What does the "verse" mean?

[padraig]

I was looking on the iRealPro forum and I saw a thread about people looking for the "verses" to standards:

Verses for jazz standards

What do they mean? The intros as they were originally recorded or something?

I've read the whole thread and also googled and I'm still none the wiser.

Thanks.

[mr. beaumont]

Many standards are Broadway tunes...the verse is the part usually sung with minimal accompaniment before the tune as we all know it kicks in. They kind of set up the story of the tune. An "intro" in pop/rock is a good comparison.

A lot of times they're scrapped when playing instrumentally. Many vocalists will keep them, at least the good ones.

Some are great, like "Stardust." Some are downright forgettable.

[padraig]

Ok thanks. What's the difference between the verse and the "head" then? I thought the heads were the bits that used to have words?

[setemupjoe]

The terms Verse and Chorus meant different things in the Broadway tradition to how we now commonly use them.
The verse is the preliminary musical introduction to bridge the spoken dialog of the play to the song. Melodically it was often more plain to match a musical speaking tradition that was used in opera with the recitative.
The main body of the tune (often AABA or ABAC in form) made up what was called the chorus. Within jazz terminology this became known as the head. The head is distinct from the solo where the chord changes of the chorus are used to improvise over. In opera the Chorus would be the Aria.
Within the chorus you may have a bridge if the structure is AABA.
Verses fell out of favor as recordings of these songs became popular. Because the verses were a device to move from spoken dialog to singing within a play they were often not included in recordings by artists of the day. When Hollywood began making movie musicals the verse fell out of favor as well. Camera tricks and instant scene changes not possible for stage productions rendered the verse mostly obsolete.

[padraig]

The terms Verse and Chorus meant different things in the Broadway tradition to how we now commonly use them.

....and then the rest of the quote too:

This is a great answer, thank you.

[mr. beaumont]

Ok thanks. What's the difference between the verse and the "head" then? I thought the heads were the bits that used to have words?

The head is the melody of the "chorus" which follows the verse.

Check out Dinah here...the "I was a stranger, in the city" part is the verse. The "head" comes in on "A Foggy Day."

[setemupjoe]

A couple more examples I like to give.
Mountain Greenery written by Rodgers and Hart in 1926 had two separate verses which was not uncommon at that time.
Mel Torme sings both these verses in his version below.
Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore give a more jazz/pop rendition from their tv show where the verses are excised completely.

[pauln]

For songs with an extended introduction before beginning, for example, the AABA form, that introductory section was formally called the sectional verse. It became called just the "verse" among jazzers when deciding whether to include it or not. Jazz musicians have called a full lap around the whole form a "chorus" for a long time, so they called the intro a verse.

Verse used to mean the "A" part in music form... as in AABA.
Chorus used to mean the "B" part, sometimes called the bridge.
The series of verses were novel, different words or lines, carrying the story.
The chorus was repetitive, sometimes called the refrain.

This is an ancient idea going back to the Greek plays where the verses were the forward movement of the story line by dialogue spoken by the main characters. Periodically the chorus (like a choir of people speaking in unison) restated the big picture for the audience to help refocus or catch up those who had lost their place in following the story.

I have encountered a lot of musicians that reverse this and insist on calling the periodic repeating parts the verse, and call the changing parts the chorus (and not in the way jazzers do).

[docsteve]

For songs with an extended introduction before beginning, for example, the AABA form, that introductory section was formally called the sectional verse. It became called just the "verse" among jazzers when deciding whether to include it or not. Jazz musicians have called a full lap around the whole form a "chorus" for a long time, so they called the intro a verse.

Verse used to mean the "A" part in music form... as in AABA.
Chorus used to mean the "B" part, sometimes called the bridge.
The series of verses were novel, different words or lines, carrying the story.
The chorus was repetitive, sometimes called the refrain.

This is an ancient idea going back to the Greek plays where the verses were the forward movement of the story line by dialogue spoken by the main characters. Periodically the chorus (like a choir of people speaking in unison) restated the big picture for the audience to help refocus or catch up those who had lost their place in following the story.

I have encountered a lot of musicians that reverse this and insist on calling the periodic repeating parts the verse, and call the changing parts the chorus (and not in the way jazzers do).

Well, sort of. I have plenty of sheet music that calls the „extended intro“ the verse, just as described in some of the posts above. I have no indication that within an AABA structure, the A part is called the verse and the B part the chorus. Do you have any examples?

One meaning of „versus“ in Latin is something like „recurring“ or „periodically repeating“. I don’t think a similar word exists in Greek but I may be wrong. The chorus in Greek tragedy was what we would now call the choir (see the etymological relation?) that commented on the action. So historically speaking, you‘re mixing two different, albeit related, traditions.


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[JCat]

consider the form ABABCAB (common in vocal pop)

The lyrics in the A part is typically different each time as the story unfolds.
The B part is the catchy part, the hook, where everyone can sing along and the lyrics typically doesn't change.
The C part is a variation, maybe instrumental, a solo or a tempo change etc.

Where I come from we call A "verse", B "chorus", C "bridge".

Some Jazz follows a simple structure ABAB where a theme is played in the first (and often the last) A part, rest is improvisation. The B part may then be referred to as the "bridge".

-Is this diferrent where you come from?

[MarkRhodes]

The verse in standards is that which gets you to "...and that's why..."

;o)

[JaxJaxon]

I like the example given useing montain greenery . for me the changeing lines are the melodey and the constant lines are harmony.

[pcsanwald]

My favorite source of recordings with verses is Wesla Whitfield's albums, always with her husband Mike Greensill on piano. If the verse was good, Wesla would sing it, beautifully.

Wesla passed away last year, but her recordings are wonderful, and her husband Mike is still actively playing in Napa and SF, I just played with him last winter, he sounds great.

[KirkP]

So the definitions of verse, bridge, and chorus can vary depending on genre. Note that swing era jazz musicians often referred to the B part as the “channel”, or at least the one I played with did.
Jazz Glossary

One of my favorite verses (in the jazz sense) is from “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most.” I’ve been working on that tune lately. I don’t understand why Kenny Burrell discarded the verse from his version.

[MarkRhodes]

I love Ella's version of "Anything Goes."

The verse ends with, "(In)stead of landing on Plymouth Rock / Plymouth Rock would land on them."
The chorus begins with "In olden days, a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking."

[pauln]

The lyrics in the A part is typically different each time as the story unfolds.
The B part is the catchy part, the hook, where everyone can sing along and the lyrics typically doesn't change.
The C part is a variation, maybe instrumental, a solo or a tempo change etc.

Where I come from we call A "verse", B "chorus", C "bridge".

That's the way I've gotten it since a child, from all over.
I don't get these folks who exchange the meaning of verse and chorus...!?

[matt.guitarteacher]

In folk, rock, country etc., the verse is that section which repeats with different words each time, But it's still more like a "chorus " than the verses in standards.

The VERSE on these old standards is more analogous to recitative in opera.

[setemupjoe]

consider the form ABABCAB (common in vocal pop)

The lyrics in the A part is typically different each time as the story unfolds.
The B part is the catchy part, the hook, where everyone can sing along and the lyrics typically doesn't change.
The C part is a variation, maybe instrumental, a solo or a tempo change etc.

Where I come from we call A "verse", B "chorus", C "bridge".

Some Jazz follows a simple structure ABAB where a theme is played in the first (and often the last) A part, rest is improvisation. The B part may then be referred to as the "bridge".

-Is this diferrent where you come from?

You’re confusing different eras and musical idioms. The conversation is about the American Songbook era and broadway songs in particular.
According to your description ‘All of Me’ a song by Gerald Marks from 1931 which is written as an ABAC song is Verse, Chorus, Verse, Bridge. This is of course totally incorrect.

Within a pop idiom your analysis is closer to what is correct but this is post 1960’s.

Also pre-20th century folk songs such as My Darling Clementine fell into a common verse - chorus form which we can write as ABAB etc and falls into what we call a strophic form.

[cosmic gumbo]

Some very well known tunes including their rarely sung verses.

[JCat]

You’re confusing different eras and musical idioms. The conversation is about the American Songbook era and broadway songs in particular.
According to your description ‘All of Me’ a song by Gerald Marks from 1931 which is written as an ABAC song is Verse, Chorus, Verse, Bridge. This is of course totally incorrect.

Within a pop idiom your analysis is closer to what is correct but this is post 1960’s.

Also pre-20th century folk songs such as My Darling Clementine fell into a common verse - chorus form which we can write as ABAB etc and falls into what we call a strophic form.

I posted here for the sole purpose of avoiding confusion. I try again:

It almost appears like each member has his own definition of this terminology. This probably depends on where we were born, our native language, musical traditions and the cultural context; the people we play with, where and what music we play. I assume this is why OP hasn't been able to sort it out.

Consider the Great American Song Book and the common AABA structure on 32 bar form. 4 sections x 8 measures. The A section is called the "Verse" and the B section is called the "Bridge". But the word "bridge" is used in all kinds of ways in music. In my language, the direct translation is used to describe a transition, sometimes just a single bar. (My folks use another word for the contrasting B-part in the common AABA form. A word also used to describe a contrast in contemporary pop)

ABAC is an example of form, a song structure. The music is repetitive in a certain sequence. These letters don't automatically translate into terms like "verse" and "bridge", i.e we cannot compare the form of two different tunes and expect for example the letter B to always represent a "bridge" (the way you interpreted my post).

A block of bars is often referred to just as "the A part" or "the B part" etc, especially in instrumental music, since terms like "verse" and "chorus" indicate the presence of lyrics.

"Chours" is often synonymous with "Refrain". People that play instrumental music like Jazz and classical, seldom like to think they are playing refrains, (not even when interpreting songs that originally were released with a strong refrain in focus.)

Now, anything that's not a "bridge" or a "chorus", an "intro" or an "outro" has to be the "verse", right? Nope. Jazzers as well as classical musicians like to talk about the "theme", a short melody that identifies the piece. the theme from the A part may repeat itself in the B part. Sometimes the theme is played like an intro and an outro and anything in-between is improvisation.

The word "verse" in music originates from ancient literature/poetry/drama and means there are words (lyrics) supposed to be read or sung. However, some music, including certain standards, are through-composed, non repetitive and cannot be structured in a letter sequence even though there may be lyrics.

[JCat]

Some very well known tunes including their rarely sung verses.

I had played this lovely song for many years before I connected it with the rarely sung first part. Fast forward 1 minute to cut to the chase. Not many people would understand what I meant, If I referred to the first 60 seconds as "the verse".

[grahambop]

Not many people would understand what I meant, If I referred to the first 60 seconds as "the verse".

Yes, but that is because it is the technical term used only in relation to this kind of song. You’re only likely to know it if you are involved in performing a show-type tune of this nature. Even then you may not be aware of it if you only hear jazz instrumental versions which often omit the verse.

It was a long time before I understood what ‘verse’ meant in this context.

[JCat]

So in conclusion, the term verse is ambiguous in the context of the Great American Songbook.

A verse of a Broadway song in Real-book may be something different than the verse of the same song on Broadway.

Compare with the two modes of classic Opera:

Recitative - musically boring passage driving the plot forward

Aria - The formal melodic highlight.

(And just for the record, referring to the OP and subject title, not every standard in the book is a Broadway standard.)

[matt.guitarteacher]

Consider the Great American Song Book and the common AABA structure on 32 bar form. 4 sections x 8 measures. The A section is called the "Verse" and the B section is called the "Bridge".

No. The term "verse" isn't used that way in this context, with this type of tune. Every A section isn't referred to as a "verse".

It's not "ambiguous" in referring to the great American songbook tunes, even if it's different from modern pop songs. See setemupjoe's original post on this. Great explanation.

[matt.guitarteacher]

The terms Verse and Chorus meant different things in the Broadway tradition to how we now commonly use them.
The verse is the preliminary musical introduction to bridge the spoken dialog of the play to the song. Melodically it was often more plain to match a musical speaking tradition that was used in opera with the recitative.
The main body of the tune (often AABA or ABAC in form) made up what was called the chorus. Within jazz terminology this became known as the head. The head is distinct from the solo where the chord changes of the chorus are used to improvise over. In opera the Chorus would be the Aria.
Within the chorus you may have a bridge if the structure is AABA.
Verses fell out of favor as recordings of these songs became popular. Because the verses were a device to move from spoken dialog to singing within a play they were often not included in recordings by artists of the day. When Hollywood began making movie musicals the verse fell out of favor as well. Camera tricks and instant scene changes not possible for stage productions rendered the verse mostly obsolete.

This is a really a clear explanation.