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Here are a few codas I like a lot but not necessarily my favorites since I don't have a list of codas in my head. Some of them I'm not sure actually are codas since the definition is not completely clear to me.
1. Coda in third movement of the Beethoven Sonata Op. 57 2. Last pages of Rondo movement Beethoven Waldstein Sonata Op. 53 where it suddenly gets much faster(Is this a coda?) 3. Last movement of Schumann's Symphonic Variations(Is this a coda?) 4. Last page or last few lines of Schumann's Fantasie Op. 17 5. Coda at end of Schumann's Arabesque
-All four Chopin Ballades -3rd movement of Brahms' 1st piano concerto -I second the 3rd movement of Beethoven Waldstein -4th movement of Brahms' G minor piano quartet -1st movement of Dvorak's second quintet -3rd movement of Prokofiev's 3rd piano concerto -Mendelssohn's Variations Serieuses -Alkan's Concerto for Solo Piano, 3rd movement -Liszt's Sonata in B Minor -Debussy's L'Isle Joyeuse -Saint-Saens' Etude en forme de Valse
Last edited by Orange Soda King; 05/28/1811:23 AM.
Takes me back to when I started learning the piano and the coda was the main reason for wanting to learn the first movement of Beethoven’s Sonata no. 25 op. 79 (specially the way Mr. Barenboim played it). Still gives me goosebumps.
Nice question! I don't know that we've had anything like it before.
In no particular order than how they come to mind:
Chopin B minor Sonata, last movement Chopin Mazurka in C# minor, Op. 50 #3 Chopin Mazurka in C# minor, Op. 30 #4 Chopin Mazurka in Bb minor, Op. 24 #4 (I guess I could do that all day) Chopin G minor Ballade Chopin F minor Ballade Chopin Scherzo #2 (Bb minor) Chopin Scherzo #4 (E major)
BTW, I didn't intend to do only Chopin, that's just how it's coming out.
2. Last pages of Rondo movement Beethoven Waldstein Sonata Op. 53 where it suddenly gets much faster(Is this a coda?)
That last movement coda is crass IMO, not to mention unplayable on a modern piano. Almost as bad aesthetically as the coda to the last movement of the fifth symphony.
But then there's the coda to the first movement of the Waldstein: That's in my top 10, no question. Spine tingling. Wagner was also great at codas; The Ring (Rheingold Entry into Valhalla; Valkure: Loge putting girl to sleep -- the most beautiful music Wagner ever wrote); Seigried: eponymous character finds woman, experiences fear, kisses woman, the rest is history; Gotterdammerung: woman sings, Valhalla collapes, redemption by love), Tristan, Meistersingers, etc.
Piano music? Maybe "L'Ilse joyeuse? Brahms Op. 119 No. 4?
Then there's some other really big stuff, like the coda to the first movement of Beethoven's 5th symphony, last movement of Brahms 4; last movement of Mozart K.488, first movement of Mahler's 9th, the final chorale of Bach's St. John Passion (I know this is not technically a coda, but I think it's a perfect ending to a near perfect work--see video, with apologies for the highly baroque tuning), Das Lied von der Erde, Schoenberg's Verklaerte Nacht (starting with the D major bit), etc.
2. Last pages of Rondo movement Beethoven Waldstein Sonata Op. 53 where it suddenly gets much faster(Is this a coda?)
Yes.
Originally Posted by pianoloverus
3. Last movement of Schumann's Symphonic Variations(Is this a coda?)
No.
I was quite sure that #2 was a coda but far less sure about #3. But exactly why is #3 not a coda? Is it because it is named and written as a separate piece? Too long? I thought it might be a coda because, as far as I know it is not a variation on the opening theme.
Great job there -- including that it's the first one you mentioned!! I feel bad not mentioning it myself, considering that I mentioned a thousand other mazurkas.
I do consider the coda of this lesser-known mazurka to be one of the truly great codas in the piano literature. BTW it's about 1/3 as long as the whole piece up to there, and fully as long as the basic material of the piece.
P.S. Apropos of your user name, might as well say, nobody has mentioned the Barcarolle yet. It's gotta be on the list.
When is the ending of a piece just the ending and not a coda? How different does the end of a piece have to be from the rest of the piece to be considered a coda? Can a coda be only a small number of measures?
For example the last few measures of the Brahms Romance Op. 118(?) seem related to the rest of the piece but, if I remember correctly, have some beautiful harmonic changes. Is this a coda or just and ending?
Are the some endings that are in a grey area about being a coda or not?
....Are the some endings that are in a grey area about being a coda or not?
Not that I think you were looking for my answer on this but....
The answer is "Sure." Although I would have said gray rather than grey.
This is a mildly traumatic matter for me. In 4th grade, on a spelling test I wrote "grey," and the teacher marked it wrong. I could have sworn I'd seen it spelled "grey." Later I learned that grey is indeed all right; it's sometimes considered the British way. Anyway I've never quite gotten over the trauma of Mrs. McDermott taking away the 4 or 5 points or whatever it was for my spelling it grey, and so, darned if I'm gonna spell it that way again, although I'm always tempted to do it out of spite.
When is the ending of a piece just the ending and not a coda? How different does the end of a piece have to be from the rest of the piece to be considered a coda? Can a coda be only a small number of measures?
For example the last few measures of the Brahms Romance Op. 118(?) seem related to the rest of the piece but, if I remember correctly, have some beautiful harmonic changes. Is this a coda or just and ending?
Are the some endings that are in a grey area about being a coda or not?
Excellent questions. I think I was guilty of incorrectly citing what are really just cool endings as codas earlier in the thread; for example, the end of "Twilight of the Gods" is a denouement, not a coda, and the final chorale of the St. John Passion is, well, the final chorale of the St. John Passion (though I still think it has some of the properties of a coda). So well done for keeping us honest about this.
Regarding "small" codas, you would think those would qualify as "codettas". However, codetta has a more precise meaning, generally applicable to the end of sonata expositions or fugue subject entries. Maybe we should have a thread about great codettas? I think the end of the exposition of the first movement of the Jupiter symphony would be one.
One final point. I would suggest that Beethoven's emancipation of the coda as a significant structural element in its own right occasionally took things too far. I believe that the enormous (monstrous?) coda to the last movement of the fifth symphony is, notwithstanding Charles Rosen's valiant attempts at justification, a perfect musical example of the tail wagging the dog.
