For instance, consider the opening of Beethoven's Bagatelle, opus 126, no. 1. The main theme is presented. It is then immediately repeated in its entirety. The repetition is embellished: it is more rhythmically active and reaches higher in register. Change is immediate, making the repetition more dynamic and progressive.

Compare the Beethoven to the following passage from Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. In the excerpt, a ruminative melody is presented. Then, after a short wait, the melody returns.

Once again, the transformed version follows closely on the heels of the original. In this case, the changes are almost cataclysmic! The theme is presented more boldly and in a higher register. The texture is ferocious and agitated, with rapid rhythmic figuration and more complex, strident harmony.

The second movement of Schubert's Double Cello Quintet opens with a spare, nearly motionless texture. Melody and harmony move patiently and deliberately.

This section is followed by a strongly contrasting B-section, which is far more agitated and turbulent. The rhythmic motion is dramatically intensified.

Then, the opening section returns. The harmonic progression is identical to the original; the inner voices replay the original melody. However, the cello and upper violin add a more active commentary. The troubled rhythmic intensity introduced during the B-section "bleeds" into the A-section's return, preventing the music from recovering its original stillness. Time has had an effect: the A-section has "absorbed" the influence of the B-section.

As another example, listen to the opening of Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste. The violas, alone, present the movements main theme.

The movement builds to a powerful climax that reaches its peak with the powerful repetition of a single note. The main theme is then broken into fragments and flipped upside down. These reflections have the quality of mysterious reminiscences.

Near the work's close, the music returns to its starting point, and the violas present the theme in its original form.

However, time has had an effect! The theme is not presented in isolation: This time, it is combined with its own mirror image, played in the high violins. Because of the high register, the "upside down" version nearly masks the violas; you have to listen very carefully to hear the original theme. The return is also accompanied by rapid figuration in the celeste, which is playing for the first time. Finally, there is sustained harmony, played in tremolo. As in the Schubert, the transformations recollect and summarize the intervening music: For instance, as was illustrated above, the inverted version of the theme was introduced at the climax. Significant events have left their mark; the music's history is reflected in the changes that have occurred.

One crucial issue to examine is whether the return is abbreviated or expanded. When the return is abbreviated, it can contribute to making the music more dynamic, more active. The return is more efficient, it has been reduced to an essence.

For instance, Brahms' Intermezzo in A-Major opens with the following lyrical section:

After a contrasting section, the A-section recurs in abbreviated fashion.

The third movement of Francis Poulenc's Flute Sonata dramatically compresses its return. The opening of the piece unfolds with a luxurious panorama of ideas, beginning with energetic figuration played by the flute and piano and culminating in a more languorous theme introduced by the piano alone.

At the return, Poulenc presents a dizzying synposis that rushes quickly through the contrasting ideas: The energetic figuration and languorous theme now occur much closer together.

From a structural point-of-view, the result is very dynamic and lively.

Compare these examples with Wagner's Siegfried's Death and Funeral March, in which the theme is expanded when it returns. If the reprise is both expanded and presented with great stability, it creates a particularly emphatic and conclusive sense of arrival.

The opening of Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, “The Great,” begins with a French horn playing alone.

At the end of the work, the entire orchestra plays the theme, powerfully strengthening the return.

In Arnold Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw, the narrator recalls witnessing Jewish prisoners being led away to their deaths. As he describes how the condemned started to sing, a disjunct melody is played quietly by a muted horn.

Later in the work, the narrator’s retelling becomes more immediate and detailed. As he describes the prisoners’ final march, the muted horn’s melody returns—this time sung forcefully by men’s chorus and prolonged into a complete prayer. Time has strengthened the material, giving it an overwhelming emotional impact.

Time can also weaken musical material. The Scherzo of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 begins with a forceful French horn melody.

Later, this passage returns. But instead of strengthening it, time has weakened the material. Now it is played delicately by the winds, supported by plucked strings:

In Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht is an instrumental work inspired by a poem by Richard Dehmel. The poem tells the story of a woman who confesses to her lover that she is carrying another man’s child. The man’s shock and distress is represented by the following theme.

At the poem’s close, the man tells the woman he will love the child as his own. In the music, this is represented by the return of the impassioned theme. But time has had an effect: Only fragments are played, softly in the high register.