I was recently watching a master class with Jason Robert Brown and The Dramatists Guild of America. Therein Brown said something that struck me (this was said in conversation – don’t judge the grammar too harshly):
“Structure is our whole deal – structure is the whole game. That’s all we’ve got really, as composers. Everybody’s got notes. All we can do it to arrange those notes within a certain structure.”
Wow. This is huge. I mean, it must be true – he does have three names and all…
I never really appreciated form as a music student. I had studied them in my theory class and knew how to identify them, but I was too obsessed with beautiful melody and quirky harmonic progressions to understand the importance of form.
Perhaps a better name for form would be musical architecture. It seems appropriate that you would be building a journey through the use of form – an evolution of ideas. Moreover it is this architecture that builds a platform upon which a character moves from emotion to another.
When I studied songs, it seemed we rarely spent any time talking about the form. Occasionally it might have come up, but most of our time was spent on much smaller or more focused details – phrasing, diction, word and syllable stress, etc. But if this is all that composers like JRB have to move the audience, how much impact did I miss when not focusing on the form and it’s dramatic and emotional connection?
Knowing me, probably a great deal.
Last year in one of my classes we had to write our own plays. Getting the words to convey the meaning through out the play was difficult and we could use an entire dictionary. I can only imagine how hard it is to create whole musicals with only a notes to work with. When you are Jason Robert Brown and have written so many musicals and are so good at it that you are featured in “Secrets Your Accompanist Wants You To Know” it must get harder each song, without sounding distinctly like a previously written song.
Form is as important to a songwriter as breath is t a singer. It’s all we’ve got. With out a good form or structure, there is no song.
I like something that Tommy D. Said, actually, about having all the words in the dictionary available to you, but still not feeling like you were conveying to the audience what you wish to say. I can really relate to that, not only as a performer, but also as a writer. It often happens that, as you work on a piece, you begin to get such tunnel-vision on the notes and the choreo that you sometimes forget that you’re still portraying a character that has something to teach the audience. I think I may have experienced that last year during a production of Once on this Island, where I became so stuck on singing the music ‘correctly’; that I began to loose sight of of what Mr. Robert Brown has so brilliantly introduced to us as ‘form’.
I think structure is extremely important for any singer and/or songwriter. Songs must be composed in ways that they can have rising action, falling action and take the audience on an emotional rollercoaster while still holding onto the main idea of the song. The composer writes the blueprint (structure) and the performer is the one who builds the blueprint and makes it tangible and visible and gives it senses for the audience. I also think structure is subconsciously constructed by composers: while most composers may not sit and say “what structure should I use”, subconsciously they place notes certain ways in certain places at certain times for certain reasons.
I never realized how much form can say something about a song, until I read this. By looking at the form of structure of a piece of music, you tell when a character changes emotions. This is important not only when singing, but acting as well because you also display the change in emotion through body movements. This is something I need to focus on.
Okay…. So after reading this article, I feel like form/structure (maybe?) is very important to not only composers or people In musical theatre; but in LIFE! We all need a foundation in what ever we do. Whether it be math, baking a cake, or even singing; foundation is everything, and everybody knows that. Now with that being said; I still don’t understand the authors point of writing this passage if it was already common knowledge to the rest of the world- but I do appreciate the author taking time out of his/her day to help new comers fully understand the basis of music and life. Thank you, and have a blessed day 🙂
Arrangement gives diversity to any song and finding diversity is hard most of the time. They can evoke the arising circumstances in the show and an actor can feed off off the energy of the music. JRB is a very good example of this because the characters mood and objective changes with the arrangement of the song ex: The Last Five Years. The connection between the two can create some pretty darn good musicals!
This is awesome. I, like the author, am always so focused on creating a level of beauty, that i forget about form. It’s really interesting to think about. As a writer, i personally found this extremely helpful and it somewhat opened my eyes to what i could be doing wrong.
I think as important as form is, it’s necessary to stray from the path every now and again. If every song and show is structured the same as the last it becomes monotonous and hard for audiences to enjoy. Songs and shows have to have bits and pieces that make them special and interesting, while also sticking to the core form. The form is important because that has been proven to create masterpieces and make everything come together, but it should be build upon to create different levels for different interests.
Perhaps our job as performers is to latch onto those unique nuggets with the show?
When I study music, I almost never concentrate on form until I bring it to a teacher to practice. To be able to move forward in my vocal technique, I need to learn to fix my form by myself instead of depending on other people to tell me what to do with a song.
I feel like this article has really opened my eyes as a performer because usually when I’m working with music my first focus isn’t on form. I like how the author says, “Perhaps a better name for form would be musical architecture.” Most musical theatre songs take people on a journey of emotions and there’s no other way to properly do that without “musical architecture”. I feel like people need to stress form more often when working with songs instead some of the smaller techniques we’ve all been taught before.
When I worked on music before, I would think about the little things that make the song unique, but I never really looked into the “architecture” or form of the piece. Now as some of us start learning music for Sweet Charity, I think all of us, as a cast, should look at our music together and really look into the form of the songs. I feel if we all study the “architecture,” we will have a better understanding of what we are really singing, and interpret it better.
This really made me think about how nothing can function without structure; not just in music. Everything from a 2 minute song to the government, without a structure, form, or some sort of order, everything would be chaos. It’s not necessarily “all we’ve got” in my mind, but we definitely can’t have anything without it.
This article really opened my eyes to how important form is. I loved when you said “Moreover it is this architecture that builds a platform upon which a character moves from emotion to another.” The little details like phrasing and diction don’t always add up to portray a character and an emotion, form is needed to pull everything together.
I think it is true that most performers and composers don’t focus on form, including myself, but we are missing out on a lot as said in the article. After reading this I would like to try to pay attention to form and that may help my performance improve. I also like the comment “Perhaps a better name for form would be musical architecture.” I agree with this completely, especially since music is such an amazing thing, adding such a positive connotation to form is a brilliant idea, because it emphasizes just how important form is. Understanding the form of the music can help improve every aspect of the song in ways that haven’t been done before, and I want to continue to work with form as long as I perform.
Before reading this article, I never realized that actually yes, indeed, form is the roots for a song. Form for a song is equivalent to the skeleton for a body. While the notes and chord progressions are the muscles and skin that surrounds it. Without the skeleton (form), nothing would be holding up the muscles and skin (notes/chords) and making it work and all come together. So I guess it’s just up to us, as performers and song writers, to come up with our own form that works for us, and the audience. In the future, instead of focusing on having beautiful chord progression (even though that’s the goal), I need to think about the actual form of a song first, and the ‘roots’ behind the chord progressions/notes.
A director once told me that form is what makes a character. If we did not have form we would be mind less drones on a stage with pretty dresses or tuxes on. This article states that he is right. But, if you have not realized without form there would be no plot. There would be no story. There would be no play. That is why form is so important.
This article really emphasizes the importance of form and structure in music. Structure allows certain aspect of songs like melody, phrasing, intonation, etc. to become a whole and not simply be separate disconnected parts. It gives the song life and provides a good needed platform for all of the other elements of a song to build upon.
I think, like the writer, that I have cared so much about how I sound that I forgot about the form. From reading this I feel that I am more aware of form, but still would like to get feed back on it and descuse about it more. These past two articles that we have read have made me more aware of my singing and thank you Mr.Conley for sharing them with us.
Structure is important to convey a message in my opinion. If a song doesn’t work properly or have structure an audience member may feel half-empty so to say.
I do agree with this article. You can sing/compose a song with amazing details that blow you away, but it would be nothing without an overall structure. Even with everything in life, if you focus on the minor details 24/7 you’ve accomplished so little, yet if you take in everything as a whole and turn it into something better or positive you’ve just changed the whole game. Without structure, everything.falls.apart.
It is very important to have a good form while singing a song, even when your just messing around. Good form allows you to have more power behind your voice, because it allows for better breathing. It is also important to practice using good form often. This will help your form to get better naturally. If you don’t have good form while singing a song, there is really no point in singing it. The song won’t sound well, and you may not be able to convey your message the right way.
So, practice using good form everyday in order to be the best singer you can be.
If you think about form, it’s the basis of everything. In music, you have fork such as AABA ABAB ABABACA. In an English essay, you have paragraphs and structure. In math you have equations. Basically structure and form come before everything we do or create. If you attempt to build a house with out a strong foundation, the house might last a few years and eventually decay. But if you have a strong foundation and good writing afterward, that is what makes your creation timeless.
Just like composers, I feel that performers sometimes foget about the form of the song. Many times, we focus only on singing with good form and may lose sight of what the composer wants the character to convey in that particular song. Without form, we have no meaning on stage. We are just people randomly singing and acting on stage with no particular purpose. Composers need form to clearly show what the character is feeling or doing. As performers, we need form to express what the composer wants. Personally, I have felt that I have been on stage before without form. This has made me lost and confused on stage which is never a good feeling. Form is a neccessity.
These past two articles that we have read really made me realize things about music and musical theatre, but also I have noticed that people do these things (structuring a piece or transferring emotions through the simplicity of lyrics) without thinking. When going through the process of learning a piece then performing it, I agree with the article when it said we seem to hit every aspect about the song except the actual structure and form of it. We don’t really analyze the many layers of a song, and if we were to do it where would we begin? I believe that composers and/or musicians really think about this, because they are the ones who are structuring the piece, but to those who just learn and perform it I think should put more thought into the form, structure, layers, etc. We should attempt to compose music and bring it together ourselves, to understand the process.
This article really made me think. I’ve never thought of form much while I was singing. I really try to focus on singing the correct notes and breathing techniques. After reading this I realize how form does say lots about not only a preformer but the emotions and story conveyed in a song.
To me this article basically says how without form we don’t do well. If we have bad form while we sing then we don’t get good breath support and we can’t support the notes we sing. But form isn’t just how we stand it goes as deep as hydration and breathing and simply grounding yourself to have “good form”
In my classes like Geometry or Reading, my teachers’ tell us it’s all about structure, each element creating your answer, and the steps to get to it. And I acknowledged more of its connection to music. We combine several notes, to make a chord, melody, harmony, etc. But they’re all the same. In other words, it’s just like how every book is just a different combination of 26 letters. They’re all the same letters, but in different combinations. And it’s the same with music, they’re all the same notes, but in different combinations. As singers, sometimes we forget it’s not about memorizing the melody and lyrics to a song, it’s about the connection to yourself as well and thoroughly learning the piece, the story to the lyrics, the musical form, and the true meaning behind the song.
The concept of “form” isn’t something that is normally brought up in class. Rarely do you watch a teacher critique something someone is doing then say, “don’t forget the character”. It is always about the tiny details and the sound that comes out rather than more heavily focusing on the character you are trying to portray. This reminds me of a show I was assisting with last year. I noticed that the girl playing Ariel in The Little Mermaid was making beautiful sounds when you closed your eyes, but as soon as you watched her, the whole performance was ruined because of the lack of emotion. Form , in retrospect, seems to be something that teachers are neglecting to mention which, in my opinion, is unfortunate for the actors involved. We are constantly trying to tweak and perfect our technique that we don’t connect to what we’re doing and really sell our character.
The structure of a building is what gives it it’s strength! Thats just like how a songs form works! It’s the foundation that makes the song meaningful and not just a bunch of notes cluttered in a random order! After reading this article, when i listen to a song I really pay attention to see how the writer used form to create that piece! I’v noticed the “musical architecture” was not something that happend unintentionally, it has a certain purpose and that is to communicate the emotions to the audience! The structure of a song is what organizes the story within it! Though the melodies are important, the structure and form of a song, is what makes it a piece of art!
When I think of form I think of character. But in reality it’s so much more than just character. It’s empathizing with the character you’re portraying to your audience to try to get them to feel an emotion. Any emotion, just to make them feel something. I tend to get so caught up in the tone, diction, and basic technique that I forget that I’m actually telling a story to who ever I am singing to. This creates a connection with the audience that makes them feel empathetic or sympathetic towards the character and engages them. Without the connection the song will never be anything more than a song.
Now that i think about it Form is one of the most important parts of a song, i mean if you dont have emotion in your song while you are preforming it, it is not as good. İ also think that in most vocal classes we really dont go over form or structure as much as we should, and i think that they should change that, because it would be better for the students later on in their lives.
I’ve never really thought about form when sinigng im always thinking about what notes to sing and where to breathe. But if you think about like form is very important it helps convey the various emotions used in songs.
When I think of form, I think of using emotion to tell a story within our songs. Many vocal coaches and instructors will focus on where to breathe, proper vowels, etc. but if you look a little closer and see the story line the song will be so much better. If you connect with the song it makes the audience connect with the song as well, which gives it a lot more meaning. Without the meaning the song is just some notes that make a melody with some words. Form provides structure, or the backbone to the song.
When it comes to performing, composing, studying, etc. music, form is important to understanding and connecting to the piece. If a piece has no form, like the rising action, falling action etc, it is flat piece with no emotion. Since music is a type of expression, if it has no form there is no expressions and your audience will be unable to connect to the piece. Also, a piece must have structure so it will make sense. The piece can not be a whirlwind of random crescendos and such because it won’t make sense. So, in short, form is essential to music so it will have expression and make sense.
A good artist is someone who has figured out how to arrange the notes in a form that gives you the “feels.” Everybody has access to notes but creating the form of the song is the true talent.