Phrase
A musical unit that ends with a cadence, like a sentence
Related
A phrase is the unit of music that behaves like a sentence: it has a beginning, a direction and a close, and the close usually brings a cadence or at least a clear pause. Slurs, breath marks and harmonic rhythm can suggest where phrases begin and end, but the ear has the final say: some points sound finished, others merely sound like a breath. A phrase is often four bars long, but it can be shorter or longer.
A phrase is not a bar-count. Bars are containers of metre; phrases are units of meaning. One bar may hold two short phrases, and one phrase may cross a barline and begin on a weak beat. To hear phrases, follow the melodic direction, the harmonic landing points and the tightening or loosening of rhythm rather than counting bars. Phrase endings differ in weight: a close on the tonic is a full stop, a close on the dominant a comma, and a close on an unexpected chord a question mark or an ellipsis.
The common misconception is to equate a phrase with four bars or with the place where a singer breathes. Four bars are a common shape, not a definition; many phrases run to five or seven bars, and composers often make phrase lengths deliberately uneven. Nor is a phrase necessarily made by the melody alone: harmony, bass, texture and orchestration all help to mark it. When listening, ask where the music breathes and where it lands; that comes closer to the phrase than counting bars.
Sources
- 乐句的定义、边界与句法功能，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Phrase"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.