In music, a coda (; ; plural ) is a
passage that brings a piece (or a
movement) to an end. It may be as simple as a few
measures, or as complex as an entire
section.
In classical music
The presence of a coda as a structural element in a movement is especially clear in works written in particular
musical form
In music, ''form'' refers to the structure of a musical composition or musical improvisation, performance. In his book, ''Worlds of Music'', Jeff Todd Titon suggests that a number of organizational elements may determine the formal structure of a ...
s. Codas were commonly used in both
sonata form
The sonata form (also sonata-allegro form or first movement form) is a musical form, musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of t ...
and
variation movements during the Classical era. In a sonata form movement, the
recapitulation section will, in general, follow the
exposition
Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to:
*Universal exposition or World's Fair
*Expository writing
*Exposition (narrative), background information in a story
* Exposition (music)
*Trade fair
* ''Exposition'' (album), the debut alb ...
in its thematic content, while adhering to the home
key. The recapitulation often ends with a passage that sounds like a termination, paralleling the music that ended the exposition; thus, any music coming after this termination will be perceived as extra material, i.e., as a coda. In works in variation form, the coda occurs following the last variation and will be very noticeable as the first music not based on the theme.
One of the ways that
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...
extended and intensified Classical practice was to expand the coda sections, producing a final section sometimes of equal musical weight to the foregoing exposition, development, and recapitulation sections and completing the
musical argument. For one famous example, see the finale of
Symphony No. 8 (Beethoven).
Musical purpose
Charles Burkhart suggests that the reason codas are common, even necessary, is that, in the climax of the main body of a piece, a "particularly effortful passage", often an expanded
phrase
In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...
, is often created by "working an idea through to its structural conclusions" and that, after all this momentum is created, a coda is required to "look back" on the main body, allow listeners to "take it all in", and "create a sense of balance."
Codetta
Codetta (
Italian for "little tail", the
diminutive
A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...
form) has a similar purpose to the coda, but on a smaller scale, concluding a section of a work instead of the work as a whole. A typical codetta concludes the
exposition
Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to:
*Universal exposition or World's Fair
*Expository writing
*Exposition (narrative), background information in a story
* Exposition (music)
*Trade fair
* ''Exposition'' (album), the debut alb ...
and
recapitulation sections of a work in
sonata form
The sonata form (also sonata-allegro form or first movement form) is a musical form, musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of t ...
, following the second (
modulated
Signal modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform in electronics and telecommunication for the purpose of transmitting information.
The process encodes information in form of the modulation or message ...
) theme, or the closing theme (if there is one). Thus, in the exposition, it usually appears in the secondary key, but, in the recapitulation, in the primary key. The codetta ordinarily closes with a
perfect cadence in the appropriate key, confirming the tonality. If the exposition is repeated, the codetta is likewise repeated. Sometimes it has its ending slightly changed, depending on whether it leads back to the exposition or into the
development
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development (music), the process by which thematic material is reshaped
* Photographic development
*Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
* Development hell, when a proje ...
sections.
History
Cauda, a Latin word meaning "tail", "edge" or "trail" is the root of ''coda'' and is used in the study of
conductus of the 12th and 13th centuries. The cauda was a long
melisma on one of the last syllables of the text, repeated in each strophe. Conducti were traditionally divided into two groups, ''conductus cum cauda'' and ''conductus sine cauda'' (
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
: "conductus with cauda", "conductus without cauda"), based on the presence of the melisma. Thus, the cauda provided a conclusionary role, similar to the modern coda.
In popular music
Many songs in
rock and other genres of
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
have sections identifiable as codas. A coda in these genres is sometimes referred to as an "
outro", while in jazz,
modern church music and
barbershop arranging it is commonly called a "tag". One of the most famous codas is found in the 1968 single "
Hey Jude
"Hey Jude" is a song by the English rock music, rock band the Beatles that was released as a non-album single in August 1968. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The single was the Beatles' fir ...
" by
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
. The coda lasted nearly four minutes, making the song's full length at just over the seven-minute mark.
In music notation
In
music notation
Musical notation is any system used to visually represent music. Systems of notation generally represent the elements of a piece of music that are considered important for its performance in the context of a given musical tradition. The proces ...
, the coda symbol, which resembles a set of crosshairs, is used as a navigation marker, similar to the ''
dal segno
In music notation, dal segno (, , ), often abbreviated as D.S., is used as a navigation marker. Defined as "from the sign" in Italian, D.S. appears in sheet music and instructs a musician to repeat a passage starting from the sign shown at ...
'' sign. It is used where the exit from a repeated section is within that section rather than at the end. The instruction "To Coda" indicates that, upon reaching that point during the final repetition, the performer is to jump immediately to the separate section headed with the coda symbol. The symbol can be used to provide a special ending for the final verse of a song.
The ''coda'' sign is encoded in the Musical Symbols block of Unicode as U+1D10C MUSICAL SYMBOL CODA:
PDF of Musical Symbols block from the unicode consortium
/ref> 𝄌
See also
* Coda (ballet)
* Da capo
Da capo ( , , ; often abbreviated as D.C.) is an Italian musical term that means "from the beginning" (literally, "from the head"). The term is a directive to repeat the previous part of music, often used to save space, and thus is an easie ...
* Epilogue
An epilogue or epilog (from Greek ἐπίλογος ''epílogos'', "conclusion" from ἐπί ''epi'', "in addition" and λόγος ''logos'', "word") is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature, usually used to bring closure to the ...
* Fade (audio engineering)
* Repeat sign
In music, a repeat sign is a Musical notation, sign that indicates a section should be repetition (music), repeated. If the piece has one repeat sign alone, then that means to repeat from the beginning, and then continue on (or stop, if the sign a ...
* Transition (music)
Notes
References
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coda (Music)
Auxiliary members
Italian words and phrases
Musical notation
Formal sections in music analysis
Musical terminology