Cyclicity between movements

Another important device is to bind the movements of a work together by repeating material stated earlier in the work. Schumann's Forth Symphony in D-minor is a very good example of each sucessive movement quoting from the previous ones. More common is that the outer movements quote from each other. Sometimes it is not clear which came first. In Mahler's Symphony #2 in C-Minor "Resurection" versions of the Resurection Hymn are quoted in the minor key in both the first and last movements, of five, but we know from Mahler's own comments that he got the idea for the music as used in the chorus in the end of the finale and worked it into the form of the two outer movements. There is also a working of material evolking the other world or a heavenly place that appears again in the finale within the end of the scherzo ( Movement three ) and as such makes a wonderful foretaste of the trancendant vistas of the finale.

Again, the "fate" motive in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is another famous example being heard in all of the other movements after dominating in the first.

Mahler uses the same technique with the "Cryus Mysticus" in the Second Part of the Eighth Symphony as he does in the "Resurection" although the more important cyclicity of this symphony is between the First Part comprizing one large Sonata Allegro movement with material introduced against the Latin hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus" that is repeated in Part Two which is three other distinct movements played toghther with no breaks. The "Mysticus" theme appears immediately in the beginning of Part Two whose first section functions like an Adagio but transposed in the minor key.