From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: The Fundamentals

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The chorus

The chorus

From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: The Fundamentals

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The chorus

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- In the early strophic song forms, the chorus was designated in contrast to the verse as the section of the song where the lyrics repeated. As a result, it's often referred to as the part of the song we remember. in ancient Greece, where the term stroph is derived from, there was a tradition of the Greek chorus, a group of actors that would provide commentary on a performance by chanting in unison. This was later adapted to songs to notate the part the audience is supposed to sing along to. We see this function of the chorus evolve first with the music of Stephen Foster, who's referred to as the Father of American music, and further with the composers of the American Song Book like Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Richard Rogers, Cole Porter, and Harold Arlen. In the first half of the 20th century, the chorus became identified as a 32 bar section that followed an AABA form. Something we'll look at shortly…

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