Reprise

In music, a reprise (/rpriz/ r-PREEZ)[1] is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material
later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, thoughoriginally in the
18th centurywas simply any repeated section, such as is indicated by beginning and
ending repeat signs.[2]
Contents

1 Song reprises
o

1.1 Examples of song reprises in music albums

1.2 Music theater

2 In literature

3 See also

4 References

Song reprises[edit]
Reprise can refer to a version of a song which is similar to, yet different from, the song on
which it is based.[citation needed] One example could be "Time", the fourth song from Pink Floyd's
1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon, which contains a reprise of "Breathe", the second
song of the same album.

Examples of song reprises in music albums[edit]

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

Genesis - Selling England by the Pound

Dancing With the Moonlit Knight

Aisle of Plenty

Pink Floyd - The Wall

In the Flesh?

In the Flesh

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

Exchange

(Exchange)

David Bowie - Diamond Dogs

Sweet Thing

Sweet Thing (Reprise)

Oasis - Be Here Now

All Around the World

All Around the World (Reprise)

Prince - Graffiti Bridge

New Power Generation

New Power Generation (Pt. II)

The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die

Omen

Omen Reprise

Queen - Made In Heaven

It's A Beautiful Day
It's A Beautiful Day (Reprise)

Queen + Paul Rodgers - The Cosmos Rocks

Small

Small reprise

Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys!

The Birds

Anastacia - Freak Of Nature

Overdue Goodbye

Overdue Goodbye (Reprise)

Midlake - Antiphon

Provider

Provider Reprise

OM - Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage (Reprise)

Suzanne Vega - Solitude Standing

Tom's Diner

Tom's Diner (Reprise)

Groove Armada - Soundboy Rock

"What's Your Version?"

"What's Your Version?" (Reprise)

Sublime - Sublime

What I Got

What I Got (Reprise)

Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

Prince Ali (By Genie)

The Birds (Reprise)

Prince Ali (By Jafar)

Heart - Dreamboat Annie

Dreamboat Annie (Fantasy Child)

Dreamboat Annie

Dreamboat Annie (Reprise)

Eagles

Wasted Time (Song)

Wasted Time (Reprise)

Music theater[edit]
In musical theatre, reprises are any repetition of an earlier song or theme, usually with
changed lyrics to reflect the development of the story. Also, it is common for songs sung by the
same character or regarding the same narrative motif to have similar tunes and lyrics, or
incorporate similar tunes and lyrics. For example, in the stage version of Les Misrables, a
song of the primary antagonist ("Javert's Suicide") is similar in lyrics and exactly the same in
tune to a soliloquy of the protagonist when he was in a similar emotional state ("What Have I
Done?"). 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. Les Misrables in general reprises
many musical themes.[citation needed]
Often the reprised version of a song has exactly the same tune and lyrics as the original,
though frequently featuring different characters singing or including them with the original
character in the reprised version. For example, in The Sound of Music, the reprise of the title
song is sung by the Von Trapp children and their father, the Captain; whereas the original was
sung by Maria. In "Edelweiss" (reprise), the entire Von Trapp family and Maria sing and are
later joined by the audience, whereas the original features Liesl and the Captain. [citation needed]
Also, in the musical The Music Man, the love song "Goodnight My Someone" uses the same
basic melody (though with a more ballad quality to it) as the rousing march and theme song
"Seventy-Six Trombones"; in the reprised versions, Harold and Marian are heard singing a
snatch of each other's songs.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] In some musicals, a reprise of an earlier song
is sung by a different character from the one who originally sang it, with different lyrics.

In literature[edit]
In postmodernism, the term reprise has been borrowed from musical terminology to be used in
literary criticism by Christian Moraru:
... with postmodern authors or scriptors, representation-as-repetition challenges
representation-as-origination. They set forth the alternate model of an esthtique du
recyclage [aesthetic recycling] ... Anything but "neoclassical" or humbly imitative, driven by a
complex cultural-aesthetic agenda, this model plays upon discriminate and polemical

"repetition," upon a critical reprise, to borrowor reprise, in my turna term from music and
adapt it to underscore the strategic difference toward which postmodernism's repetitive acts
are frequently geared. ... postmodernism's self-acknowledged reprises ever so
often surprise us with their unexpected plot twists, media mixes, and oder deflections,
inflections, and irreverent revisions, both textual and contextual, sociocultural.
Christian Moraru, [3]
From the postmodern perspective, reprise is a fundamental device in the whole history of art.

See also[edit]

Cover version, a new version of a song originated by a different artist.