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Music

Melody and harmony

Phrasing

A phrase is like a musical sentence. When you talk, you take a breath after a sentence. With a musical phrase, you can almost hear a breath at the end of the phrase even when the music is played by non-wind instruments.

Listen to this excerpt which is taken from a traditional Welsh song Suo Gan. There are two repeated phrases in the music. Can you hear them?

Listen

Suo Gan (Real Audio clip)

Musical Notation of Suo Gan

Musical Notation of Suo Gan

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