# Is there a term that describes (Western) music that lacks the traditional call-and-response? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [February 17, 2026, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-that-describes-western-music-that-lacks-the-traditional-call-and-response/1027749 "2026-02-17T17:10:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-that-describes-western-music-that-lacks-the-traditional-call-and-response/1027749/21 "2026-03-18T15:19:38Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Basically, almost all Western music, as far as I can glean, goes like this: > > Series of notes **I** series of similar notes that kind of “answers” the first series of notes. > > Take Beethoven’s 5th: I’d say, not quite. Conventional songs will have a distinction between verse (which tends to tell, and move on, a story) and refrain (which tends to sum up the story, or a moral. But what you describe for Beethoven’s 5th is a much more complex process of development: that four-note motif keeps coming back through every movement of the symphony, forwards, backwards, slow, fast, solemn march and elegant minuet, (try counting them) - until the last movement blazes with positivity, by contrast with the doomy foreboding of the opening theme. Similarly, classical music forms bat themes and bits of themes and motifs between the different instruments, in all sorts of ways, but they’re much more complex than what I understand by “call and response” - to me, that implies something relatively static and repetitive with little or no development or resolution. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-that-describes-western-music-that-lacks-the-traditional-call-and-response/1027749/22 "2026-03-18T15:29:06Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > But what you describe for Beethoven’s 5th is a much more complex process of development: that four-note motif keeps coming back As eloquently explained here: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/f0vHpeUO5mw/hqdefault.jpg "P.D.Q. Bach (Peter Schickele) - "New horizons in music appreciation" (Beethoven)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0vHpeUO5mw) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-that-describes-western-music-that-lacks-the-traditional-call-and-response/1027749/23 "2026-03-18T15:52:22Z")
Yeah, that’s a type of call and response and is pretty common in Western music. In my early music classes, we were often given, say, four bars of a melody and a “question” and we’d have to come up with a four-bar “answer” to it. Like take “Ode to Joy”. You have four bars of an initial motif and then you have it repeat with the “answer” just changing the last bar so the melody goes down and sounds like it’s finished a musical sentence. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-that-describes-western-music-that-lacks-the-traditional-call-and-response/1027749/24 "2026-03-18T17:34:28Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I found out it was his mangled doors that were acting like a big harmonica in the wind. We’ve had some big winds here and I recently tracked down a piece of vinyl window trim that was flapping an unsteady, kazooy honk just one of those birthday coil whistles. It really sounded like someone was in there, creepy AF. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-that-describes-western-music-that-lacks-the-traditional-call-and-response/1027749/25 "2026-03-19T09:27:44Z")
Another word for music that doesn’t involve (seemingly organised) development and harmonic resolution would be “aleatoric”. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-that-describes-western-music-that-lacks-the-traditional-call-and-response/1027749/26 "2026-03-19T11:07:57Z")
Aleatoric literally means rolling the dice. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2026, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-that-describes-western-music-that-lacks-the-traditional-call-and-response/1027749/27 "2026-03-24T21:22:15Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > So what would you call it? I play something similar for sleepy-time, usually found by searching for “binaural” which is silly, since I’m listening on my (single output) phone, and the whole ~~highly scientific~~ theory requires two speakers. I don’t care about the “science” of binaural music. I just want something without lyrics or a catchy melody (that will get stuck in my head) but just a weeee bit more than simple white noise. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-that-describes-western-music-that-lacks-the-traditional-call-and-response/1027749/28 "2026-03-25T13:40:01Z")
Aleatoric music is music that involves some degree of randomness. John Cage wrote a lot of aleatory; one piece involved turning the volume and tuning dials of several radios, the precise timing and degree of which were outlined in the “score”. What came out of the radios would be different every time. I’ve done more straightforwardly musical aleatory that involves chorus singers repeating a melody at varying tempos, up to the individual singer. It doesn’t necessarily lack development or harmonic resolution, nor is it that general a term. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-that-describes-western-music-that-lacks-the-traditional-call-and-response/1027749/29 "2026-03-25T16:08:50Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Basically, almost all Western music, as far as I can glean, goes like this: > > Series of notes **I** series of similar notes that kind of “answers” the first series of notes. I disagree. I think that’s one type of music, but I think “Western Music” has much more variety than you’d expect. Though maybe we’d like it to be easier to categorize… > Conventional songs will have a distinction between verse (which tends to tell, and move on, a story) and refrain (which tends to sum up the story, or a moral. And that’s another type! ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-that-describes-western-music-that-lacks-the-traditional-call-and-response/1027749/30 "2026-03-25T16:35:29Z")
What the OP means (I think) is not Call and Response but Question and Answer, more properly called Antecedent and Consequent. I applies to melodic phrases and is perfectly explained here: [https://youtube.com/shorts/qLkhlbpqNzY?si=JJ4sdng\_WMT2L4Nd](https://youtube.com/shorts/qLkhlbpqNzY?si=JJ4sdng_WMT2L4Nd) ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-that-describes-western-music-that-lacks-the-traditional-call-and-response/1027749/31 "2026-03-25T16:47:24Z")
Thank you, that is exactly what I’m asking about. I figured it was pretty foundational to Western music, but maybe I’m wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-that-describes-western-music-that-lacks-the-traditional-call-and-response/1027749/32 "2026-03-25T20:26:33Z")
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