Reprise

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In music a reprise (ruh-PREEZ; it does not rhyme with "surprise") is the repetition or return of the opening material later in a composition such as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though it originally (18th century) was simply any repeated section, such as is indicated by beginning and ending repeat signs. (Stein 2005, p.331)

Reprises are common in musical theatre, where earlier songs are often repeated, usually with slightly changed lyrics to reflect the development of the story. Also, it is common for songs sung by the same character or regarding the same literary motif to have similar tunes, or incorporate similar tunes. For example, in the stage version of Les Misérables, a song of the primary antagonist is similar in both tune and lyrics to a soliloquy of the protagonist when he was in a similar emotional state. 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. In the musical The Music Man, the love song Goodnight My Someone uses the same basic melody as the rousing march and theme song Seventy-Six Trombones. And in Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat, the song Ol' Man River is reprised three times after it is first sung, as if it were a commentary on the situation in the story.

Reprise can also refer to a version of a song which is similar to, yet different from, the song which it is based on. The Beatles had both "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" on their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Another example is the acoustic Neil Young song "My My, Hey Hey" being repeated at the end of his 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps in electric form as "Hey Hey, My My". Triumph's album Rock 'N' Roll Machine featured the song Street Fighter and the more mellow Street Fighter (Reprise). On the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets, a reprise of the third track, "The Last Stop", can be heard at the end of the final track of the album. Sublime, a ska punk band, has a reprise of the famous song "What I Got" on the 16th track of their 3rd self-titled album. Dream Theater's sixth studio album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence has About to Crash and its reprise, About to Crash (Reprise). In Pearl Jam's 8th album, Pearl Jam the song Life Wasted is modified and added as Wasted Reprise. In some musicals, a reprise of an earlier song is sung by a different character than whom originally sang it, and with different lyrics. A more contemporary example is from the 2007 album Soundboy Rock, by Groove Armada, where the track 'What's Your Version?' is given a reprise.

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Last updated on Tuesday February 05, 2008 at 15:40:49 PST (GMT -0800)
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