Cyclic form

Cyclic form is a technique of musical construction, involving multiple parts or movements, in which a theme, melody, or thematic material occurs in more than one movement as a unifying device. Sometimes a theme may occur at the beginning and end (for example, in the Brahms Symphony No. 3); other times a theme occurs in a different guise in every part (Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique).

Examples can be found in the seventeenth century, for instance in the suites of dances by Samuel Scheidt in which a ground bass recurs in each movement. Typically the term applies to music of the nineteenth century and later, though, most famously including the Cesar Franck Symphony in D Minor, the Symphonie Fantastique, and numerous works by Franz Liszt. By late in the century, cyclic form had become an extremely common principle of construction, most likely because the increasing length and complexity of multiple-movement works demanded a unifying method stronger than mere key relation.

Usually the term is not applied to works in which there may be a thematic resemblance only (most famously, the occurrence of the triplet figure in the third movement of the Beethoven Symphony No. 5, which recalls the opening theme, is not considered to be an example of cyclic construction, since it is more a reminiscence than a full thematic statement).