Form
Sonata Form: The Tonal Plot
Sonata form is a tonal argument, not a set of labelled boxes. What matters is which key you are in, and how the music gets home again.
Coda (π)
A closing section added after the main part of a piece, reached by a jump marked with a coda sign.
Also called: coda sign, tail
A coda is a closing section added after the main part of a piece. It is marked with a coda sign (π), and a performer reaches it by a jump instruction, usually To Coda, placed near the end of a repeated section. On the repeat, the performer jumps from the To Coda sign to the coda sign, skipping the material between them, and plays the coda to the end. Codas are common in sonata and rondo forms, where they round off the piece, and a coda often closes on the tonic. A coda is a designated section, not simply the last bar of the piece.
Related terms
- Segno (π)A sign marking a point in the score that a D.S. instruction, dal segno, tells the performer to return to.
- Repeat signA double bar line with two dots that tells the performer to play a section again, often with first and second endings.
- TonicThe first degree of a scale, the note that a key is named for and that tonal music treats as its home and point of rest.
- Bar lineA vertical line through the staff that divides music into measures, with heavier forms marking sections and the end.
Read more
Form
Rondo Form: How Refrains and Episodes Structure a Movement
Rondo form alternates a returning refrain with contrasting episodes. Learn classical key plans, sonata-rondo hybrids, and why refrains return altered.