# Piece endings



## violadude (May 2, 2011)

A thread about the ending of pieces. What are some of your favorite piece endings? What are piece endings you hate? What makes the ending of a piece good or not good?

Just to be clear, by "ending" I don't mean the whole finale but only the last section of the finale, whatever you think that is.

Personally, I really hate the trend that started roughly around the beginning of the Romantic Era (usually by lesser composers) where the piece has an overly-hyper ending with a billion V-I cadences in a row.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

In J S Bach's Leipzig chorales there are some amazing endings, I've been enjoying them a lot this past week or so. -- I love the dissonances at the end of BWV 658, the way BWV 656 can be almost manic at the end, the way BWV 655 becomes ecstatic in the manuals at the end, when the cantus firmus enters on the pedals. There are more.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Rossini does greatest endings, always a surprise.


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

I agree. So many traditional grand gesture endings simply seem to be say: there, now it's time to applaude!

The fade-out ending of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique never fails to amaze me. The same goes for some other unintentional endings, such as the final bars of the Bruckner 9 Adagio or the unfinished fugue from Bach's Art of the Fugue.

Some Sibelius movements, in the Sixth for instance, also end without much ado about it. Same for some Satie and Debussy piano pieces. They simply end. No fuss about it.

Now, psychologically, I do like the idea of a coda as an end-of-story, good-bye gesture. It gives closure to the piece. However, the exact opposite, the abrupt end, often is just as powerful, only in a different way. Like the open ending of a short story.


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## Andolink (Oct 29, 2012)

I have a special fondness for pieces that just stop rather than have an "ending". It's one of the things I like about Alexander Goehr's music. There's no abruptness about it, it's just that all that needed to be said has been said so why go on? Goehr himself has joked about his chronic inability to write endings but I doubt he really sees it as a failing. His pieces seem to stop just exactly where they should.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Tchaikovksy's 1812
Stravinksy's Firebird
Beethoven's 9th

All overplayed because of the final minute or two.


Agree with an earlier post...Rossini had finales down to an art.


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## ProudSquire (Nov 30, 2011)

As of late, I've found the ending to the first movement of Mozart's G minor piano quartet rather delicious. The last 30-40 seconds or so. The same thing with Schumann's first symphony, perhaps Brahms and Sibelius as well.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

violadude said:


> Personally, I really hate the trend that started roughly around the beginning of the Romantic Era (usually by lesser composers) where the piece has an overly-hyper ending with a billion V-I cadences in a row.


Or Beethoven's penchant for V! -- V! -- V! -- V! -- V! -- V ----V -----*I!* endings. Or maybe they just seem that way.

Looking over my catalog and trying to remember some of the pieces, I find there aren't many endings that I like. I like recapitulations and other climactic moments. But there are few unusual endings that got my attention.

Haydn: Symphony No. 73 in D major, "La chasse," H. 1/73. In spite of my avatar, I'm rooting for the fox. At the end of this symphony the fox escapes and the hunt sort of fizzles out in good-natured disarray.

Mozart: A Musical Joke has a superb ending.

Holst: The Planets - Neptune with the fading out choir is eerie. I love that one.

R. Strauss: Death and Transfiguration has a peaceful satisfying ending.

I'm sure there are others. these are the first to come to mind.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Favorites: Schumann's second symphony with Karajan. Mahler's 9th for the superhuman concentration required to play it so softly.
Brahms Handel Variations. Schumann's Symphonic Etudes and Carnival. Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony. Beethoven's Leonore Overture #3.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Neptune has the closed door fade out, right?

Sibelius 5th has a great ending, IMO.

But generally I agree with those who complain about overdone endings. Maybe if you only hear the piece once in a blue moon, that works, but with recordings and repeated listenings, they often seem like too much. Possibly being weaned on Rock and all those fade outs has had an effect on me as well.


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

GreenMamba said:


> Sibelius 5th has a great ending, IMO.


_Swan calls_ was the first ending to come to mind. The final, 1911 version that is, with the syncopated notes.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Bruckner's Fourth Ends with a flat-II to I cadence that brings together the whole melodic/harmonic world of the piece in a way that's utterly logical and yet completely unexpected, and also compensates for some of the finale's weaknesses (incidentally, Ravel's Bolero also ends with such a cadence).

On a very different note, I love the coda of Shostakovich's Fourth, which ends with an "unanswered question" in the celesta against a near-silent C minor chord in the strings.

Mahler's own Fourth (I didn't intend this, I swear!) drifts away carelessly in the key of E major.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Mahler's Second and Eighth: both overwhelmingly heavenly
Beethoven's Third: the jerking motion gets me PUMPED
Tchaikovsky's Concerto Fantasia: My heart races through to the end
Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto and Second Piano Sonata: very Romantic, and very catchy
" " All Night Vigil: It's so happy it gets stuck in my head all the time!
Liszt's Piano Sonata: Drifts away into the distance
Busoni's Fantasia nach Bach: Same 
Haydn's Farewell Symphony: Same
Bruckner's Ninth: Same
Medtner's Night Wind Sonata: Despite the endless pounding and polyphony before it, the ending is a quite arpeggio that sounds just like the wind
Scriabin's Fifth Piano Sonata: Ends right where it begins
Bach's Goldberg Variations: Same
Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto: WOW
Beethoven's Thirty-Second Piano Sonata: Trills all the way to heaven


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Repeat: Sibelius 5th Symphony watch your conductor when performing!
Beethoven 9th Flurry of violins

Manuel de Falla Ritual Fire Dance from El Amor Brujo I lose count of how many stabs / final chords
Ligeti Violin Concerto New for me, seems other worldly

Tchaikovsky 5th Symphony starts the end sometime before the actual end
Shostakovich 10th Symphony Rock 'n' roll

Stravinsky Firebird Shivers down my spine
Beatles A Day in the Life Cool for rock and roll


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

One of my favorites is the final minute of Schnittke's Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra. A sort of tone row is abstracted out of earlier themes and motives from the work, the piano hitting each of the tones pianissimo with several seconds in between. When each tone is struck, a string instrument(s) emerge(s) from the darkness to extend the pitch. At the end, all twelve tones are sustained in the strings, a cloud pregnant with significance because the memory of how they related to the earlier themes remains. 

Note that the work isn't atonal or serial overall, which makes the conclusion all the more wonderful.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

The last part of the final movement of Mahler's _Das Lied von der Erde_. Breathtaking.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I forgot to mention Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps. A spellbinding ending that leaves me breathless every time!


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Contrapunctus XIV


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Well, I'm going to go against the grain here (as usual) and say I love the Tchaikovsky-style endings. Tchaikovsky certainly loves to drag out the ending of his works sometimes, prime examples being the Symphony No. 4 and Symphony No. 5. Obviously I think some of these "grand finales" can be a bit much, but most of them I like if done well. I love the "drumroll" ending that Tchaikovsky is known for such as at the end of his 4th symphony and The Nutcracker. I've used this type of ending in some music I've written myself. 

The ending to Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" is, in my opinion, one of the greatest finales ever written. It is not over-the-top, yet it is still that amazing "drumroll" ending. It gives me chills and is in my opinion very close to a perfect finale.

I also like finales that quicken and don't take too long with the "drawing out" such as with Rachmaninov's piano concerti. Shostakovich's 10th and 6th symphonies are good examples of that as well. And I also love quiet mysterious endings like Holst's "The Planets" and Shostakovich's 4th.

But the greatest ending in all of classical music, even better than Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet"? 

Scriabin's Poem of Ectasy. A whole of piece of music that leads up to the final chord!


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I'll second Schnittke's Concerto for Piano and Strings, Ravel's Piano Concerto for the left hand also has a very impressive ending. But the first composers that come to mind for me are *Ives* such as in his 1st and 2nd symphonies, and *Joaquin Rodrigo*, in many pieces but some examples:

Rigaudon from Suite for Piano
Toccata for guitar
En Los Trigales


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## schuberkovich (Apr 7, 2013)

Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante, for sheer ridiculousness.


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

Cherubini's Concert Overture--I can't decide whether the last two minutes constitutes a discursive, cadential coda or a humorous device worthy of Haydn. In either case, it's surprisingly witty for such a typically "austere" composer.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Tristan said:


> Scriabin's Poem of Ectasy.


+ Prometheus and Symphony No. 1

Mahler 2 & 8

I also like the ending of Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini. It's fun!


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

^Yes, great point about Rhapsody on a Theme. I was surprised by that ending the first time I heard it. A clever idea Rachmaninov had.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Considering I just listened to it 10 minutes ago... Mahler's 2nd. The whole damn symphony blows me away.


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## LancsMan (Oct 28, 2013)

The long coda to the Finale of Walton's first symphony comes across as pretty impressive when heard live. It's the best bit of this final movement (which as a whole doesn't equal the quality of the first movement).


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

My favourite is Sibelius 5th but that's already been said a few times. I'll also nominate Berlioz's Symohonie Fantastique as a good example of a very dramatic ending.

I also like the faded ending of Tchaikovsky's 6th, as if one is breathing their last breath.

I dislike the ending to Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony. The coda seems rather random in the context of the piece as a whole.

I also find the ending to Dvorak's 9th to be something of a damp squib.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Schumann's Second Symphony conducted by Karajan-end of fourth movement.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances - all that funk and then the ringing tamtam
Prokofiev Piano Concerto 3 - overly shiny and sinister
Schoenberg Chamber Symphony 1 - grunty
Szymanowski Symphony 3 - the massiveness of that chord and the sul pont strings is just epic

Honourable mentions for first movements in Walton 1, Prok 3 and Bruckner 9


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

The end of Das Lied has been mentioned, which basically sets up the beginning of the 9th symphony, which also has a great ending. I also like ending of Strauss' Four Last Songs.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Stravinsky sure had the knack to nail things at an end, often enough with a sort of Apotheosis, i.e. "_the glorification of a subject to divine level."_ (The last section / end of Apollo is designated "Apotheosis.")

I think the ending of _Les Noces_ is a supreme example of this.

So many of his pieces end in a way to set off the feeling you have heard something monumental, as in a large physical edifice, about which nothing more needs saying.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The ending of Le Sacre du Printemps always knocks me for a loop and leaves me thoroughly exhausted.


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

Chopin Nocturne Op. 32 no. 1: All is beautiful, all is sweet, all is peaceful, all is beautiful.... then all is Mahler tragedy. That ending seems to come out of nowhere, although with Chopin nothing truly does. Some editions end on a B major chord, others B minor... a rather "major" editorial difference eh?


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

> Scriabin's Poem of Ectasy. A whole of piece of music that leads up to the final chord!


...By way of far too many repeats of the trumpet theme. Great piece though 

For me the very best ending in all music is that of Mahler's 2nd symphony, but only if it's done right! Too many recordings have feeble organ, &/or bells, &/or absent tam-tams, or are taken too fast which ruin the whole thing for me. I went to see a performance a couple of years back where the 2nd tam-tam was omitted altogether - I was appalled!

Other wonderful endings: Ravel 'La Valse' - winding up to a manic, mechanical fury. Respighi's 'Feste Romane' and Prokofiev's 5th symphony have a similar effect. Also enjoyable bombastic ending include Khachaturians 3 symphonies (the 3rd is so OTT it's simply outrageous), Shostakovich 5th (in the Petrenko/Naxos recording especially); Rachmaninov 'Symphonic Dances' (but only when the tam-tam is allowed to ring on); Janacek 'Sinfonietta' and 'Taras Bulba' (with good, solid organ and audible bells); Hovhaness 11th Symphony - an uplifting and heroic kind of ending.
But it's not all bang-crash-wallop; I also really love the endings of Shostakovich 15th symphony, Mahler's 4th (with those lovely low harp sounds); Bernstein's 'Symphonic Dances from West Side Story' and Respighi's Fountains of Rome'.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Speaking of Chopin, the ending of Ballade 4 deserves a mention (notice the stool knockback ):


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