Musical forms

280px|thumb|Macbeth (Verdi)|Macbeth at the [[Savonlinna Opera Festival in St. Olaf's Castle, Savonlinna, Finland, in 2007]] thumb|280px|La Scala of Milan thumb|280px|Palais Garnier of the [[Paris Opéra]] Opera is a form of Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically g

form of classical music composed for a small group of instruments

The Liber responsorialis, showing on the right-hand page the antiphons for the first Matins|night office of Christmas. The associated [[psalm tones are indicated by number and ending pitch, and the pitches for the ending of the doxology are indicated by the mnemonic Euouae.|thumb]]

thumb|Joseph and His Brothers: A four-part novel by Thomas Mann, written over the course of 16 years A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- tetra-, "four" and -λογία -logia, "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies followed by a satyr play, all by one author, to be played in one sitting at the Dionysia as part of a competition.

musical form

thumb|upright=1.4|Bernardo Storace, last bars of Passagagli sopra A la mi re and beginning of Passagagli sopra C sol fa ut, from Selva di varie compositioni (Venice, 1664) The passacaglia (; ) is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is typically based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre.

thumb|The "Ciaccona" from Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita for Violin No. 2 (Bach)|Partita for Violin No. 2

Humoresque () is a genre of Romantic music characterized by pieces with fanciful humor in the sense of mood rather than wit.

A quodlibet (; Latin for "whatever you wish" from quod, "what" and libet, "pleases") is a musical composition that combines several different melodies—usually popular tunes—in counterpoint, and often in a light-hearted, humorous manner.

thumb|First page of Johann Sebastian Bach|J.S. Bach's Partita for Violin No. 3

A hexalogy (from Greek ἑξα- hexa-, "six" and -λογία -logia, "discourse") is a compound literary or narrative work that is made up of six distinct works. The word apparently first appeared in English as a borrowing from German, in discussions of August Bungert's Wagnerian opera cycle entitled Homerische Welt based on the Iliad and the Odyssey. (He planned two tetralogies, but the third and fourth operas of the eight were never written.) Both pentalogie and hexalogie were used by Théophile Gautier in 1859. In 1923 the word was applied by an American reviewer to Johannes V. Jensen's The Long Jour

music genre

minor musical genre related to the serenade and divertimento; comprises loosely assembled sets of short movements intended for outdoor performance by orchestral or chamber ensembles

Wikimedia music-related list

music genre

A is "a musical composition usually in time that resembles a lullaby". Otherwise it is typically in triple metre. Tonally most berceuses are simple, often merely alternating tonic and dominant harmonies; since the intended effect is to put a baby to sleep, wild chromaticism would be somewhat inappropriate. Another characteristic of the berceuse, for no reason other than convention, is a tendency to stay on the "flat side"; noted examples including the berceuses by Chopin, who pioneered the form, Liszt, and Balakirev, which are all in D.

'''''Sama'i''' (also known as usul semai) is a vocal piece of Ottoman Turkish music composed in meter. This form and meter (usul in Turkish) is often confused with the completely different saz semaisi, an instrumental form consisting of three to four sections, in meter, or usul aksak semai (broken semai'' in Turkish).