Music that Transcends Its Genre

Putting up "Hey Jude" in my miscellanea reminds me that there are a few, very unusual, pieces that actually transcend their genre (form, structure, whatever). "Hey Jude" is a perfect example. It starts off as a normal pop song in Paul's ballad style, but then arrives at a coda that just goes on and on. I believe it is still the longest song ever to have been a number one hit. It is a three minute song with a four minute coda repeating the "na-na-na" refrain over and over.

Beethoven provides us with two examples, both similar in that the last movement is so extended that it tends to overpower the structure--just like "Hey Jude." The first example is the original last movement to the String Quartet op. 130 which was so poorly received by his publisher that he was compelled to write a shorter, more conventional finale and the original last movement was published separately as the Grosse Fuge op. 133. Nowadays quartets might choose either movement to end the quartet. The Grosse Fuge is a. great, shaggy dog, of a fugue unlike any written by anyone else and it dwarfs the quartet it was the original finale to.

And here is the Quatuor Ebène with the op. 130 Quartet with the fugue as the finale.

The other example from Beethoven is, of course, the last movement to the Symphony No. 9 that has been a huge success since its premiere. Mind you, not everyone agrees, but audiences certainly do. Beethoven broke the mold of the classical symphony by, again, turning the last movement, typically a dance-like finale, into a huge cantata with chorus and soloists in multiple sections. Attempting to top this achievement gave most Romantic period symphony composers severe anxiety!

Are there any other examples where a composer writes a last movement that simply outgrows its form entirely? Oh yes, another very famous one, the last movement of the Partita for Violin No. 2 in D minor is the famous Chaconne. It is as long as the other four movements put together and, with some sets of variations aside, is the longest single instrumental movement of the Baroque era.

I have particular fondness for this piece as it is the only one of the genre-transgenders that I can play on my instrument.

These are all that I can think of right now, though there are some near-misses. All these examples share being the end section or movement of a larger work the rest of which is fairly conventional which they entirely transcend and dwarf. In the 20th and 21st centuries we might find other examples, but they tend not to be part of more conventional works so don't quite fit the pattern. One other I might be tempted to add is the finale to the Symphony No.. 41 by Mozart with, while not very much longer, certainly exceeds the bounds of a symphonic finale in other ways.

Let me know if you think of other examples.