Through-composed music is relatively continuous, non-
sectionIn music, a section is "a complete, but not independent musical idea" . Types of sections include the introduction or intro, exposition, recapitulation, verse, chorus or refrain, conclusion, coda or outro, fadeout, bridge or interlude...
al, and/or non-repetitive. A
songA song is a metrical composition intended or adapted for singing, especially one in rhymed stanzas; a lyric; a ballad....
is said to be through-composed if it has different music for each
stanzaIn poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
of the
lyricsLyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
. This is in contrast to
strophic formIn music, strophic form is a sectional and/or additive way of structuring a piece of music based on the continual repetition of one formal section or block...
, in which each stanza is set to the same music. Sometimes the
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
durchkomponiert is used to indicate the same concept.
Many examples of this form can be found in Schubert's "Lieder" where the words of a poem are set to music, and each line is different.
Through-composed music is relatively continuous, non-
sectionIn music, a section is "a complete, but not independent musical idea" . Types of sections include the introduction or intro, exposition, recapitulation, verse, chorus or refrain, conclusion, coda or outro, fadeout, bridge or interlude...
al, and/or non-repetitive. A
songA song is a metrical composition intended or adapted for singing, especially one in rhymed stanzas; a lyric; a ballad....
is said to be through-composed if it has different music for each
stanzaIn poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
of the
lyricsLyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
. This is in contrast to
strophic formIn music, strophic form is a sectional and/or additive way of structuring a piece of music based on the continual repetition of one formal section or block...
, in which each stanza is set to the same music. Sometimes the
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
durchkomponiert is used to indicate the same concept.
Many examples of this form can be found in Schubert's "Lieder" where the words of a poem are set to music, and each line is different. An example is Schubert's "Der Erlkönig" (The Erlking) in which the setting proceeds to a different musical arrangement for each new stanza. Whenever the piece comes to each character, the character portrays its own voice register and tonality.
"Happiness Is a Warm Gun", by The Beatles, is an example of this form's application in popular music.
The term is also applied to
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
and other dramatic works involving music, to indicate the extent of music (as opposed to
recitativeRecitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
and
dialogueA dialogue is a conversation between two or more people. It is also a literary form in which two or more parties engage in a discussion.-Literary and philosophical genre:...
). For example the musicals of
Stephen SondheimStephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre , multiple Grammy Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize...
and
Andrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre, the elder son of organist William Lloyd Webber and brother of the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber...
have been part of a modern trend towards through-composed works, rather than collections of songs. In musical theater, works with no spoken dialogue, such as
Les MisérablesLes Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz, is a musical that was composed in 1980 by the French composer Claude-Michel Schönberg with a libretto by Alain Boublil, and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Sung through, it is one of the most well-known and performed musicals worldwide...
are usually referred to by the term "
through-sungSung-through refers to a musical or opera with no spoken dialogue, except perhaps for some occasional lines included in some part of a song...
."
A work composed chronologically (from the beginning of the piece to the end, in order) without a
precompositionalIn music, precompositional decisions are those decisions which a composer decides upon before or while beginning to create a composition. These limits may be given to the composer, such as the length or style needed, or entirely decided by the composer....
formal plan is also through-composed.