Musical form Quotations

Musical form, music

"Form is a theatrical event of a certain length, and the length itself may be unpredictable."
- Christian Wolff, quoted in Aspects of 20th Century Music, ISBN 0130493465

"There is an idea, the basis of an internal structure, expanded and split into different shapes or groups of sound constantly changing in shape, direction, and speed, attracted and repulsed by various forces. The form of the work is a consequence of this interaction. Possible musical forms are as limitless as the exterior forms of crystals."
- Edgard Varese, quoted in Aspects of 20th Century Music, ISBN 0130493465

"'Form' has always come into being in a dialogue between particular 'instances' and the larger body of work, or 'tradition.'"
- Richard Middleton (1999). Form. Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture, p.141. Malden, Massachusetts. ISBN 0631212639.

"Form is supposed to cover the shape or structure of of the work; content its substance, meaning, ideas, or expressive effects. When the nineteenth-century music critic Eduard Hanslick declared, in an influential phrase, that music is 'forms put into motion through sounds,' he was suggesting that music's real content lies in its form."
- Richard Middleton (1999). Form. Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture, p. 141. Malden, Massachusetts. ISBN 0631212639.