Cadences in Music

In tonal music, a cadence is a sequence of chords that uses their qualities of rest and movement to give a musical phrase a sense of pause, resolution or closure.

In tonal music, the first, fourth and fifth degrees of a scale form its main structural tones. The chords built on I, IV and V are therefore the principal chords of the key, and cadences are formed mainly by linking them. Chord I is called the tonic, IV the subdominant and V the dominant. The remaining chords are secondary-degree chords: their sense of movement develops and varies the musical phrase, supporting the principal chords and strengthening the cadence.

The principal scale degrees produce three types of cadence: plagal, authentic and full cadences.

Plagal Cadence

This cadence links the fourth and first degree chords of the key. The basic principle of chord connection is to retain any common tones and move the other voices to the nearest notes of the next chord. In a plagal cadence, the tonic–subdominant–tonic progression (I–IV–I or T–S–T) has one common tone: the tonic chord's root is the same note as the fifth of the subdominant.

Authentic Cadence

This cadence links the fifth and first degree chords and produces a more decisive sense of closure than a plagal cadence. Like the plagal progression, the authentic tonic–dominant–tonic progression, I–V–I (T–D–T), has one common tone: the fifth of the tonic is the root of the dominant. The authentic cadence is used in the same way in minor keys, but the dominant chord's third is raised to make it major, creating a stronger sense of forward movement. This is comparable to raising the seventh degree of a minor scale to create the leading note and thus the harmonic minor scale.

Full Cadence

This cadence links the fourth, fifth and first degree chords. As its name suggests, it creates a complete sense of closure. In the full cadence, I–IV–V–I (T–S–D–T), chords IV and V have no common tones. Connecting these neighbouring scale-degree chords by the nearest possible movement also produces parallel fifths, and using their roots in the bass produces parallel octaves. To avoid parallel fifths and octaves, which are considered incorrect in traditional harmony, the chord voices must move in contrary motion.

Minanur Balcan
Rekor Sanat – Singing Teacher