BookatlasPiano Rabbit Hole: Improvisation Theory & Practice
16782 / 18210 · Workshop 120 — Writing Complete Endings and Cadences: How to Make a Piece Feel Finished, Suspended, Open, Circular, or Inevitable← prev⊞ allnext →

120.211Conceptual “Mack the Knife”

Repeated-chorus architecture can end in several ways:

  • strongest final chorus and hard cadence
  • sudden stripped final phrase
  • tag with increasing/decreasing density
  • last modulation followed by decisive closure

The important question is:

when has escalation already made its point?

Do not add another chorus merely because:

another modulation is possible.