Period (music)

The 1958 Encyclopédie Fasquelle defines a period as follows:

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• "A complex phrase, in which the various parts are enchained."

Another definition:

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• "In traditional music...a group of measures comprising a natural division of the melody; usually regarded as comprising two or more contrasting or complementary phrases and ending with a cadence." (Harvard Dictionary of Music, 1969)
 
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