Framing Device - Compared To Reprise

Compared To Reprise

In musical sonata form or rondo, a theme occurs at the beginning and end of the work, or returns periodically. This could most simply be a recurrence or restatement of a melody or song. For example, the Beatles song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" works as a framing device for their album of the same name, appearing at the beginning and end of the album. Other albums with similar devices include Paul McCartney & Wings' Band on the Run, the recurring heartbeats in Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here ("Shine On You Crazy Diamond"), Supertramp's Crime of the Century (the harmonica riff at the beginning of "School" is reprised at the end of the title track), and Spirit's Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus ("You have the world at your fingertips/No one can make it better than you"). Another is Junior Senior's 'D-D-D-Don't Stop The Beat' album which ends with a reprise of the first notes from the opening track. The closing track of Genesis' Selling England by the Pound is a reprise of the opening track "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight."

A reprise may be expressed in narrative: at the beginning and the end of the movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Clint Eastwood's character shoots the noose to save his partner from hanging.