In this video, I'll be demonstrating different types of cadences, and explaining how they reflect people's relatively stable perceptions of consonants and dissidents over the years. As well as the importance of using melodies that are easy to sing or play. Within the Western musical tradition, you can think of a cadence as musical punctuation. A cadence comes at the end of a musical phrase and typically, it consists of collections of two or three cords that are comprised of short, easy to sing melodies. The melodies that characterize these cadences have been used in music for hundreds and hundreds of years but the formal term, cadence, came about during or after the Baroque era, so post 1600. Most of the cadences I'll be playing are drawn from the from the corpus of Johann Sebastian Bach's Chorale Harmonisations. These Chorale Harmonisations were vocal pieces based on pre-existing folk-like melodies that people sang during church services. Bach would choose one melody and compose three other voices below it so that everyone in the services would have a part to sing. Thus, another important factor to notice as you listen to these cadences, is the sing-ability of each short melody. I found it appropriate to draw examples of cadences from this musical repertoire because music theorists and historians often turn to Bach and the Chorale, specifically, as the foundation of Western harmony. A quick caveat before we get into the cadences. The combinations of melodies that I play for each of these examples are not the only possible way to create these cadences. For the sake of simplicity, I'm just showing one possible arrangement of melodies for each cadence. The cadence to start with is the authentic cadence or the V-I cadence. I find it helpful to compare cadences to punctuation. In this case, the authentic cadence is like a period or sometimes, like an exclamation mark. These are four possible two note melodies that give rise to this cadence in C major. [MUSIC] All together, the cadence sounds like this. [MUSIC] The two chord involved are built on the fifth scale degree and the first scale degree, or tonic. The way this cadence works is that the presence of two relatively unstable tones in the five chord creates tension, that is resolved once the final chord is sounded and we return to the tonic triad. Note that the lowest melody, which goes Sol Do outlines a perfect fit, which is often considered the most consonant interval in music, after unison in the octave. Fifth motion like this is incredibly common in most Western music, and in other musical traditions, as well. The next cadence I'll demonstrate is a half cadence, which ends and lingers on the five chord. To continue the punctuation metaphor, the half cadence reminds me of a question mark. It builds suspense or tension because of the presence of the two unstable tones. Furthermore, a half cadence often comes before an authentic cadence. You can often think of them as a question and answer pair. Music theorists also call this an antecedent consequent pair. I'll demonstrate an example from a Bach chorale written in the key of G minor. The first phrase ends with a half cadence on a D major chord, while the second phrase ends with a V-I or an authentic cadence, which consists of a D major chord going to a G minor chord. [MUSIC] You really feel that sense of arrival at the end. The next cadence I'll talk about is called a deceptive cadence, which sounds like this in the key of C major. [MUSIC] To continue with the punctuation metaphor, I think of a deceptive cadence as an ellipsis. The reason that it's deceptive is because it consists of a five chord going to a six chord, when you typically expect a five chord to go to the tonic like it does in an authentic cadence. Which again, sounds like this in C major [MUSIC] Note that the major sixth interval is typically perceived as fairly consonant but less consonant than the intervals like the perfect fifth and fourth. It makes sense that the sixth chord sounds relatively unexpected while still sounding pretty good. Another factor that adds to the surprise is that the sixth chord is usually minor in a major key and major in a minor key, creating an unexpected change in tonality. [MUSIC] The example I'll use to demonstrate this is a Bach chorale in which he harmonizes a very similar melody twice. Once with an authentic cadence and once with a deceptive cadence. Here are the two versions of the melody in the key of D major. [MUSIC] You can see and hear that the two melodies are virtually identical, except for the very beginning. Now here's the melody harmonized the first time with an authentic cadence. [MUSIC] Here's the melody a second time. This time, harmonized with the deceptive cadence. [MUSIC] You can hear the difference is quite striking. The overall mood of the phrase really changes when it ends on a relatively unexpected minor chord. The last cadence I'll talk about is called a plagal cadence. It's another type of definitive punctuation, a period, or an exclamation mark, just like the authentic cadence since it ends on the tonic. But instead of being proceeded by a five chord, the tonic is proceeded by a four chord. In the key of C major, this is how it sounds. [MUSIC] Again, note the perfect fourth interval between the lowest notes of the cords, which is a highly consonant interval. The first example I will play may be familiar to some of you. It's the ending of Hallelujah from Handel's Messiah. [MUSIC] That ending definitely sounds like an exclamation mark to me. Here's an example of a plagal cadence sounding more like a period in a more musically complex context, a Bach chorale. [MUSIC] In short, these cadences are all used to bring musical phrases to a close, often by creating some kind of resolution or in some cases, building tension to delay resolution. The important things to note is that these cadences are all composed of melodies that are smooth and easy to sing, which has been a musical priority for centuries. And that the effects of these cadences track common perceptions of consonance and dissonance over the years. If you want to explore this music further, the full Bach chorales and isolated melodies for these cadences are available on video on the course site.
