# 18 — REPEAT SIGNS

My students frequently ask me, “Teacher Matthew, do I have play the repeats in this piece?” I give them the short answer, “In competitions and auditions, no. In recitals and recording sessions, yes.” To spare my students the pain of their teacher’s unhealthy fascination with music theory and history, I’ll write out the long answer and summarize my thoughts regarding repeat signs in the music.

For competitions and auditions, the target audience is a panel of judges who need to evaluate the performances of several candidates, so the omission of repeats is necessary for keeping everything on schedule. I suppose the inclusion of the repeat wouldn’t necessarily affect the outcome of the competition or audition, but it might delay lunch break for the judges. Those last few performers will have to play fantastically for a group of hungry people. Or, better yet, the repeated passages must be equivalent to or better than the first time of playing said passages. For example, the exposition section of a sonata-allegro movement usually has a repeat sign. If the performer played the exposition with an 8/10 rating and decided to take the repeat, then he must play the exposition again with an 8/10 rating or better. High risk, low reward; might as well skip the repeat.

In recitals and recording sessions, of course the repeat signs must be taken. The most straightforward reason is that the composers wrote them, and that should be enough justification for the performers to play the repeats. However, there is one specific genre of repertoire that requires a more theory-based explanation — Themes with variations. Here are some examples of such pieces: J. S. Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations, Mozart’s Variations on “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” and the second movement of Beethoven’s final piano sonata. As the name of the genre suggests, the structure is pretty straightforward: The music begins with a simple statement of the theme, and each subsequent variation represents a different “version” of the theme. Let’s take the third movement of Beethoven’s (1770-1827) 30th Piano Sonata, Op. 109 as an example. The theme consists of 16 measures and is presented in continuous binary form AB. Section A, mm. 1-8 has a repeat symbol. Section B, mm. 9-16 also has a repeat symbol. So, in fact, the theme has 32 measures total with the repeat symbols taken into account. The first and fourth variations also have 32 measures each. Yes, there are repeat symbols and things get a little weird with first-ending and second-ending markings, but, trust me — everything adds up to 32 measures within each of those variations. The second and third variations also have 32 measures each; however, there are no repeat symbols. So, imagine that the pianist omitted the repeat symbols from the third movement of Beethoven’s Op. 109. If he did that, then the variations wouldn’t make any sense structurally. There would be no consistency in the duration of each variation following its theme. With the omission of repeats, the theme and first variation would be only sixteen (16) measures each, and variations 2 and 3 would have 32 measures each.

Now, you’re probably wondering, “Why do those specific variations or whatever lack repeat symbols?” It’s because the music is not exactly copy-and-paste from one quadrant to the next. Let’s rewind to the early-mid-1700s, when a certain composer named Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was still writing music. Much of his oeuvre contains repeat symbols, and it was common practice in the Baroque period for performers to add musical ornaments of their choice after taking the repeats (in order to, you know, make the music sound interesting when playing something the second time, of course). Can you imagine if Bach omitted the repeat symbols, manually copied and pasted the same notes, and wrote out the ornaments? That would be a lot of time, ink, paper, and effort, I imagine. So Bach was probably like, “Eh, I’ll just save some time and put the repeat symbols. Everyone knows you’re supposed to add ornaments when playing something the second time. Duh; it’s common Baroque performance practice.” Anyway, back to the third movement of Beethoven’s Op. 109 — variations 2 and 3 structurally function the same way. Let’s take the 32-measure variation 3, for example. MM. 1-8 are almost the same as mm. 9-16, and mm. 17-24 are almost the same as mm. 25-32. Why “almost” the same and not “exactly” the same? Here’s the answer: MM. 9-16 and mm. 25-32 are slight variations of mm. 1-8 and mm. 17-24, respectively. Wait, that’s like saying there are variations within the variation itself! I think I just solved the riddle of repeat symbols here. Anyway, back to the original theme: There are sixteen (16) measures manually written out, but there are repeat symbols at measures 8 and 16. If Beethoven did the extra work of omitting the repeat symbols and copying-and-pasting the same notes, then it would just be more ink on paper. Either way, the music would temporally be 32 measures, assuming the performer obeys the repeat symbols.

If I were a judge at the Van Cliburn Competition and if a candidate omitted the repeats in the third movement of Beethoven’s 30th Piano Sonata, Op. 109, then I would automatically not consider that performer for advancement to the next round. Sure, maybe some of the other judges wouldn’t mind, but I would be disappointed in them even more. Like, come on — the structural consistency of the theme and its subsequent variations would sound so much better and be objectively correct. I want to hear the whole piece in its entirety, with all repeats taken! The only exception, however, is if the performance is so bad and painful to listen to; in that case, I’ll hope for the musician to omit the repeats in order to keep the program mercifully short. The recording that I have to share with you, though, is fantastic. It took a while when searching on YouTube for the third movement as an individual video, but I found one by a pianist named Ellen Pavliska. Her recordings of other pieces are fantastic, and I highly recommend you listen to them. Enjoy her performance of the third movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109.