2 Perceiving song form

The terms ‘verse’ and ‘chorus’ identify two common elements of Western song form that would otherwise take many words to explain. One goal of theories of music is to provide musicians and listeners with terms and symbols that allow them to communicate efficiently about music. Often, this means using specialist terminology – including words such as ‘verse’ and ‘chorus’.

Not all the songs in the world are divided up into verses and choruses. There are many music cultures in the world, many kinds of songs, many song forms, and many sets of specialist or insider terminology to describe them. As this course continues, you will encounter a range of musical styles, as well as a range of terms used to describe their forms.

The specialist terms discussed so far refer not only to musical sound, but also to other kinds of musical conventions. For example, in pop songs, verses often emphasise the words, while choruses emphasise the music. Similarly, verses tend to prioritise the narrative aspects of the song (its story) and choruses the emotion. It is not uncommon to find words repeated during choruses, as well as the use of vocables (words without a fixed meaning: for example, ‘tra la la’). Choruses also tend to contain a song’s most memorable and engaging musical material.

In the next activity, you will try to identify verses and choruses in a new song.