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Excerpt from O sacrum convivium by Thomas Tallis In conventional Western music theory, the English cadence is a distinctive contrapuntal pattern particular to the authentic or perfect cadence. This pattern is so named because of its use primarily by English composers of the High Renaissance. The hallmark of this device is the dissonant augmented octave produced by a split seventh scale degree.
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For instance, observe beat 4 of the example shown at right; in the context of "A major," the tenor's G natural sounds concurrently with the soprano's G sharp. This anomalous
voice leading entails the seventh degree's dual functionality, or its capacity for opposing voice-leading tendencies. That is, a lowered seventh degree resolves downward to the sixth (e.g., G-F#), while a raised seventh (i.e., a leading tone) resolves upward to the first degree (e.g., G#-A). (Incidentally, the editor has helpfully put a courtesy accidental on the tenor's G natural, which would not have been present in the original publication. See musica ficta.) In harmonic terms, the basis of the English cadence is the authentic cadence, which follows the chord progression V-I. This variant is characterized by a penultimate, dominant chord with a split third, thereby creating a false relation between the germane parts.