ternary form

American  

noun

1. a musical form in three sections, with the third usually an exact repetition of the first.

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ternary form British  

noun

1. Also called: song form.  a musical structure consisting of two contrasting sections followed by a repetition of the first; the form aba

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Etymology

Origin of ternary form

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

We have in the Hessian the first instance of a covariant of a ternary form.

From Project Gutenberg

Then he'd suddenly produce CDs of stuff he'd been doing at home, tracks on a sequencer, rather than the exercises in ternary form he was meant to do.

From The Guardian