Cadence

Abstract

This work is the most comprehensive examination to date of how formal units in European art music of the tonal era achieve closure by means of cadence, a highly conventional device for ending middle-ground thematic units. Rooted in the author’s broader “theory of formal functions,” the book first develops concepts of cadence for music of the high classical style and then extends these ideas to gauge cadential practice in earlier and later style periods. Throughout the study, various manifestations of cadence are defined in terms of their morphology (their harmonic and melodic profiles) as well as their function (the specific formal contexts in which they are deployed). Following an introductory chapter on concepts of closure in general (in psychology, literature, and music), Part I of the book examines the “classical cadence” by first laying out a series of general concepts that inform the rest of the study and then defining the harmonic and melodic content of the basic cadence types—perfect authentic, imperfect authentic, and half cadences. Along the way, readers learn how promised cadences can fail to be realized by various deviation techniques (deception, evasion, abandonment, and dominant arrival) and how cadential expansion can significantly loosen the formal organization of thematic units. Part II broadens the stylistic horizon to consider how formal closure is achieved in the style periods of the high baroque, the galant, the early Romantic, and the mid- to late nineteenth century. Specific compositional procedures especially characteristic of these styles are shown to impact how closure is achieved by cadential, but also noncadential, means.