In a track listing or live setlist, a reprise is the reappearance of an earlier song or melodic theme.
Many albums feature a reprise of the opening track as the last track of the recording. Typically the reprise is not exactly like the original, but transformed in some significant way. One example is John Zorn’s The Gift, in which the opening tune “Makahaa” reappears at a faster tempo at the end of the album.
In musical theater, a reprise is any recurrence of a theme or song. Reprises are very common in musicals, where characters often have their own themes that reappear throughout the performance, transformed in ways that reflect the situation.
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