ETYM Late Lat. recapitulatio: cf. French recapitulation.
A summary that repeats the substance of a longer discussion; SYN. recap, review.
In music, the section of sonata form following the development section, in which the themes are presented in a manner similar or identical to the exposition, except that any material which was originally presented in the dominant or any other key, appears in the tonic key. A “false” recapitulation was used at times by Beethoven and 19th-century composers either to present an additional development of musical ideas or to present temporarily the main themes in a key other than the tonic, as in the first movement of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 3 1795.