Epilogue
Closing formal section that, e.g. in sonata form, leads calmly into the end of a movement after the second theme.
What it means
The epilogue is a closing formal section that comes after a movement's actual thematic events and calmly prepares its end. In sonata form, the epilogue often follows the second theme at the end of the exposition or recapitulation, rounding off the given formal section sonically without introducing significant new thematic material of its own.
Musical use
The term epilogue is used in formal analysis to describe a section that follows a movement's actual substantive discourse and lets it fade with calmer, often cadential motion, much like an afterword in literature. Such epilogues appear in Classical and Romantic instrumental works, where they provide a more relaxed close to the formal section after an energetic second theme.
An epilogue should be distinguished from a coda, which closes an entire work or movement as an independent final section, often containing its own thematic material, whereas an epilogue usually closes a smaller formal section within a movement. It also differs from a prologue, its introductory counterpart, through its placement at the end rather than the beginning of a section.
Performance practice
When analysing a sonata-form movement, listen specifically for whether a calming, cadential passage follows the second theme without introducing further thematic impulses: this passage can be described as an epilogue. Shape such an epilogue with a deliberately more subdued sound than the preceding theme, for instance through a softer dynamic or a calmer tempo, to make its formal function as a rounding-off audible.