In
Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the
melody
A melody (from Greek language, Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a Linearity#Music, linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most liter ...
or
harmony
In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...
creates a sense of full or partial
resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.
[ Don Michael Randel (1999). ''The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', pp. 105-106. .] A harmonic cadence is a
progression of two or more
chord
Chord may refer to:
* Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously
** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning
* Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve
* Chord ( ...
s that
concludes a
phrase,
section, or
piece of
music
Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...
. A rhythmic cadence is a characteristic
rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed ...
ic pattern that indicates the end of a phrase.
A cadence can be labeled "weak" or "strong" depending on the impression of finality it gives. While cadences are usually classified by specific chord or
melodic progressions, the use of such progressions does not necessarily constitute a cadence—there must be a sense of closure, as at the end of a phrase.
Harmonic rhythm plays an important part in determining where a cadence occurs.
Cadences are strong indicators of the
tonic or central pitch of a passage or piece.
The
musicologist
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...
Edward Lowinsky proposed that the cadence was the "cradle of
tonality
Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is cal ...
".
US and British nomenclature
Cadence names may differ between US usage and British usage. This article follows US usage.
Common classifications
Cadences are divided into four main types, according to their harmonic progression: ''authentic'' (typically ''perfect authentic'' or ''imperfect authentic''), ''half'', ''plagal'', and ''deceptive''. Typically, phrases end on authentic or half cadences, and the terms ''plagal'' and ''deceptive'' refer to motion that avoids or follows a phrase-ending cadence. Each cadence can be described using the
Roman numeral system
Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...
of naming
chords
Chord may refer to:
* Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously
** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning
* Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve
* Chord ...
.
Authentic cadence
An authentic cadence is a cadence from the
dominant chord (V) to the
root chord (I). A
seventh above the root may be added to create a
dominant seventh chord
In music theory, a dominant seventh chord, or major minor seventh chord, is a seventh chord, usually built on the fifth degree of the major scale, and composed of a root, major third, perfect fifth, and minor seventh. Thus it is a major triad ...
(V
7), and the dominant chord may be preceded by a
cadential chord. ''The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' says, "This cadence is a microcosm of the tonal system, and is the most direct means of establishing a pitch as tonic. It is virtually obligatory as the final structural cadence of a tonal work."
Authentic cadences are generally classified as either ''perfect'' or ''imperfect''. The phrase ''perfect cadence'' is sometimes used as a synonym for ''authentic cadence'' but can also have a more precise meaning depending on the chord
voicing.
Perfect authentic cadence
In a perfect authentic cadence (PAC), the chords are in
root position
The root position of a chord is the voicing of a triad
Triad or triade may refer to:
* a group of three
Businesses and organisations
* Triad (American fraternities), certain historic groupings of seminal college fraternities in North Amer ...
– that is, the
roots of both chords are in the bass – and the
tonic is in the highest voice of the final chord. This is generally considered the strongest type of cadence and often found at structurally defining moments. Music theorist
William Caplin writes that the perfect authentic cadence "achieves complete harmonic and melodic closure."
Imperfect authentic cadence
There are three types of imperfect authentic cadences (IAC):
*''Root position IAC'' (shown below): Similar to a perfect authentic cadence, but the highest voice is not the tonic.
*''Inverted IAC'': Similar to a perfect authentic cadence, but one or both chords are
inverted.
*''
Leading-tone IAC'': The penultimate (V) chord is replaced with a chord based on the leading-tone (vii
o chord).
Evaded cadence
An evaded cadence moves from a dominant seventh
third inversion chord (V) to a
first inversion tonic chord (I). Because the seventh must fall stepwise, it forces the cadence to resolve to the less stable first inversion chord. To achieve this, a root position V usually changes to a V right before resolution, thereby "evading" the cadence. (See also
inverted cadence below.)
Half cadence
A half cadence (also called an ''imperfect cadence'' or ''semicadence'') is any cadence ending on V, whether preceded by II (V of V), ii, vi, IV, or I—or any other chord. Because it sounds incomplete or suspended, the half cadence is considered a weak cadence that calls for continuation.
[ Jonas, Oswald (1982). ''Introduction to the Theory of Heinrich Schenker'' (1934: ''Das Wesen des musikalischen Kunstwerks: Eine Einführung in Die Lehre Heinrich Schenkers''), p. 24. Trans. John Rothgeb. .]
Several types of half cadences are described below.
Phrygian half cadence
A Phrygian half cadence is a half cadence iv
6–V in minor, so named because the semitonal motion in the bass (sixth degree to fifth degree) resembles the half-step heard in the ii–I of the 15th-century cadence in the
Phrygian mode
The Phrygian mode (pronounced ) can refer to three different musical modes: the ancient Greek ''tonos'' or ''harmonia,'' sometimes called Phrygian, formed on a particular set of octave species or scales; the Medieval Phrygian mode, and the moder ...
. Due to its being a survival from modal Renaissance harmony this cadence gives an archaic sound, especially when preceded by v (v–iv
6–V). A characteristic gesture in
Baroque music, the Phrygian cadence often concluded a slow movement immediately followed by a faster one. With the addition of motion in the upper part to the sixth degree, it becomes the
Landini cadence.
Lydian cadence
A
Lydian cadence is similar to the Phrygian half cadence, involving iv
6–V in the minor. The difference is that in the Lydian cadence, the whole iv
6 is raised by a
half step. In other words, the Phrygian half cadence begins with the first chord built on
scale degree , while the Lydian half cadence is built on the scale degree .
Burgundian cadences
Burgundian cadences became popular in
Burgundian music. Note the
parallel fourths between the upper voices.
Plagal half cadence
The rare plagal half cadence involves a I–IV progression. Like an authentic cadence (V–I), the plagal half cadence involves an ascending fourth (or, by
inversion
Inversion or inversions may refer to:
Arts
* , a French gay magazine (1924/1925)
* ''Inversion'' (artwork), a 2005 temporary sculpture in Houston, Texas
* Inversion (music), a term with various meanings in music theory and musical set theory
* ...
, a descending fifth). The plagal half cadence is a weak cadence, ordinarily at the ending of an
antecedent
An antecedent is a preceding event, condition, cause, phrase, or word.
The etymology is from the Latin noun ''antecedentem'' meaning "something preceding", which comes from the preposition ''ante'' ("before") and the verb ''cedere'' ("to go").
...
phrase, after which a
consequent
A consequent is the second half of a hypothetical proposition. In the standard form of such a proposition, it is the part that follows "then". In an implication, if ''P'' implies ''Q'', then ''P'' is called the antecedent and ''Q'' is called t ...
phrase commences. One example of this use is in "
Auld Lang Syne
"Auld Lang Syne" (: note "s" rather than "z") is a popular song, particularly in the English-speaking world. Traditionally, it is sung to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. By extension, it is also often ...
". But in one very unusual occurrence – the end of the
exposition of the first movement of
Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...
'
Clarinet Trio, Op. 114—it is used to complete not just a musical phrase but an entire section of a movement.
Plagal cadence
A plagal cadence is a cadence from IV to I. It is also known as the ''
Amen
Amen ( he, אָמֵן, ; grc, ἀμήν, ; syc, ܐܡܝܢ, ; ar, آمين, ) is an Abrahamic declaration of affirmation which is first found in the Hebrew Bible, and subsequently found in the New Testament. It is used in Jewish, Christian, and ...
cadence'' because of its frequent setting to the text "Amen" in
hymns
A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn' ...
.
Minor plagal cadence
A minor plagal cadence, also known as a perfect plagal cadence, uses the minor iv instead of a major IV. With a very similar voice leading to a perfect cadence, the minor plagal cadence is a strong resolution to the tonic.
Moravian cadence
The Moravian cadence, which can be found in the works of
Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European ...
and
Bohuslav Martinů amongst others, is a form of plagal cadence in which the outer notes of the first chord each move inwards by a tone to the second. (IV
add6 → I
6). An early suggestion of the Moravian cadence in classical music occurs in
Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist exampl ...
’s
''New World'' Symphony.
Deceptive cadence
"A cadence is called 'interrupted', 'deceptive' or 'false' where the penultimate, dominant chord is not followed by the expected tonic, but by another one, often the submediant." This is the most important
irregular resolution,
[ Foote, Arthur (2007). ''Modern Harmony in its Theory and Practice'', p. 93. .] most commonly V
7–vi (or V
7–VI) in major or V
7–VI in minor.
This is considered a weak cadence because of the "hanging" (suspended) feeling it invokes.
At the beginning of the final movement of
Gustav Mahler's
9th Symphony, the listener hears a string of many deceptive cadences progressing from V to IV
6.
One of the most striking uses of this cadence is in the A-minor section at the end of the exposition in the first movement of
Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...
'
Third Symphony. The music progresses to an implied E minor dominant (B
7) with a rapid chromatic scale upwards but suddenly sidesteps to C major. The same device is used again in the recapitulation; this time the sidestep is—as one would expect—to F major, the tonic key of the whole Symphony.
The interrupted cadence is also frequently used in popular music. For example, the
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philosophical lyrics an ...
song "
Bring the Boys Back Home" ends with such a cadence (at approximately 0:45–50).
Other classifications
Inverted cadence
An inverted cadence (also called a ''medial cadence'')
inverts the last chord. It may be restricted only to the perfect and imperfect cadence, or only to the perfect cadence, or it may apply to cadences of all types. To distinguish them from this form, the other, more common forms of cadences listed above are known as ''radical cadences''.
Rhythmic classifications
Cadences can also be classified by their rhythmic position:
* A metrically accented cadence occurs on a strong position, typically the
downbeat of a
measure.
* A metrically unaccented cadence occurs in a metrically weak position, for instance, after a long
appoggiatura.
Metrically accented cadences are considered stronger and are generally of greater structural significance. In the past, the terms ''masculine'' and ''feminine'' were sometimes used to describe rhythmically "strong" or "weak" cadences, but this terminology is no longer acceptable to some.
Susan McClary
Susan Kaye McClary (born October 2, 1946) is an American musicologist associated with " new musicology". Noted for her work combining musicology with feminist music criticism, McClary is professor of musicology at Case Western Reserve Universit ...
has written extensively on the gendered terminology of music and music theory in her book ''Feminine Endings.''
The example below shows a metrically unaccented cadence (IV–V–I). The final chord is postponed to fall on a weak beat.
Picardy third
A
Picardy third (or Picardy cadence) is a harmonic device that originated in Western music in the Renaissance era. It refers to the use of a major chord of the tonic at the end of a musical section that is either modal or in a minor key. The example below shows a picardy third in the final chord, from
J.S. Bach's ''
Jesu, meine Freude
"" (; Jesus, my joy) is a hymn in German, written by Johann Franck in 1650, with a melody, Zahn No. 8032, by Johann Crüger. The song first appeared in Crüger's hymnal in 1653. The text addresses Jesus as joy and support, versus enemie ...
'' (Jesus, My Joy), mm. 12–13.
Upper leading-tone cadence
The example below shows a cadence featuring an
upper leading-tone
In music theory, a leading-tone (also called a subsemitone, and a leading-note in the UK) is a note or pitch which resolves or "leads" to a note one semitone higher or lower, being a lower and upper leading-tone, respectively. Typically, ''th ...
from a well-known 16th-century lamentation, the debate over which was documented in Rome c. 1540. The final three written notes in the upper voice are B–C–D, in which case a
trill on C produces D. However, convention implied a C, and a
cadential trill
The trill (or shake, as it was known from the 16th until the early 20th century) is a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be identified with the context of t ...
of a
whole tone on the second to last note produces D/E, the upper leading-tone of D. Presumably, the debate was over whether to use C–D or C–D for the trill.
In medieval and Renaissance polyphony
Medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
and
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...
cadences are based upon
dyads rather than chords. The first theoretical mention of cadences comes from
Guido of Arezzo
Guido of Arezzo ( it, Guido d'Arezzo; – after 1033) was an Italian music theorist and pedagogue of High medieval music. A Benedictine monk, he is regarded as the inventor—or by some, developer—of the modern staff notation that had ...
's description of the ''occursus'' in his
Micrologus, where he uses the term to mean where the two lines of a two-part
polyphonic
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
phrase end in a
unison
In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm.
Definition
Unison or pe ...
.
Clausula vera
A clausula or clausula vera ("true close") is a dyadic or intervallic, rather than chordal or
harmonic
A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the '' fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', ...
, cadence. In a clausula vera, two voices approach an
octave
In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
or
unison
In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm.
Definition
Unison or pe ...
through
stepwise motion in
contrary motion
In music theory, contrapuntal motion is the general movement of two melodic lines with respect to each other. In traditional four-part harmony, it is important that lines maintain their independence, an effect which can be achieved by the judic ...
.
In three voices, the third voice often adds a falling fifth creating a cadence similar to the authentic cadence in tonal music.
According to
Carl Dahlhaus
Carl Dahlhaus (10 June 1928 – 13 March 1989) was a German musicologist who was among the leading postwar musicologists of the mid to late 20th-century. A prolific scholar, he had broad interests though his research focused on 19th- and 20t ...
, "as late as the 13th century the
half step was experienced as a problematic interval not easily understood, as the remainder between the
perfect fourth
A fourth is a musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth () is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending interval from C to th ...
and the
ditone:
:
In a melodic half step, listeners of the time perceived no tendency of the lower tone toward the upper, or the upper toward the lower. The second tone was not the 'goal' of the first. Instead, musicians avoided the half step in clausulas because, to their ears, it lacked clarity as an interval. Beginning in the 13th century, cadences begin to require motion in one voice by half step and the other a
whole step in contrary motion.
Plagal cadence
A plagal cadence was found occasionally as an interior cadence, with the lower voice in two-part writing moving up a perfect fifth or down a perfect fourth.
Pause
A
pause in one voice may also be used as a weak interior cadence.
The example below, Lassus's ''Qui vult venire post me'', mm. 3–5, shows a pause in the third measure.
Evaded cadence
In
counterpoint, an evaded cadence is one where one of the voices in a
suspension does not resolve as expected, and the voices together resolved to a consonance other than an octave or unison (a perfect fifth, a sixth, or a third).
Corelli cadence
The
Corelli cadence, or Corelli clash, named for its association with the
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
music of the
Corelli school, is a cadence characterized by a
major and/or
minor second clash between the
tonic and the
leading-tone or the tonic and
supertonic
In music, the supertonic is the second degree () of a diatonic scale, one whole step above the tonic. In the movable do solfège system, the supertonic note is sung as ''re''.
The triad built on the supertonic note is called the supertonic cho ...
. An example is shown below.
English cadence
Another "clash cadence", the
English cadence, is a
contrapuntal pattern particular to the authentic or perfect cadence. It features the
blue seventh against the
dominant chord
In music, the dominant is the fifth scale degree () of the diatonic scale. It is called the ''dominant'' because it is second in importance to the first scale degree, the tonic. In the movable do solfège system, the dominant note is sung as "S ...
, which in the
key of C would be B and G–B–D. Popular with English composers of the
High Renaissance and
Restoration periods in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English cadence is described as sounding archaic or old-fashioned. It was first given its name in the 20th century.
The hallmark of this device is the
dissonant augmented octave (compound
augmented unison) produced by a
false relation between the split seventh
scale degree, as shown below in an excerpt from ''
O sacrum convivium'' by
Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis (23 November 1585; also Tallys or Talles) was an English composer of High Renaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. Tallis is considered one o ...
. The
courtesy accidental
In music, an accidental is a note of a pitch (or pitch class) that is not a member of the scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the sharp (), flat (), and natural () symbols, among othe ...
on the tenor's G is editorial.
Landini cadence
A
Landini cadence (also known as a ''Landini sixth'', ''Landini sixth cadence'', or ''under-third cadence''
[ van der Merwe, Peter (2005). ''Roots of the Classical: The Popular Origins of Western Music'', p. 501. .]) is a cadence that was used extensively in the 14th and early 15th century. It is named after
Francesco Landini, a composer who used them profusely. Similar to a clausula vera, it includes an
escape tone
A nonchord tone (NCT), nonharmonic tone, or embellishing tone is a note in a piece of music or song that is not part of the implied or expressed chord set out by the harmonic framework. In contrast, a chord tone is a note that is a part of the ...
in the upper voice, which briefly narrows the interval to a
perfect fifth
In music theory, a perfect fifth is the musical interval corresponding to a pair of pitches with a frequency ratio of 3:2, or very nearly so.
In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is the interval from the first to the last of five ...
before the octave.
Common practice period
The classical and romantic periods of musical history provide many examples of the way the different cadences are used in context.
Authentic cadences and half cadences
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
’s Romanze from his
Piano Concerto No. 20 follows a familiar pattern of a pair of phrases, one ending with a half (imperfect) cadence and the other with an authentic cadence:The
presto
Presto may refer to:
Computing
* Presto (browser engine), an engine previously used in the Opera web browser
* Presto (operating system), a Linux-based OS by Xandros
* Presto (SQL query engine), a distributed query engine
* Presto (animation s ...
movement from
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
’s
String Quartet Op 130 follows the same pattern, but in a minor key:
Plagal cadences
The Hallelujah Chorus from
Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his train ...
’s
''Messiah'' culminates powerfully with an iterated plagal cadence:
Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most infl ...
’s
prelude
Prelude may refer to:
Music
*Prelude (music), a musical form
*Prelude (band), an English-based folk band
*Prelude Records (record label), a former New York-based dance independent record label
*Chorale prelude, a short liturgical composition for ...
‘La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin’ contains a plagal cadence in its 2nd and 3rd bars : One of the most famous endings in all music is found in the concluding bars of
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
’s opera ''
Tristan und Isolde
''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was compos ...
'', where the
dissonant chord in the opening phrase of the opera is finally resolved "three enormous acts and five hours later" in the form of a minor plagal cadence:
Deceptive cadences
In
Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
's harmonization of the
chorale
Chorale is the name of several related musical forms originating in the music genre of the Lutheran chorale:
* Hymn tune of a Lutheran hymn (e.g. the melody of " Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"), or a tune in a similar format (e.g. one of the ...
‘
Wachet auf
('Awake, calls the voice to us'), 140, also known as ''Sleepers Wake'', is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, regarded as one of his most mature and popular sacred cantatas. He composed the chorale cantata in Leipzig for the 27th Sunday ...
’, a phrase ending in a deceptive cadence repeats with the cadence changed to an authentic one: The exposition of the first movement of Beethoven’s
Piano Sonata No. 21 (The Waldstein Sonata), Op. 53 features a minor key passage where an authentic (perfect) cadence precedes a deceptive (interrupted) one:
Dvořák’s
Slavonic Dance, Op. 72, No. 2 features deceptive (interrupted), half (imperfect) and authentic (perfect) cadences within its first sixteen bars:
Debussy's Prelude “La fille aux cheveux de lin” (see also above) concludes with a passage featuring a deceptive (interrupted) cadence that progresses, not from V–VI, but from V–IV:
Some varieties of deceptive cadence that go beyond the usual V–VI pattern lead to some startling effects. For example, a particularly dramatic and abrupt deceptive cadence occurs in the second Presto movement of Beethoven’s
Piano Sonata No. 30, Op. 109, bars 97–112, "a striking passage that used to pre-occupy
usictheorists". The music at this point is in B minor, and carries the expectation is that the chord of F sharp (Chord V) will be followed by the tonic chord of B. However, "Dynamics become softer and softer; dominant and tonic chords of B minor appear isolated on the first beat of a bar, separated by silences: until in sudden fortissimo ... the recapitulation bursts on us in the tonic E minor, the B minor dominants left unresolved."
An equally startling example occurs in J.S. Bach's
Toccata and Fugue in F major, BWV 540:
According to
Richard Taruskin
Richard Filler Taruskin (April 2, 1945 – July 1, 2022) was an American musicologist and music critic who was among the leading and most prominent music historians of his generation. The breadth of his scrutiny into source material as well as ...
, in this Toccata, "the already much-delayed resolution is thwarted (m204) by what was the most spectacular 'deceptive cadence' anyone had composed as of the second decade of the eighteenth century ... producing an especially pungent effect."
Hermann Keller describes the effect of this cadence as follows: "the splendour of the end with the famous
third inversion of the seventh chord, who would not be enthralled by that?"
Chopin's
Fantaisie, Op. 49, composed over a century later in 1841, features a similar harmonic jolt:
A deceptive cadence is a useful means for extending a musical narrative. In the closing passage of Bach’s
Prelude in F minor from Book II of the ''
Well-Tempered Clavier'', the opening theme returns and seems headed towards a possible final resolution on an authentic (perfect) cadence. What the listener may expect is:
Instead, at bar 60, Bach inserts a deceptive cadence (V–VI in F minor), leading to a lengthy digression of some dozen bars before reaching resolution on the final (V–I) cadence.
A similar passage occurs at the conclusion of
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
's
Fantasia in D minor Fantasia No. 3 in D minor, K. 397/385g (''Fantasy'' in English, ''Fantasie'' in German) is a piece of music for solo piano composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1782. Despite the fact it was finished by another composer, the piece is noneth ...
, K397:
Jazz
In
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...
, a cadence is often referred to as a
''turnaround'', chord progressions that lead back and resolve to the tonic (for example, the
ii-V-I turnaround). Turnarounds may be used at any point and not solely before the tonic.
Half-step cadences are common in jazz if not cliché.
[Norman Carey (Spring, 2002). Untitled review: "''Harmonic Experience'' by ]W. A. Mathieu William Allaudin Mathieu (born 1937) is a composer, pianist, choir director, music teacher, and author. He began studying piano at the age of six, and began recording his music and compositions in the 1970s on his record label, Cold Mountain Music. ...
", p. 125. ''Music Theory Spectrum
''Music Theory Spectrum'' () is a peer-reviewed, academic journal specializing in music theory and analysis. It is the official journal of the Society for Music Theory, and is published by Oxford University Press. The journal was first published ...
'', vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 121–134. For example, the ascending diminished seventh chord half-step cadence, which—using a
secondary diminished seventh chord—creates momentum between two chords a major second apart (with the diminished seventh in between).
[Richard Lawn, Jeffrey L. Hellmer (1996). ''Jazz: Theory and Practice'', pp. 97-98. .]
The descending diminished seventh chord half-step cadence is assisted by two
common tones.
Rhythmic cadence
Rhythmic cadences often feature a final note longer than the prevailing note values and this often follows a characteristic rhythmic pattern repeated at the end of the phrase.
The example below shows a characteristic rhythmic cadence at the end of the first phrase of
J.S. Bach's
''Brandenburg Concerto'' No. 3 in G major, BMV 1048, mvmt. I, mm. 1–2:
See also
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Andalusian cadence
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Approach chord
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Cadential six-four
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Coda
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Cadenza
In music, a cadenza (from it, cadenza, link=no , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and ofte ...
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Drum cadence
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Kadans
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Lament bass
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List of Caribbean music genres
Caribbean music genres are very diverse. They are each synthesis of African, European, Arab, Asian, and Indigenous influences, largely created by descendants of African slaves (see Afro-Caribbean music), along with contributions from other com ...
:
cadence-lypso and
cadence rampa
Cadence rampa ( ht, kadans ranpa, ), or simply kadans, is a dance music and modern méringue popularized in the Caribbean by the virtuoso Haitian sax player Webert Sicot in the early 1960s. Cadence rampa was one of the sources of cadence-lypso ...
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V–IV–I turnaround
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VII–V7 cadence
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cadence (Music)
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Jazz terminology
Musical terminology