Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2022 March 13

= March 13 =

Term for parts of a song
There are some songs that are split into multiple distinct parts, in essence, songs within a song. I'm not talking about sections like verse, chorus, bridge. I find several different terms for distinct parts of a song, like movement, canto (which is a made-up term based from division of a long poem from Latin word cantus meaning song), or simply part (which is most popular referral). I know movement is term for songs within a song used almost exclusively in classical music. Canto could be used for divisions of especially long songs, hence its meaning of division of long poems. As it is the most popular term, I see "parts" is referred for such division in some lyrics sites and even mentioned in a few wikipedia articles like And You and I. So what's your take for these terms? Planet Star  08:03, 13 March 2022 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure what your question is, but you might be interested to read Musical form.--Shantavira|feed me 09:17, 13 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Perhaps Subject (music) - also known as a theme? Alansplodge (talk) 09:28, 13 March 2022 (UTC)

I'm looking for terms for distinct parts of a song. It can be called "parts", but its generic and can refer to the division of anything. I know there's name for parts of something, like parts of a movie are called scenes, parts of a book are called chapters, and parts of a poem are called stanzas. If there's a general term for distinct parts of a song where music is a bit different within them (essentially songs within a song), I hereby call them cantos, taken from the Latin word cantus meaning "song". Canto essentially only means a division of a long poem, and that should apply to the division of a song, especially a long one. I'm baffled why canto wasn't taken to mean the division of a song in music, despite its Latin origin. For the Yes song "And You and I" that lasts over 10 minutes for example, the song is divided into four parts, or specifically, into four "cantos". You may have seen in tracklist in some of the albums where there are titled parts of a song, listed below the song title. The album Slow, Deep and Hard has several tracks with named parts or "cantos". That's what I'm talking about. Movement can also be used, but it is referred almost exclusively in classical music, and thus I don't recommend that term not especially in popular music. So what do you think of "cantos", would you say the term is legit and that it shall be used to mean distinct divisions of a song in music in addition to division of a long poem in poetry? Planet Star  21:46, 13 March 2022 (UTC)
 * See Song structure. Clarityfiend (talk) 02:56, 14 March 2022 (UTC)


 * "Parts of a country" can be regions, provinces, towns, forests, and so on and so forth. These can be nested (a town in a forest in a province), or they can overlap (a forest extending across several provinces). There is no one-word term for "part of a country" that covers all these cases, yet is specific to countries. I think the same applies to songs. The parts into which they can be analyzed meaningfully can be nested or overlap. Some relevant restrictions are needed before one can expect more specialized terms to emerge. --Lambiam 09:16, 14 March 2022 (UTC)