The strophic form is a song form in which the same melody is repeated for each stanza and is often heard in popular music, hymns, carols, and many folk songs. The other song type is the through-composed form. It is a song form that is composed from beginning to end without repetitions of whole sections. The Germans called it "durchkomponiert." The music follows a story line and changes according to the text.
There is an intermediate type, which is a combination of the other two. The modified strophic form features some repetition or variations of a melody and new material is introduced when the poem requires it. This is usually at the climax.
Even though songs have been sung throughout the ages, the art song as we know it today was a product of the Romantic era. This new genre came to be known as the Lied. Thus, a Lied is a German art song for solo voice and piano. Folk elements are sometimes incorporated into the Lied, and the composer often attempts to portray musically the imagery of the poem. The composer doesn't normally write the lyrics for the Lied.
Such poets as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Heinrich Heine led the rise of German Romanticism and poetry. Woodsworth, Byron, Shelley, and Keats in English literature produced short, personal lyric poems. The favorite themes of the Lied include love, longing, and nature.
The Romantic art song became popular also due to the piano becoming a universal household instrument of the nineteenth century. The piano accompaniment translated the poetic images into music. Voice and piano together gave the short lyric form feeling, plus made it suitable for amateurs and artists alike. It was also sung and played in both the home and the concert hall.
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