Cadence

What it means

A cadence (German Kadenz) is a chord progression that harmonically articulates or concludes a section. The word comes from the Latin “to fall” and means the sinking to rest. The basic form of tonal music is the progression T–S–D–T (I–IV–V–I): away from the tonic to the subdominant, on to the dominant, back to the tonic. All the principal functions are contained in it, and it determines the key unambiguously.

Musical use

By their ending, several kinds of cadence are distinguished. The authentic cadence leads from the dominant to the tonic and is the strongest; the plagal cadence leads from the subdominant to the tonic and seems soft; the half cadence stays on the dominant and opens; the deceptive cadence leads from the dominant to a substitute for the tonic and deceives the expectation. The Phrygian cadence is a half cadence with a semitone step in the bass. Cadences within a part of the form are called internal cadences; their graded closing force articulates the form.

In music before major–minor tonality, endings rest not on chord progressions but on voice-leading formulas, the clausulae, in which voices converge on the final note in a fixed manner.

Note a second, quite different meaning of the same word: in concerto movements, cadenza designates a solo, freely shaped section that often begins on a six-four chord under a fermata and leads into the dominant before the orchestra re-enters. It was originally improvised, later often written out.

One distinguishes the authentic cadence, which leads the dominant to the tonic, the plagal one with the subdominant, the half cadence on the dominant, and the deceptive cadence. The complete cadence connects all the principal functions: tonic, subdominant, dominant, tonic. Cadences articulate music as punctuation marks articulate language. In addition, Kadenz, Italian cadenza, designates the solo insertion in an instrumental concerto, which was often improvised.

Performance practice

Determine the cadences in every piece first; they are the points of articulation of the form. When shaping, distinguish their strength — not every ending is the end. And lead the voices deliberately in the cadence: leading tone upward, seventh downward.