Editing Music theory (section)

===Form or structure===
[[File:Canon example.png|thumb|A musical [[canon (music)|canon]]. ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' calls a "canon" both a compositional technique and a musical form.<ref>{{Britannica URL|art/canon-music|title=Canon: music}}</ref>]]
{{Main|Musical form}}
The term musical form (or musical architecture) refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections.{{sfn|Brandt|2007}} In the tenth edition of ''[[The Oxford Companion to Music]]'', [[Percy Scholes]] defines musical form as "a series of strategies designed to find a successful mean between the opposite extremes of unrelieved repetition and unrelieved alteration."{{sfn|Scholes|1977}} According to [[Richard Middleton (musicologist)|Richard Middleton]], musical form is "the shape or structure of the work." He describes it through difference: the distance moved from a [[Repetition (music)|repeat]]; the latter being the smallest difference. Difference is quantitative and qualitative: ''how far'', and ''of what type'', different. In many cases, form depends on statement and [[Restatement (music)|restatement]], unity and variety, and [[contrast (music)|contrast]] and connection.{{sfn|Middleton|1999|loc={{Page needed|date=July 2015}}}}