In the important matter of the repeat of the first section of a movement in sonata-form, we find the master, for the most part, adhering to the custom delivered unto him by his predecessors. And yet there were two strong reasons why he might have been tempted to depart from it. The repetition was a survival from the old dance movements in binary form. E. Bach, Haydn, and Mozart not only repeated, but introduced various kinds of ornaments, and even harmonic changes; and they expected performers to do the same. Beethoven, however, allowed no such licence--one, indeed, which in the hands of ordinary pianists would be calculated to spoil rather than to improve the music. Part, then, of the _raison d'etre_ of the repeat ceased to exist. But a still stronger temptation to suppress it must have been the _programme_ or _picture_ which Beethoven had in his mind when he composed. The repeat, now become almost an empty form, must have proved at times a fetter to his imagination. In many ways he was bold; but in this matter strangely conservative. It was only in the sonata in F minor, Op. 57, that he first ventured to omit the repeat. It is not to be found in the opening movements of Op. 90 or Op. 110, yet in his last sonata (Op. 111) the composer almost seems as if he wished to atone for his previous sins of omission. He had evidently not settled the question one way or the other; but the fact that in three of his most poetical works he departed from custom, deserves note. Before his time the repeat, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, seemed irrevocably fixed. Beethoven added important introductions or codas, or even both, to some of the movements of his sonatas. Codas are to be found in the sonatas both of Haydn and Mozart, but not introductory movements; the idea of the latter, however, did not originate with Beethoven. The Grave which opens the "Pathetique" (Op. 13) does not merely throw the listener into the right mood for the Allegro, but the opening phrase-- [Music illustration] is afterwards made use of in the development section-- [Music illustration] and, later on, it occurs in double augmentation. The _maestoso_ which ushers in the Allegro of the last sonata contains foreshadowings which are better felt than explained. At times the codas of Haydn are interesting,--as, for example, the one at the end of the first movement of his "Genziger" Sonata in E flat,--yet they do not present the thematic material in any new or striking light. With Beethoven it is different. In the Sonata in E flat (Op. 7) not only is there contrapuntal working, but the principal theme, just at the close, is, as it were, rounded off, completed. Similar treatment may be seen in the first movement of the Sonata in D (Op. 10, No. 3) (here the effect is intensified by contrary motion); also in the Allegro of Op. 13, and other sonatas; the opening movement of Op. 57 offers a striking illustration.