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A finale is the last movement of a sonata, symphony, or concerto; the ending of a piece of non-vocal classical music which has several movements; or, a prolonged final sequence at the end of an act of an opera or work of musical theatre.

Michael Talbot wrote of the finales typical in sonatas: "The rondo is the form par excellence used for final movements, and ... its typical character and structural properties accord perfectly with those thought desirable in a sonata finale of the early nineteenth century." Carl Czerny (1791–1857) observed "that first movements and finales ought to—and in practice actually do—proclaim their contrasted characters already in their opening themes."

In theatrical music, Christoph Willibald Gluck was an early proponent of extended finales, with multiple characters, to support the "increasingly natural and realistic" stories in his operas that "improved continuity and theatrical validity" beyond the earlier works.

See also

• The vaudeville final

Sources

1. John Alexander Fuller-Maitland, ed. (1890). A Dictionary of Music and Musicians: (A.D. 1450-1889), p. 523, Macmillan and Co.
2. Talbot, Michael (2001). The Finale in Western Instrumental Music, p. 2. ISBN 978-0-19-816695-5.
3. Talbot (2001), p. 2 & 1 n1. Cites: Czerny, Carl (c. 1848). School of Practical Composition, Vol. I, p. 67-69.
4. Koopman, John. "Expressivity 1760–1850", A Brief History of Singing, 1999, Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, accessed June 28, 2012

v t e Musical form and development
Arch form Argument Ausmultiplikation Bar form Binary form Bridge Call and response Cell Coda Conclusion Cycle Cyclic form Developing variation Development Drop Exposition Finale Formula composition Hook Introduction Leitmotif Lick Melody Motif Movement Ostinato Overture Period Phrase Pre-chorus Post-chorus Recapitulation Repetition Reprise Riff Rondo Rondò Section Sonata form Sonata rondo form Song structure Strophic form Ternary form Theme Thirty-two-bar form Through-composed Transition Variation Verse–chorus form

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