Of beginnings and ends a corpus-based inquiry into the rise of the recapitulation. Greenberg, Y. Journal of Music Theory, 61(2):171–200, 2017.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
This article investigates the sources of the recapitulation using statistical methods. The recapitulation has traditionally been viewed as an expansion of small ternary forms, resulting in a top-down approach, whereby the repeat of expositional material is explained in rotational terms. Here I present a bottom-up approach, demonstrating that the recapitulation arose as a concatenation between two previously independent practices: the double return of the opening theme in the tonic in the middle of the second half of a two-part form, and the thematic matching between the ends of the two halves of two-part form. Drawing on a corpus of more than seven hundred instrumental works dated 1650-1770, I demonstrate that these two practices arose and functioned independently from each other, increasing in frequency and in length, before being subsumed into an overarching rotational practice.
@Article{          greenberg2017-beginnings,
    author       = {Greenberg, Yoel},
    year         = {2017},
    title        = {Of beginnings and ends a corpus-based inquiry into the
                   rise of the recapitulation},
    abstract     = {This article investigates the sources of the
                   recapitulation using statistical methods. The
                   recapitulation has traditionally been viewed as an
                   expansion of small ternary forms, resulting in a top-down
                   approach, whereby the repeat of expositional material is
                   explained in rotational terms. Here I present a bottom-up
                   approach, demonstrating that the recapitulation arose as a
                   concatenation between two previously independent
                   practices: the double return of the opening theme in the
                   tonic in the middle of the second half of a two-part form,
                   and the thematic matching between the ends of the two
                   halves of two-part form. Drawing on a corpus of more than
                   seven hundred instrumental works dated 1650-1770, I
                   demonstrate that these two practices arose and functioned
                   independently from each other, increasing in frequency and
                   in length, before being subsumed into an overarching
                   rotational practice.},
    doi          = {10.1215/00222909-4149546},
    issn         = {00222909},
    journal      = {Journal of Music Theory},
    keywords     = {Big data,Double return,End-rhyme,Recapitulation,Sonata
                   form,music theory},
    mendeley-tags= {music theory},
    number       = {2},
    pages        = {171--200},
    volume       = {61}
}

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