Ternary form

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Ternary form

Ternary form is a structuring mechanism of a piece of music. Along with several other musical form

Musical form

The term musical form refers to two related concepts:*the type of composition *the structure of a particular musical piece .There is some overlap between musical form and musical genre....
s, ternary form can also be applied to dance choreography. Ternary form is a three-part structure, often notated A-B-A. The first and third parts (A) are musically identical, or very nearly so, while the second part (B) contrasts sharply with it. The B section is often known as a trio

Trio (music)

Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:*Three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.*The performance of a song by three people....
.

The first section of a piece in ternary form does not usually change key

Key (music)

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Ternary form is a structuring mechanism of a piece of music. Along with several other musical form

Musical form

Trio (music)

Key (music)

In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a certain key, such as in the key of C or in the key of F-sharp....
, but ends in the same key as it began. However, an example where this is not the case is in Mozart's Piano Concerto No.21 (K.467) 2nd Movement. In this second movement, the A section is in a different key to the third section. The middle section will generally be in a different key, often the dominant of the first section (a perfect fifth above). It usually also has a contrasting character; in a march, for example, the highly rhythmic and strident character of the march itself is usually contrasted with a more lyrical and flowing trio. Often the trio is in a 3/4 time signature

Time signature

The time signature is a notational convention used in Western culture musical notation to specify how many beat s are in each bar and what note value constitutes one beat....
as opposed to the 4/4 of the primary march theme.

Commonly, the third section will feature more ornamentation than the first section (e.g. da capo aria

Da capo aria

The da capo aria was a musical form prevalent in the Baroque music era. It was sung by a soloist with the accompaniment of instruments, often a small orchestra....
s). In these cases the last section is sometimes labeled A’ or A1 to indicate that it is slightly different from the first A section.

As well as marches, ternary form is often found in baroque

Baroque music

Baroque music describes a period or style of European classical music approximately extending from Dates of classical music eras. This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance music and was followed by the Classical music era....
opera

Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
aria

Aria

An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment....
s (the da capo aria
Da capo aria

The da capo aria was a musical form prevalent in the Baroque music era. It was sung by a soloist with the accompaniment of instruments, often a small orchestra....
) and in many dance forms, such as polka

Polka

The polka is a lively Central European dance and also a musical genre of dancing music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in the Czech lands and is still a common genre in Swedish, Lithuanian, Czech Republic, Poles, Germans, Hungarian, Austrians, Russian, Slovenian and Slovakian folk...
s. It is also the form used in the minuet

Minuet

A minuet, sometimes spelled menuet, is a social dance of France origin for two persons, usually in time signature. The word was adapted from Italian language minuetto and French language menuet, meaning small, pretty, delicate, a diminutive of menu, from the Latin minutus; menuetto is a word that occurs only on musi...
(or scherzo

Scherzo

A scherzo is a piece of music or a movement, in a certain style, that forms part of a larger piece such as a symphony. The word "scherzo" means "joke" in Italian language....
) and trio, which in the classical music era was usually the third movement of symphonies

Symphony

A symphony is a musical composition, often extended and usually for orchestra. "Symphony" does not imply a specific form. Many symphonies are tonality works in four movement with the first in sonata form, and this is often described by music theorists as the structure of a "Classical period " symphony, although even some symphonies by the ac...
, string quartet

String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string instruments — usually two violins, a viola and cello — or a piece written to be performed by such a group....
s, sonatas and similar works.

A distinction is sometimes made between compound ternary form—in which each large part of the form is itself divided in a way to suggest ternary or binary form

Binary form

Binary form is a way of structuring a piece of music in two related sections, both of which are usually repeated. Binary is also a structure used to choreograph dance....
(giving, for example, an overall scheme of A-B-A-C-D-C-A-B-A)—and simple ternary form, in which each large part of the form has no particular structure itself. Da capo arias are usually in simple ternary form; minuets (or scherzos) and trios are normally compound. Another name for the latter is "composite ternary form."