CADENCE

a cadence is the end of a chord proggression..

its when you know a piece of music has finished, has more to go etc.

if you play

Dm Em Am Gm Bdim Em

you cant end like that.. play it on a piano / keyboard...

you will be waiting for more... there are 4 cadences.

Perfect
Plagal
Interrupted
Cant remmember the other one.

Perfect = V-I
Plagal = IV - I
Interruped = V - VI - I

so to finish those chords... we can either be in C major / A natural minor

and the absolute BANG end... dun dun is done with a perfect cadence

so we can end it with G-C or Em-Am..

a more soft ending would be the plagal cadence, its a soft ballet like ending

so we can use F-C or Dm-Am

you have to play these so you hear what i mean.

the other is interupted... its saying "IM GOING TO END NOW BANG" then NOT ending... interupting the cadence.

that is V-VI-I

G-Am-C in C major

**************************

So in a few lines, cadences are chords in any key that signify an ending to the piece so its not left "hanging"..
chords have to resolve... V normally goes to I in an ending except for intterupted.

hope it helps.

Plagal Cadences are popular in Sacred music. Listen to the long "Amen" at the end of a lot of Hymns.

A :-)

Alan and Alex seconded.

Here´s some more reading matter on cadences if you're interested:

http://www.andymilne.dial.pipex.com/Cadentialprog.shtml

There's actually a whole bunch of cadences... the most common ones have already been covered:

Authentic cadence: V-I
Plagal cadence: IV-I

A few of the others....

A mixed cadence contains both IV and V, as in IV-V-I

A half cadence is a normal (authentic or plagal) cadence that's 'out of key' by a fourth or fifth, like D-G in the key of C (V of V - V) or C-G in the key of C (IV of V - V)

A deceptive cadence, sometimes called by the name 'interrupted', replaces the I chord with something else from the key, like V-vi (Alex got the name right, but mixed up the concept with a mixed cadence).

There's a few others (Landini, Burgundian, etc.), most of which date to medieval times.  Essentially, a cadence is a progression of at least two chords that conveys a sense of finality to end a piece or a section.

Oh, and they all come in perfect and imperfect versions... in perfect ones, the root is the top voice, so

3 8
3 8
4 9
3 10
x x
x x

is a perfect G7-C cadence; other voicings are 'imperfect'.

Tom

Thanks, guys.  That really helped!!!!

Why a V to I?  Would it be a I to V since everything revolves around the I in any key/scale?

Well, a cadence is the end, tonally speaking, so you want to end up on the tonic.  That's why most cadences finish with the I chord, rather than the V.

Progressions that go from I to V happen all the time, of course, but then they go off into other chords... they return to the I for the end of the song or section, usually through V (authentic cadence) or IV (plagal cadence).

Tom

Why a V to I?  Would it be a I to V since everything revolves around the I in any key/scale?

OK - you asked for it.

What happens at a perfect Cadence is (using G-C in the key of C as an example)

G is the Dominant
C is the Tonic

The 3rd of the Dominant - B - resolves to the root of the tonic - C

and

The root of the Dominant - G - resolves via the 7th of the Dominant - F - to the 3rd of the Tonic - E.

and it gives the musical equivalent of a Full Stop.

Cheers,

A :-)

OK, here's a question that's possibly waaaaaaaaaaaaay off topic here.  Is this what Jim Morrison was referring to in the song "5 to 1"?

Is this what Jim Morrison was referring to in the song "5 to 1"?

I doubt it.

From a quick perusal of the lyrics, http://www.all-good-tabs.com/guitar-tabs-bands-doors-five_to_one-6532.html , it appears that he is talking about the time, 12:55 in the morning.

About a year ago when I really started to understand key signatures I also wondered if Morrison was talking about V to I.  Further, I thought the lyrics were "five to one, baby, one to five" but from you link the second to last word is "in."  Still, it would be interesting if Morrison did know about the common I to V movement.

A cadence is any melodic or harmonic progression which constitutes the END of a composition, section or phrase.   Another word for cadence is "close."  As already stated, the V - I is called an authentic cadence (also called perfect cadence, full close); IV - I (or iv - I, iv - i), called a plagal cadence.  

Here's some others:

V - vi (also V - VI):  Deceptive Cadence (also called Interrupted Cadence, Evasive Cadence)
I - V:  Half Cadence (also called Imperfect Cadence)  Any cadence on the V is a half cadence.
iv - V:  Phrygian Cadence (1st inversion iv to root position V)  This is a type of half cadence.

Half cadences are not "out of key", they simply resolve on the V (not V7).  This happens quite often in minor keys.

There are other cadences, some particular to certain styles, and the names can get quite convoluted.

The word itself comes from the Latin word cadere - "to fall." This usage stems from the fact that musical passages in general tend to fall in pitch as the phrase closes.

Half cadences are not "out of key", they simply resolve on the V (not V7).  This happens quite often in minor keys.

I had 'out of key' in quotes for a reason -- it's not an expected transition within the root key.  I assumed this would not be literally taken, as one of the examples I gave, G to C in the key of C, does not contain any notes foreign to the key.

That said, they are also quite often literally 'out of key', as in the first example I gave, D to G in the key of C, with the F# being foreign to the root key.

To quote from Piston's Harmony:

It is not always a straightforward matter, nor is it necessarily essential, to differentiate between a half cadence containing the toncizing V of V and an authentic cadence in the key of the dominant.  When the subsequent phrase is still in the tonic key it seems unnecessary to declare that there is a modulation just on account of one chord.  On the other hand, if there is a strong series of chords in the dominant key leading up to the cadence, it would appear more logical to recognize an intermediate modulation in the analysis.

So... whether you consider it a modulation, or a melodic development, half cadences do, in fact, leave the root key with some frequency.

Tom

In terms of modulation, if you had, in fact, modulated to the key of the V, then a cadence on that new tonic would not constitute a half cadence because, by definition, a half cadence would be a close on the V of the new tonic.  A close on the new tonic (V of the old tonic) would be a perfect cadence (or some other cadence on I).  

I see your point about the "out of key" aspect of a secondary dominant (V/V) but, I would disagree that it makes the cadence itself out of key.  For example:

Cm Fm D G

This is i iv V/V V in Cm.  The cadence is on the G, the V of the key, so we call it a half cadence.  But, if we had a Cm chord precede the V, then it would still be a half cadence (no "out of key" elements).  As the Piston quote confirms, just having one chord, like the V/V, does not constitute a modulation.
 
I don't see the V/V as out of key because it resolves to the V which is in key (the F# is an inclusion, not an alteration).  The F# is out of the scale, but not out of key due to the context (I realize this is another discussion!).
 
I guess my main point is that a half cadence is a cadence on the V chord, whether you have "out of key" elements to it or not.  From your previous post I got the impression that you were defining a half cadence as solely a result of modulation, which it is not.  Apologies if I mistook your meaning:-)