| 12-Bar Blues | A form type that typically consists of three four-bar phrases in either an aab or abc pattern. A variety of different harmonic patterns are commonly employed in the 12-bar blues.
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| Balanced Binary | A type of binary form in which the two parts are of equal length.
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| Binary Form | A formal design that consists of two approximately equivalent sections, although they may be of unequal length. This term is not used to describe periods and double periods; parallel period is a more informative term for these forms.
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| Closing Section | The section of a sonata that often ends expositions and recapitulations; it further confirms the prevailing key with simple sequential and cadential gestures.
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| Coda | A special concluding section that can (optionally) be used with many formal types, including binary, ternary, and sonata forms..
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| Continuous | A type of binary or ternary form in which the first section ends with any chord other than the tonic triad in the main key of the form.
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| Development | The second main section of a sonata; it may develop motives from the exposition's themes, feature sequential activity, and/or introduce a new theme. The tonal conflict of the sonata is also developed here, and several (usually more distant) keys are touched upon before preparing for the return to the home key.
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| Exposition | The first main section of a sonata; it presents the important themes as well as the tonal conflict between the two most important keys in the movement.
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| False Recapitulation | Material that suggests the arrival of the recapitulation but that appears in the wrong tonal location toward the end of the development section.
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| Home Key | The primary (tonic) key of a movement.
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| Primary Theme | The theme that, in the exposition, establishes the home key with at least one cadence in that key and that reappears to mark the beginning of the recapitulation. It often sounds more vital, grand, or ceremonial than secondary themes, although lyrical primary themes can also be found.
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| Recapitulation | The third main section of a sonata; it replays the movement's important themes, usually in the same order, but the modulation to the secondary key is adjusted so that the themes that were originally in the secondary key in the exposition are found in the home key here.
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| Rondo Form | A type of form in which a refrain theme (which returns several times) alternates with contrasting thematic material. It is often used as the final movement of a sonata, string quartet, or symphony, and sometimes as a slow movement.
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| Rounded Binary Form | A form type in which the opening A section returns after contrasting material but in an abbreviated form, as in AB½A.
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| Secondary Key | The key that provides the structurally important tonal contrast with the home key. When the home key is major, the secondary key is often the key of the dominant (V), and when the home key is minor, the secondary key is often the key of the relative major (III), although other options are possible.
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| Secondary Theme | A theme that sets up the tonal contrast with the primary theme in the exposition by establishing the secondary key and confirming it with a PAC in that key. In the recapitulation, these themes reconfirm the home key. It is often more lyrical or gentle in character than the primary theme, although other possibilities are also common (including being derived from the primary theme).
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| Sectional | A type of binary or ternary form in which the first section ends on the tonic triad in the main key of the form.
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| Sonata Form | A large-scale formal type resembling a greatly expanded two-reprise continuous ternary form and consisting of at least three sections an exposition with two tonal centers, a tonally unstable development, and a tonic-centered recapitulation that returns the material from the exposition.
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| Sonata-Rondo | A formal type that combines the Rondo's use of returning refrains with the developmental characteristics and tonal conflict of the sonata.
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| Ternary Form | A three-part form that is structured as statement-contrast-return (ABA). The middle section provides contrast through the use of different melodic material, texture, tonality, or some combination of these and the third section returns all or most of the first. Anything from a short theme to a lengthy movement of a sonata or symphony can be structured as a ternary form.
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| Transition | Generally, a passage that connects different themes or tonal centers. In sonata form, the transition is a passage that appears in both the exposition and recapitulation to destabilize the home key and connects the primary and secondary themes. Transitions may or may not modulate.
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| Two-Reprise Form | A movement or theme that consists of two repeated sections.
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| Unbalanced Binary | A type of binary form in which the two parts are not of equal length.
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