Refrain

What a refrain is

In poems and songs the refrain is a sequence of words or sounds that returns regularly toward the end of a stanza; the German word for it is “Kehrreim”. Refrains are classified by position: most often the end refrain at the end of the stanza, less often recurring lines appear at the beginning or in the middle of a stanza. In songs the refrain is often called the “chorus”.

Recognising it in the score

While the stanzas change in their text, the refrain stays the same. On some song sheets, therefore, the stanza text is printed several times one beneath the other under the notes, the refrain only once. The table shows how you recognise it on three sheets; the word is not always printed above it.

Refrains in the archive

• Near the Cross left Frances Jane (Fanny) Crosby, 1869, right William Howard Doane (as printed) · voice and piano with chords for guitar · 1 page

  6/4 time, one ♭, no upbeat, 16 bars. Bars 1–8 carry four stanzas set to the same notes. After a double barline the word “Refrain” (italic, bold) is printed above bar 9; the text of bars 9–16 is printed only once. The vocal part ends on F.

• Auf de schwäbsche Eisebahne voice with chord symbols · text: “Volksgut”, tune: “Volksweise” (according to the sheet) · 1 page

  2/4 time, one sharp, 16 bars, ending on G (chord symbol G). Stanza 1 is printed beneath the notes, stanzas 2 to 7 below it as text. A footnote contains the word “Kehrreim”. Bars 9–12 carry only nonsense syllables, and bars 13–16 repeat the melody of bars 5–8.

• Hard Times Come Again No More Stephen Foster (1826–1864), according to the file name · voice and piano, page 3 for tenor, two sopranos, bass and piano · 3 pages

  Time signature C, three ♭. The last line of text is the same in all four stanzas. On page 2, after the four stanzas and a final barline, comes a section with only one line of text. Page 3 bears the heading “Alternate Refrain” above the tenor staff; it sets a refrain for tenor, I Soprano, II Soprano, bass and piano, with fermatas in the first and second systems.

Refrain, stanza and section

A refrain is a part of the song that sounds again after every stanza, but it is not a song of its own and not the same as the stanza: the stanza brings new text each time, the refrain the same. That it can be musically independent is shown by “Near the Cross”, where it is headed “Refrain”. In “Auf de schwäbsche Eisebahne”, by contrast, bars 13–16 repeat the melody of bars 5–8; whether the sheet still counts them as part of the refrain, it does not say.

Common mistakes

• Singing the refrain only once: It returns after every stanza.
• Confusing refrain and stanza: The text of the stanzas changes, that of the refrain does not; you can recognise it by the fact that its text is printed only once.
• Expecting a word above the passage: In “Auf de schwäbsche Eisebahne” the word appears only in the footnote.