Codetta

Codetta is a musical term describing a brief, often decorative musical idea that serves as a short closing or transitional figure within a larger work. The word comes from Italian codetta, a diminutive of coda, meaning “little tail.”

In common-practice music, a codetta is shorter than a full coda and functions as a light tag that connects sections or leads into the return of the main material. It may restate a motive, combine fragments of ideas from the surrounding material, or provide a concise cadential gesture that does not constitute a complete closing section. Codettas are especially common in forms such as fugues and sonata form, where they help bridge transitions or signal the approach of the next section. They are typically just a few bars long, and their cadence, if present, is often less definitive than the full cadence that ends a movement.

Relation to other terms: A codetta is distinguished from a coda by its brevity and its role as a transitional or decorative element rather than a formal conclusion. The term is used in music analysis to describe these small, supplementary passages that punctuate a phrase or section without serving as the final ending of the piece.