Composing the Coda: An Empirical Study Identifying Prototypical Symphonic Sonata-Form Codas in the Works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven

This thesis offers a new approach to the study of the coda in one of the most familiar topics in the field of music: the study of sonata form in the works of Haydn, Mozart and Bee-thoven. As with all fresh approaches, it draws from several current works on this subject, whilst also providing new views on the coda and approaches to multi-movement and multi-work analysis. In addition to considering the study of the coda using a prototype-statistical methodology, this thesis provides a foundation for examining works and genres by composers beyond the thesis sample.

From one perspective, this thesis is a research report outlining the findings from the analysis of 333 individual sonata-allegro and sonata-rondo movements by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. However, this work does not only represent a significant analytical undertaking: it also identifies patterns in the composition of the coda, establishing generalisations previously thought not to exist. Although the theoretical discussion of the eighteenth and nineteenth cen-turies is important, the preference in this thesis, like Hepokoski’s and Darcy’s Elements, is to let the composers themselves teach us how codas work (2006, p. v).

The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part, Chapters One and Two, outlines the reason for a fresh perspective on the coda and the approach undertaken. In the second part, Chapters Three and Four, eight methods for identifying a coda are established. This is fol-lowed by a numerical survey of the sample of sonata-form movements, discussing the four different methods of achieving movement closure (including the use of a coda) and the three methods used to integrate a coda (when present) into the recapitulation. The third part, Chap-ters Five, Six and Seven, explores the organisation of the coda in the symphonic first and final sonata-form movements by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, establishing prototype parameter baselines with which to compare, numerically, each individual coda from its respective com-poser sample. The final chapter (Chapter Eight) amalgamates the findings of the thesis, creat-ing a definition of the coda based on the generalisations