Conclusion (music)

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In music, the conclusion is the ending of a composition and may take the form of a coda or outro.

Pieces using sonata form typically use the recapitulation to conclude a piece, providing closure through the repetition of thematic material from the exposition in the tonic key. In all musical forms other techniques include "altogether unexpected digressions just as a work is drawing to its close, followed by a return...to a consequently more emphatic confirmation of the structural relations implied in the body of the work." (Perle 1990)

[edit] Examples

  • The slow movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, where a "diminished-7th chord progression interrupts the final cadence[1].
  • The slow movement of Symphony No. 5 by Beethoven, where "echoing afterthoughts" follow the initial statements of the first theme and only return expanded in the coda[1].
  • Varèse's Density 21.5, where partitioning of the chromatic scale into (two) whole tone scales provides the missing tritone of b implied in the previously exclusive partitioning by (three) diminished seventh chords[1].

[edit] Source

  1. ^ a b c Perle, George (1990). The Listening Composer. California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-06991-9.
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