Coda

noun

The usually short concluding segment of a piece of art, especially music
The culminating or ending part of something

Usage

The main reason why dessert is reserved for last in the meal, is to leave you with a sweet flavor to conclude your experience. Even though it is usually the smallest dish served, it's the one you remember the best because it was not only the last, but distinct in taste. Perhaps this is why cultures all around the world mark the end of their meals with a coda of delightful treats.

A coda is the final section to something. While this ordinarily brief ending, originally (and still predominantly) pertained to movements or whole pieces of music, coda has since been appropriated to describe the trailing portion of anything. Outside of its technical musical usage, it is usually applied to verbal or written presentations, or events or ceremonies of some kind.

Because coda refers to a distinct concluding component, it generally only applies to things with identifiable structures. A ceremony, as it has ritual conventions, can very well have a coda, but a meandering, stream-of-consciousness conversation between friends likely does not. It is because coda underscores an end that is plainly observable that it tends to apply to formal functions like speeches and meetings. Similarly, a coda is most often seen in abstract things rather than literal, physical ones. For instance, even though an animal has a clearly identifiable trailing tail, this is not considered a coda.

Whether it is a decadent dessert, a flourish ending to a symphony, name of the last album of your band, a lucid summary of your PhD thesis or the dance of the bride and groom at the end of a wedding - Coda is last but not the least.

Example: In stark contrast to the usual bombastic finish, the coda to Tchaikovsky's Symphony no. 6 in B minor gradually dies away into stunning silence.

Example: At the end of commencement, the graduates tossed their mortarboards, marking a jubilant coda to the formal ceremony.

Origin

In conjunction with its original Italian musical application, coda entered English in the mid-1700s to denote the final part of a piece or movement of music. The Italian form was adapted from the Latin word for a literal animal's tail, cauda.

In Literature

From CNN's "Opinion: Mandela was avatar of upending world":

And so in the death of Mandela comes yet another of his gifts to the world: a reminder not only of what he did but of the stunning changes that swept the world in the time of his triumph. It is a coda to a great life, a reminder to cast aside resignation and defeatism and know that great hearts do exist.

The closing paragraph of CNN's editorial reflection on the life of Nelson Mandela remarks that the occasion of his death served as an impactful closing segment, or coda, that left an inspirational mark on the world and those who seek to work to improve it.

Mnemonic

A coda is where something is concluded.
Coda: Code to stop.

Comments

In music, where the word first saw wide use, coda describes a specific ending section of the structure of a piece or movement of a piece. Though it is usually marked with a symbol (coda mark or coda sign) resembling a crosshair, a circle with two perpendicular lines through it, a coda is defined by its relationship to the music preceding it. A coda does not necessarily have any material from the piece's main melody or theme, and is usually appended onto a musical structure that has already reached completion. For instance, in a sonata, which has two themes, a coda may follow the final appearance of the second theme, after the sonata has properly finished. Thus, codas are not a substitution for a structure's final element, in this case a sonata's finale, but an optional additional one that follows it.