Period (music)

In music, the term period refers to certain types of recurrence in small-scale formal structure. In twentieth-century music scholarship, the term is usually used as defined by the Oxford Companion to Music: "a period consists of two phrases, antecedent and consequent, each of which begins with the same basic motif."^[3] Earlier usage varied somewhat, but usually referred to similar notions of symmetry, recurrence, and closure. The concept of a musical period originates in comparisons between music structure and rhetoric at least as early as the 16th century.^[4]

^ White, John D. (1976). The Analysis of Music, p. 44. ISBN 0-13-033233-X.
^ White (1976), p. 45.
^ Whittall, Arnold. "period." The Oxford Companion to Music. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed August 4, 2015.
^ Ratner, Leonard G. "Period." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed April 22, 2015.

[White-1] White, John D. (1976). The Analysis of Music, p. 44. ISBN 0-13-033233-X.

[2] White (1976), p. 45.

[3] Whittall, Arnold. "period." The Oxford Companion to Music. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed August 4, 2015.

[4] Ratner, Leonard G. "Period." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed April 22, 2015.

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