Musical works can generally be divided into three categories: vocal music, instrumental music and dramatic music (including opera music, dance music and dramatic music). ). The musical part of drama music is also included in vocal music and instrumental music, which are usually incorporated into vocal music and instrumental music respectively. Music works are divided into songs and instrumental music, including classical music, folk music and pop music. Song art is an important part of music culture, and the genre of songs is constantly expanding with the progress of human society and the development of singing art. At present, it is generally believed that the genre of song works can be roughly divided into folk songs, art songs, mass songs, folk song adaptation, yangko opera, film and television songs, operas, oratorios and musicals.

First, folk songs

Folk songs generally come from folk oral singing and are full of local colors. The lyrics of folk songs are popular and catchy, and the melody is beautiful and smooth. Dialects of various ethnic groups and regions are used in singing, reflecting their charm and style. Folk songs of various countries show the unique feelings of each nation, and also reflect the social life style and customs of each nation.

The earliest folk songs came into being with people's language and labor. Due to the differences in geographical environment, living habits and working methods, especially the differences in language and national tones, 56 ethnic groups on the vast land of China have formed colorful individual styles. The Book of Songs, Chu Ci, Yuefu, Tang Poetry, Song Ci, Yuanqu and a large number of rap arts all absorbed a lot of nutrition from China folk songs, and produced various singing forms from them. As far as genre is concerned, China folk songs can be roughly divided into three types: chant, folk songs and minor. For example, Shaanxi folk song Lan Song Gong Diao, Jiangsu folk song Long Gong Ku, Zhejiang folk song Che Shui Hao Zi, Jiangnan folk song Yue Zhao Jiuzhou and so on.

Second, art songs

Artistic songs are songs created by composers according to the writers' poems for the purpose of artistic expression, and they are a combination of poems and songs. Art songs aim to inspire an inspiration and atmosphere through the interaction between music and poetry, so that listeners can deeply feel a unique aesthetic charm through a certain language. Art songs are usually sung in concerts, mostly solo, usually accompanied by carefully arranged piano, which requires high singing skills. This unique artistic effect is difficult to achieve in other singing forms, such as opera. Compared with folk songs, both lyrics and tunes have been carefully pondered by the author, and artistic ideas are given. At the same time, art songs attach great importance to the artistic treatment of accompaniment, so composers regard accompaniment writing as an important part of the overall artistic conception of songs when creating art songs. The names of art songs vary from country to country, such as Lied in Germany, Romance in Russia and Melodie in France. Although they have different names and styles, they all belong to the category of art songs in terms of genre attributes, and they are a kind of concert solo songs with more refined and perfect structure. In the history of European music, artistic songs created by Italian, German, French and Russian composers have always maintained a high artistic status.