Minimalism ..........................................................................................
Minimalistmusic is a modern music form marked by extreme simplification of
rhythms, patterns, and harmonies, prolonged chordal or melodic repetitions,
and often a trancelike effect. Minimalist music could be diagrammed as
AAAAA... form, where each new A is only very slightly changed from the
preceding A. Philip Glass is one of the best-known composers who use
the minimalist form.Through-composed ............................................................................
Through-composedmusic is a song structure that presents new material in
each new section of the composition, with no repetition of themes. Each
verse of a through-composed composition has its own unique melody, which
can be in a different key or even have a different time signature. Classical
composers of through-composed composition include Nicholae Bretan and
Schubert, whereas more modern examples can be found in Andrew Lloyd
Webber operas and in the music of Tenacious D.Popular Forms .............................................................................................
Discussing formwhen talking about popular music is tricky, simply because
what we consider popular music has only been around for about 100 years,
with more recent stylistic innovations in rock music being only about 20
years old. As a law must first be introduced as a bill, and most bills never
become laws, so a form usually starts out as a genre. Generally, a significant
amount of time has to pass for us to see whether a genre has enough lasting
power or influence for a true form to emerge.There may be some debate about whether the blues, country, and rock music
are forms or genres. We will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that,
for our purposes in this book, they are forms.The blues ............................................................................................
The blues is one of the first original American forms of music, combining ele-
ments of field holler, gospel, and African percussion. The blues is written in
song form (ternary/tertiary) and follows an AABA pattern of I, IV, and V
chords in a given scale, with the B section serving as the bridge.All blues music hinges around the I/i, the IV/iv, and the V/v chords.Chapter 13: Musical Forms 151