Definition of "postlude" []

• Music An organ voluntary played at the end of a church service. (noun)
• Music A concluding piece. (noun)
• A final chapter or phase. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Finally, in a "postlude" Sachs recalls his own boyhood discovery -- in Cleveland -- of Beethoven and touches on the composer's importance to him."
• "The organist then begins a short postlude as the congregants greet each other in the pews, laughing and offering hugs and hellos."
• "It ends with a ravishingly beautiful orchestral postlude as Junior, Dinah's mentally ill adult son, embraces her casket."