# Repeats in Music.



## David C Coleman (Nov 23, 2007)

Hi, I'm wondering what folk think about repeats in , especially Baroque, Classical and early Romantic music? It seems that the performing of music seems to go through phases and fashions. For example. If you bought a set of Mozart or Beethoven symphonies by a conductor say forty years ago (eg. Karl Bohm, Herbert Von Karajan). The repeats of the exposition, develpoment sections and so on are kept to minimum. Buy a set of Mozart sympnonies recorded in the 1990's (eg. Trevor Pinnock and the English Consort). Then virtually everything is repeated. I know that some reapeats do make the music seem bloated and drawn out. Two good examples of this are the Final movements of Schubert's Great "C" Major Symphony and Beethoven's Fifth. 
My questions are what are the composers requests of their own music? Surely if we want to recreate this wonderful music as acurately as possible, then the repeats should be played.
What do other people think??..


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## BuddhaBandit (Dec 31, 2007)

I like repeats in Baroque music, because one of the major facets of Handel's, Monteverdi's, Purcell's, etc. work was in strengthining the theme (subject) through repitition. Oftentimes, the myriad voices in a fugue or canon obscure the first and second subjects, so repitition is necessary (especially in many of Bach's complex fugues). However, I can't get into repeats in Classical- or Romantic-era music. Beethoven's symphonies and quartets, for example, hinge on steadily increasing tension and drama, some of which would be lost with repeats.


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## Ephemerid (Nov 30, 2007)

Buddhabandit, I agree with you on the repeats in classical and romantic pieces. My understanding is that the repeats of the exposition in first movements were a matter of 19th century convention -- they are not actually written in the score.  

I personally find the repeat of the exposition in sonata-allegros to be a bit redundant myself...

~josh


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