Air (music)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For Bach's BWV 1068, see
Orchestral Suites (Bach)
. For popular arrangements of BWV 1068, see Air on the G String. For the French musical duo, see Air (French band).

An air (Italian: aria; also ayr, ayre in French) is a song-like vocal or instrumental composition. The term can also be applied to the interchangeable melodies of folk songs and ballads. It is a variant of the musical song form often referred to (in opera, cantata and oratorio) as aria.

English lute ayres

masques.[1]
(p. 309).

Baroque and classical airs

By the 18th century, composers wrote airs for

Water Music
collection, is another frequently performed air.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c G. J. Buelow, History of Baroque Music: Music in the 17th and First Half of the 18th Centuries, Indiana University Press, 2004
  2. ^ C. MacClintock, Readings in the history of music in performance, Indiana University Press, 1982, p. 194.
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