Introduction (music)
musical term; opening section of a movement or separate piece
In music, the introduction is a passage or section which opens a movement or a separate piece, preceding the theme or lyrics. In popular music, this is often known as the song intro or just the intro. The introduction establishes melodic, harmonic or rhythmic material related to the main body of a piece.
Introductions may consist of an ostinato that is used in the following music, an important chord or progression that establishes the tonality and groove for the following music, or they may be important but disguised or out-of-context motivic or thematic material. As such, the introduction may be the first statement of primary or other important material, may be related to but different from the primary or other important material, or may bear little relation to any other material.
A common introduction to a rubato ballad is a dominant seventh chord with a fermata, an introduction that works for many songs is the last four or eight measures of the song, while a common introduction to the twelve-bar blues is a single chorus.
If a movement in sonata form form begins with an introductory section, this introduction is typically not considered part of the movement's exposition.
“Introduction (music)” enters the record as musical term; opening section of a movement or separate piece. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Introduction, music and musical can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3800792. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Introduction (music)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.