Everything about Coda totally explained
Coda (
Italian for "tail"; from the
Latin cauda, see below), in
music, is a passage which brings a
movement or a separate piece to a conclusion through
prolongation. This developed from the simple
chords of a
cadence into an elaborate and independent form. In a series of variations on a theme or in a composition with a fixed order of subjects, the coda is a passage sufficiently contrasted with the conclusions of the separate variations or subjects, added to form a complete conclusion to the whole.
Beethoven raised the
coda in his
sonata form movements to a feature of the highest importance, producing a final section of equal musical weight to the foregoing exposition, development and recapitulation sections and completing the musical argument. What is known in rock and popular music as an
outro and in jazz and worship music as a
tag can be considered a coda. See also
fade out.
In
music notation, the
coda symbol is used as a navigation marker, similarly to the
dal Segno sign. It looks like a set of
crosshairs. It is encountered mainly in transcriptions of popular music, and is used where the exit from a repeated section is within that section rather than at the end. The instruction "To Coda" indicated that the performer is to jump to the separate section headed with the symbol.
Charles Burkhart (2005, p.12) 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, is often created by the "working [of] 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."
Cauda
Cauda, the Latin root of
coda, 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: "conductus with cauda", "conductus without cauda"), based on the presence of the melisma. The cauda thus provided a conclusionary role, also similar to the modern coda.
Codetta
Codetta (
Italian for "little tail," the
diminutive 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. Typically, a codetta concludes the
exposition and
recapitulation sections of a work in
sonata form, following the second (
modulated) theme, or the closing theme (if there's 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 also, but sometimes it has its ending slightly changed, depending on whether it leads back to the exposition or into the
development sections.
Examples
The following are examples of a coda embellishing the end of the song.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Coda'.
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