Cesar Franck
Violin Sonata

A cyclic piece of music is a multi-movement composition in which themes from one movement reappear in later movements. This didn't happen much at all in the height of the classical era (e.g. Mozart, Haydn). Except for mood and close key relationships, movements could almost be mixed and matched between symphonies and you wouldn't know it. One of the earliest examples of explicitly cyclic music is Beethoven's 5th symphony (written between 1804 and 1808). Yes, too popular and over-played, but nonetheless it's astonishing how frequently that 4-note motif hammers its way through the entire symphony. It's almost constant, yet it never gets boring- quite the opposite - exciting. Sometime as your homework - go listen to all of Beethoven's 5th, all movements, and just listen for that 4-note motif that it opens with. How often do you hear it?

Do you ever ask the question: if you were stuck on an island for the rest of your life with one piece of music to play, what would it be? What is your absolute favorite piece of music ever written? (For me, maybe I'd pick The Ring only because it's 19 hours!!! so that's kind of cheating.... :D

Among my TOP favorite pieces of music is the Franck Violin Sonata. (We used to call it The Frank Sinatra). Many many reasons it grabs me and fills me with joy; but one of them is that it is explicitly cyclic. I love cyclic music. There's something about the feeling of 'returning home' to a long-lost distant place and time, the feeling of closure and cohesiveness, when themes bind together a long multi-movement work.

I want to point out a few examples of how the themes recur and transform throughout.

This theme comes back in different guises, moods, textures, in all the other 3 movements.

The next example isn't really a cyclic example (because it's all taken from the 4th movement), but it's just a very cool instance of thematic transformation. In this case a little snippet of a melody (or motif) is used in a completely different way.

There's a lot more in this glorious sonata to be discovered. The above is only a small sample. Listen to the piece yourself and find more instances of recurring cyclic themes and the rest of its magic.