back, by a dramatic change, into the home-key of the third part.
One of the most interesting studies in the workings of a great
mind is to observe how Beethoven, in his developments, allows
the excitement to subside and yet never entirely die out, and
how deftly he leads the hearer onward to the summing up of the
main themes of the exposition.
[Footnote 99: It was probably a development of this kind which
called forth the characteristic comment from Debussy who once
remarked to a friend at a concert, “Let us flee! he is going to
develop.”]
(3) The Recapitulation or Résumé, in which both the themes of
the Exposition are reasserted, each in the home key—a strong
final emphasis thus being laid onUnityof Tonality. The bridge-
passage has to be correspondingly changed, for now the modula-
tion is between two themesbothin thesame key. To achieve such
a modulation is quite a “tour de force” as every musician knows,
and often taxed the ingenuity even of the great Beethoven. The
skill by which he always made the second theme sound fresh and
vital is astounding. For a case of “academic fumbling”—mere
treading of water—in this adjustment of key relationship, see
the Recapitulation of the first movement of Brahms’s Second
Symphony. To secure unbroken continuity and to avoid vain
repetitions[100] there is no portion of the Sonata-Form which
has been more modified by the inventive genius of modern com-
posers and by the tendency exemplified in the Symphonic Poem
(to be explained in due season). The general validity of Re-
statement, as shown in the Recapitulation of the Sonata-Form,
cannot be questioned; for that depends, as so often pointed out,
upon the human craving to enjoy once more, after intervening
contrast, something which has originally given pleasure. Fur-
thermore this sound psychological principle finds an analogy in
our own life: with its early years of striving, its middle period
of development and its closing years of climactic retrospect and
satisfaction. There is a corresponding structural treatment in
the dénoûment of a drama. In the classic composers, the Reca-
pitulation is almost always a literal repetition of the Exposition,
although Beethoven began to be freer,e.g., in the climax of the
Coriolanus overture, where he modifies the form to meet the
dramatic needs of the subject.[101] Modern composers, how-
ever, have felt that much of this repetition was superfluous; and
when they do repeat both themes, one or the other is freely