What is coda in music? Definition and features

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

To understand what a code is in music, we will be helped by the translation of this word. The term came to the theory of musical composition from the Italian language. His most memorable translation is "tail". It also translates as "trail" and more prosaically - "the end". It turns out that the coda is the final section of a piece of music. But this explanation is not enough to understand what coda is in music. The definition of the term will become much more complete after getting acquainted with the laws of the structure of musical compositions.

The concept of musical form and its main parts

The question of what is coda in music is answered in detail and scientifically by the musical-theoretical discipline called "Analysis of Musical Works". Or just a musical form.

Any workclassical art is built according to certain canons. In music, one of the elements of its expressiveness is the form of a musical work. Even the simplest piece from Tchaikovsky's "Children's Album" has its own form and is divided into sections. You need to know what these sections are - (it will be easier to understand what a coda is in music): an introduction, an initial section, a middle, a reprise (conclusion), a coda. It turns out that there is actually a final section in music without a coda. It's called a reprise. This section repeats the musical material from the beginning of the piece. What is a coda in music and why is it needed?

Why does a piece of music need a "tail"?

Perhaps, the coda appeared due to the fact that sometimes composers felt some understatement in their works. Then, after the reprise, when, it would seem, the last chord of the work had already sounded, a coda was written. Its function is to prove the unsaid in the work, sometimes to calm the listener, to convince him that this is definitely the end, and sometimes even to consolidate the effect achieved in the previous sections.

Koda: its harmonic and melodic features

So what is coda in music? This is the section following the last one. In order for the coda to remain in the mind of the listener precisely as the final completion, composers resort to the possibilities of musical harmony. This is the doctrine of the structure and connection of chords. Codes very often sound on the tonic organ point. It is a repetition of the tonic of the work(his main note) in the bass voice throughout the section.

The harmonies (i.e. chords) that composers use in codas are called plagal. They sound very soft, do not contain dissonant (sounding sharp, sharp) chords. This enhances the sense of completion. The composer, as it were, shows that all hopes or worries are left behind.

Even in the codes they use the possibilities of developing the melody. Here the composer doesn't need a wide extended melodic line. In order to repeat the main musical theme of the work, there is a reprise. In the code, most often, this main theme begins to split up. The composer divides it into motives. The closer the end of the work, the shorter these motifs become.

Sometimes there are codes that are especially interesting in terms of their musical material. There may not be one bright melody in a work, but several. But if the main theme sounds in the work at least twice (at the beginning and in the reprise), then the melody, for example, the middle, can only sound here and we will not meet again. In this case composers sometimes "remind" about it in the code. It turns out, as it were, the second reprise.

Conclusion

What is a coda in music? This is an optional section of the work, following the reprise and symbolizing its final completion. Sometimes, with the help of a code section, catharsis is achieved or a feeling of utter hopelessness is affirmed. Quite often composers do not write codas, but give their harmonic features to the reprise section. At the same time, it pursuesthe same goal - to create the effect of the final completion. Then they say that the piece of music ended with a reprise with the features of a coda.