Nearly all music is constructed in phrases. A musical phrase is any piece of music that feels somehow able to stand on its own. Phrases may take the listener all the way to a point of musical resolution or cadence or end unresolved. Often, phrases relate to one another other; one phrase asks a question, the next provides an answer. Composers look for that perfect balance of melody, rhythm, meter and form to create phrases that play in a natural order and flow just right.
In Western music, a majority of musical phrases come in even numbers of measures, mostly in groups of four or eight measures. A crooked phrase is a phrase that does not fit into the square boxes of those even numbers. A crooked phrase could be seven or nine measures, or even contain a single measure that uses a different meter than the rest of the song. However they are made, the role of crooked phrases is to grab the listener’s attention by defying the expectations that consistent, square eight bar phrases create. Whether the effect of the crooked phrase is to rush a part of a song, or let it breathe, the fact that they break with the listener’s expectations gives these phrases their impact...
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