Coda
Closing section of a piece or movement; also the sign that directs a jump to it.
What it means
Coda, Italian for “tail,” denotes the concluding section of a piece or movement, added beyond its main formal course to bring it to a close. It follows the last regular repetition of a formal section, for instance after the recapitulation in sonata form, and serves to resolve remaining tension and confirm the ending.
In the notation
In notation, the coda sign 𝄌, a circle with a cross, marks the point a performer jumps to and the point jumped from. It usually appears in pairs, one at the point in the piece where the jump occurs, one at the start of the coda itself, often paired with an instruction such as al Coda or D.C. al Coda.
Musical use
Codas range from a few closing bars that little more than reinforce a cadence to extended, self-contained sections that introduce new thematic material and pass through a small form of their own, as is especially common in Beethoven's late sonata movements and symphonies. In such cases the coda takes on functions otherwise associated with the development section, such as the further working-out of themes.
The coda should be distinguished from the codetta, a smaller closing gesture that can already appear within the exposition and rounds off a formal section without ending the whole piece. It differs from a cadence in that it is a formal section with its own extent, whereas a cadence refers only to the harmonic closing progression itself.
Performance practice
When you play a coda, shape it so it reads as the goal of the whole piece: build tension once more rather than letting it fade prematurely, and treat the final chord as a deliberate, conclusive ending, for example through a broadened tempo or heightened dynamic where the performance markings suggest it.