ABSTRACT
This chapter presents episode and refrain, and rondo form. Along with sonata form, another popular format for extended movements in the Classical period and beyond was the rondo. The rondo principle involves a theme that recurs as a refrain interspersed with digressions called episodes. Refrains and episodes may be linked by transitions and retransitions, and the piece or movement may end with a coda. In the classical style, refrains are often folk-like melodies with balanced phrases that produce symmetrical periods. The intervening episodes are harmonically explorative, often in mediant relationships to the refrain. The theme in the movement is a beautifully lyric melody marked “Adagio cantabile,” consisting of two four-measure contrasting phrases, the first ending with a half cadence, the second ending with a perfect authentic cadence.
