Viewing Patterns

The chapter focuses on musical macrostructure, taking the chorus of the featured popular song as the basic unit of form and exploring the kinds of large-scale aesthetic patterns that develop as songs are expanded into routines. It argues that sonic patterning, or “euphony,” provides its own pleasures independent of narrative logic. It surveys a broad sample of formal types, from a single chorus to twelve choruses in length, to investigate how formal design itself contributes to glamour. Examples are arranged in order of increasing complexity, introducing a basic vocabulary regarding formal subdivision, performance type, and audience address, and considering how formal patterns shape time, space, and affect.