MU106 Great Composers
Sixties British Songwriters
Schedule: Class 1
Song Form
Common Structural Terminology (Form)
Western popular music is overwhelmingly vocal in form and model and, thus, the terminology
and constructs have their origins in references to text and song.
| Term | Definition |
| Intro |
An abbreviation of "Introduction." Usually this is musical material drawn from elsewhere in the song and used as a way of establishing key and/or meter. |
| Verse | A strophic combination of a musical idea that recurs with different text. In nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century popular song, a soloist (or, sometimes, a duet) sings this part in contrast to the chorus. |
| Refrain | A recurring line of music and text that might stand alone, but which usually is a part a larger section. |
| Hook |
Song composers have crafted their product to include catchy phrases that repeat the name of the song to an easily remembered melody. The idea here is to "hook" the listener so that they'll remember the song's title when they go to the store to buy it. |
| Bridge |
A section of music in which some sort of transition or link takes place between sections. |
| Chorus | (a) Two or more singers who appear as either contrast or accompaniment to the
principal musical line. (b) In the nineteenth century, the chorus was a section of a song sung by a group of singers and contrasting with the verse (sung by a soloist). Here we apply this word to mean a section of music contrasting with that of the verse. Musicians such as the Beatles sometimes also call a bridge the "middle eight," whether or not it has "eight" measures. Others call it the "release." |
| Coda | A section of concluding music at the end of a song. Some describe this section as the "outro" (as a parallel to "intro"). |