternary

Other common musical forms:
aBaCaDa - Rondo
A..A1..A2..A3 - Variation

Structure of Dance Music:

There is often a subtle and gradual change to the basic drum loop or
groove. 

The overall energy level is built up and allowed to fall back
again only to build up once more. 

Behind the apparently repetitive nature of the music, many different ideas are brought into play to keep the whole track alive.

Excerpt From Futuretribe's "Dreamstate"

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