Coda with a Final Twist: the Vivace Codetta in the First Movement of Brahms's Cello sonata in F major

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn music theory, a coda is generally understood as an appendage or an epilogue to a musical structure. This is perhaps the reason that, as Joseph Kerman writes, ‘[m]usical analysts who deal with ... sonata‐form movements generally ... do less well ... in accounting for actual musical experience when dealing with codas than with other sections of the form.’The first movement of Brahms's Cello Sonata in F major, Op. 99, is one of the most‐analysed works in the tonal repertoire. Yet its peculiar final twist, the vivace codetta, has drawn little analytical comment. This re‐examination of the Allegro vivace aims to go beyond the ostensibly deeper element of melody and harmony by focussing on how prominent expository surface details (anacrusis, metre, articulation and texture) are manipulated in the vivace codetta. This energetic ending manifests the persistent struggle between duple and triple rhythmic units, as well as the ambiguity between the perceived metre and the notated metre, by synthesising the two main thematic ideas in a sophisticated metrical framework. This approach sheds a new light on the significance of a seemingly negligible ‘coda to a coda’.