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.