form

The basic plan or temporal structure of a piece of music. The simplest forms are binary form, which consists of two sections often separated by a double bar (marking off a section), and simple ternary form, which consists of three sections – the first section, followed by a contrasting section, returning to the first section as in song form: ABA. Most larger-scale forms are an expanded and developed version of these two basic types. Examples include sonata form and rondo form. During the 19th century, Romantic composers such as Richard Wagner broke away from classical forms, using returning motifs (called leitmotifs) to unify the work. These composers tended to take more interest in literature.

In the 20th century form changed in order to accommodate new parameters in harmonic development and rhythm. Béla Bartók's string quartets use alternating sections of different length, and later the composer Witold Lutosławski invented ‘chain form’, where contrasting sections link over each other to provide large-scale development in the piece. Chance-based operations such as those of John Cage in Music of Changes (1951) often, paradoxically, produced clear and differentiated structures, although different each time.

form

In Greek and medieval European philosophy, that which makes a thing what it is. For Plato, a Form was an immaterial, independent object, which could not be perceived by the senses and was known only by reason; thus, a horse was a thing participating in the Form of horseness. For Aristotle, forms existed only in combination with matter: a horse was a lump of matter having the form of a horse – that is, the essential properties (see essence) and powers of a horse. However, Aristotle, like the medieval philosophers after him, does not make it clear whether there is a different form for each individual, or only for each type or species.

In Platonic philosophy Form is generally capitalized and is synonymous with his use of idea.

form

In logic, the form of a proposition is the kind or species to which it belongs, such as the universal (‘All x are y’) or the negative (‘No x are y’). Logical form is contrasted with the content, or what the proposition individually is about.

form

In literature, the structure and style of a text. The term can also refer to genre.

form

In art, a three-dimensional shape or object, and one of the formal art elements. The form of a subject can be recreated using contour lines, shading, cross-hatching, and highlights. If a drawing ‘lacks form’, it means that an image is flat and two-dimensional to look at. Form has height, width, and depth, and may be organic, such as a cloud, or geometric, such as a pyramid or cylinder. Organic forms suggest naturalism, while geometric forms often convey artificiality.

In art, shape (a defined area of two-dimensions) and form are closely linked; for example one side of a cubed form is a square shape.