Overview
In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any repeated section, such as is indicated by beginning and ending repeat signs.
A partial or abbreviated reprise is known as a petite reprise. In Baroque music this usually occurs at the very end of a piece, repeating the final phrase with added ornamentation.
Song reprises
Reprise can refer to a version of a song which is similar to, yet different from, the song on which it is based. One example could be "Time", the fourth song from Pink Floyd's 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon, which contains a reprise of "Breathe", the second song of the same album. Another example could be "Solo", the fifth song from Frank Ocean's 2016 album Blonde, and then "Solo (Reprise)", the tenth song of the same album. Be Here Now, the 1997 album by Oasis, features a reprise of "All Around the World", while Tally Hall's "A Lady", the 8th song from the 2011 album "Good & Evil", is a reprise of "&", the second song from the same album.
Musical theater
In musical theatre, reprises are any repetition of an earlier song or theme, usually with changed lyrics and shortened music to reflect the development of the story. Also, it is common for songs sung by the same character or regarding the same narrative motif to have similar tunes and lyrics, or incorporate similar tunes and lyrics. For example, in the stage version of Les Misérables, a song of the primary antagonist ("Javert's Suicide") is similar in lyrics and exactly the same in tune to a soliloquy of the protagonist when he was in a similar emotional state ("What Have I Done?"). At the end of the song, an instrumental portion is played from an earlier soliloquy of the antagonist, in which he was significantly more confident. Les Misérables in general reprises many musical themes..
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