Editing Binary form (section)

{{Short description|Musical structure with two contrasting sections}}
{{About|the musical form}}
[[File:Binary form.png|thumb|400px|Binary form in major and minor keys. Each section must be at least two phrases long.<ref>White, John D. (1976). ''The Analysis of Music'', p. 50. {{ISBN|0-13-033233-X}}.</ref>]]

'''Binary form''' is a [[musical form]] in 2 related sections, both of which are usually repeated. Binary is also a structure used to choreograph [[dance]]. In music this is usually performed as A-A-B-B.

Binary form was popular during the [[Baroque music|Baroque period]], often used to structure movements of [[keyboard instrument|keyboard]] [[sonata (music)|sonatas]]. It was also used for short, one-movement works. Around the middle of the 18th century, the form largely fell from use as the principal design of entire movements as [[sonata form]] and organic [[musical development|development]] gained prominence. When it is found in later works, it usually takes the form of the theme in a set of [[variation form|variation]]s, or the [[Minuet]], [[Scherzo]], or Trio sections of a "minuet and trio" or "scherzo and trio" movement in a [[sonata]], [[symphony]], etc. Many larger forms incorporate binary structures, and many more complicated forms (such as the 18th-century [[sonata form]]) share certain characteristics with binary form.