The term form refers to how we organize music into units. We focus first on phrases.

A phrase can be defined simply as a unit of music that has a clear beginning, middle, and end. In Western tonal music, the end of a phrase must feature a cadence, a concept covered earlier in this review. Therefore, internalize and always observe the following mantra:

In order to have a phrase, we must have a cadence. Without a cadence, there can be no phrase.

The following progression features two cadences, and therefore contains two phrases.

Cadences:

HC

IAC

Melody:

5

5

5

4

4

2

3

2

5

6

5

4

3

Chords:

I

V42

I6

IV

ii6

V

I

V42

I6

vi

cad64

V7

I

Functions:

T

D

T

P

[P]

D

T

D

T

[T]

D

[D]

T

In this section, we cover typically encountered structures in Western tonal music at the level of a phrase (phrase structures) and at the level of an entire movement (large forms).