Song forms

A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition, usually a partsong, of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras.

The thirty-two-bar form, also known as the AABA song form, American popular song form and the ballad form, is a song structure commonly found in Tin Pan Alley songs and other American popular music, especially in the first half of the twentieth century.

A chanson (French pronunciation: ​[ʃɑ̃sɔ̃], "song", from Latin cantio, gen. cantionis) is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular.

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a previously recorded, commercially released song by someone other than the original artist or composer.

A refrain (from Vulgar Latin refringere, "to repeat", and later from Old French refraindre) is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song.

Spirituals (or Negro spirituals) are generally Christian songs that were created by African slaves in the United States.

A barcarole (from French, also barcarolle; originally, Italian barcarola or barcaruola, from barca 'boat' ) is a folk song sung by Venetian gondoliers, or a piece of music composed in that style.

Whale sounds are used by whales for different kinds of communication.

Recitative (/ˌrɛsɪtəˈtiːv/, also known by its Italian name "recitativo" ([retʃitaˈtiːvo])) is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech.

An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics, or singing, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a Big Band setting.

A lullaby, or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music, usually played for or sung to children.

The lauda (Italian pl. laude) or lauda spirituale was the most important form of vernacular sacred song in Italy in the late medieval era and Renaissance.

(For "chorale" (a group of singers) and "choral music", see Choir.)("Carols" redirects here. For the Ayumi Hamasaki song, see Carols (song).) A carol is in modern parlance a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with church worship, and often with a dance-like or popular character.

The Air de cour was a popular type of secular vocal music in France in the late Renaissance and early Baroque period, from about 1570 until around 1650.

Song poem usually refers to song lyrics that have been set to music for a fee.

The galerón is a genre of Venezuelan typical song.

The patter song is characterised by a moderately fast to very fast tempo with a rapid succession of rhythmic patterns in which each syllable of text corresponds to one note.

Dumka (Ukrainian: думка, dúmka, plural думки, dúmky) is a musical term introduced from the Ukrainian language, with cognates in other Slavic languages.

A mutu is a type of improvised sung poetry found in Sardinia.

A children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that children invent and share among themselves or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home or education.

A ballade (from French ballade, French pronunciation: ​[baˈlad], and German Ballade, German pronunciation: [baˈlaːdə], both being words for "ballad"), in classical music since the late 18th century, refers to a setting of a literary ballad, a narrative poem, in the musical tradition of the Lied, or to a one-movement instrumental piece with lyrical and dramatic narrative qualities reminiscent of such a song setting, especially a piano ballad.

The Gstanzl (Viennese German for "stanza") is a traditional type of mocking songs particularly known in the Austrian-Bavarian regions.

Cantastoria (pronounced [ˌkantaˈstɔːrja]; also spelled cantastorie [ˌkantaˈstɔːrje], canta storia or canta historia) comes from Italian for "story-singer" and is known by many other names around the world.

Chanson pour boire is a term for a French drinking song, frequently coupled with chanson pour danser (or "song for dancing").

An answer song (or response song) is, as the name suggests, a song (usually a recorded track) made in answer to a previous song, normally by another artist.

A broadside (also known as a broadsheet) is a single sheet of inexpensive paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations.

The lute song was a generic form of music in the late Renaissance and very early Baroque eras, generally consisting of a singer accompanying himself on a lute, though lute songs may often have been performed by a singer and a separate lutenist.

A playground song is a song sung by children, usually on a playground or other children's gathering place.

Canción ("song") is a popular genre of Latin American music, particularly in Cuba, where many of the compositions originate.

Gambhira (Bengali: গম্ভীরা) is a type of song (originating in Chapai Nawabganj, in the Northern region of Bangladesh).

Cavalier song is a Jacobean and Carolinian genre of song, a later equivalent to Elizabethan lute song.

The beste is a vocal genre in Ottoman classical music.

A consort song was a characteristic English song form of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, for solo voice or voices accompanied by a group of instruments, most commonly viols.