# Favorite transition from development to recap



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

A companion thread. I've always been fascinated by how composers get back to the recapitulation in first-movement sonata form. Many try to be quite clever (early Beethoven comes to mind) while others make an absolute production of it -- listen to the first movement of Mendelssohn's Octet! In one case a respected musicologist wrote, "The point of recapitulation in the first movement of the [Beethoven] Ninth is one of the most horrifying moments in music, as the carefully prepared cadence is frustrated, damming up energy which finally explodes in the throttling murderous rage of a rapist incapable of attaining release."

Well, that may be going a bit far! But it's certain that this is a point of special attention by some composers. Any examples you especially like?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

1st movement of Mahler 7 by far!!!!!!!!






From 15:30 in the video


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Very tough one. I feel like I need to listen to almost my entire library to answer with accuracy. Let me get back to you in a couple of years.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Heck! Any of Mozart's piano concertos from #9 through 27.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I like the way in Mahler's 4th at the end of the the development, the orchestra doesn't build to a climax but actually goes to sleep and has to get reawakened by the recap.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Manxfeeder said:


> I like the way in Mahler's 4th at the end of the the development, the orchestra doesn't build to a climax but actually goes to sleep and has to get reawakened by the recap.


I always hear that part as an elision. The orchestra stops part-way through a phrase and comes in part-way through a phrase.

Anyway, I'm fond of the transition in the original version of Bruckner's Third, first movement. That chorale-like passage inspired by Walkure is a stunning moment of stillness after the sturm und drang of the rest of the movement, especially the development section.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

The Retransition (the term for the section that bridges the Development and the Recapitulation) is a very fascinating section of any piece of music, and it's changed a lot over time. In the Classical era, it was always a Dominant Prolongation and the few chords before it that are in preparation (usually a fast downward bass progression that lands on the dominant). In the Romantic era and starting with late Beethoven works, that was for the most part a thrown out convention, and retransitions could be anything. I still think the idea of the Retransition is a lot cooler than it works in real life (considering I'm rarely impressed with that part of the piece).


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Ooh I just remembered! Mendelssohn's E Major violin concerto 1st movement. The thing that bridges the development with the recapitulation is the cadenza.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Mahlerian said:


> I always hear that part as an elision. The orchestra stops part-way through a phrase and comes in part-way through a phrase.


That's a better way of putting it. It's like they start something, say, "Forget it," then pick up a conversation in the middle, as if the development section didn't have any effect. Someone called it anti-sonata.


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