Cadences In General

A cadence is the ending of a phrase. Strictly

speaking, every interruption or break between figures, and between

all melodic members, is a cadence; but the term cadence is applied to

nothing smaller than entire phrases.



The cadence is the point of Repose which creates the necessary contrast

with the condition of Action that prevails more or less constantly

during the phrase; and the effect of this point f repose is,

therefore, to separate one phrase from the next. The cadential effect

is generally produced by two or three chords, the last one of which is

called the cadence-chord, and stands, when the cadence is perfectly

regular, upon an accented beat of the final measure. This, according

to our definition of the phrase, will most commonly be the fourth

measure.



For example:







The first chord in the fourth measure, on the accented beat, is the

cadence-chord; but the preceding chord (and possibly the one before

that, also) is naturally inseparable from the final one, and therefore

the entire cadence would be defined technically as embracing both (or

all three) of these chords. The effect of repose is obtained by the

length of the final chord, which exceeds that of any other melody tone

in the phrase; its time-value is a dotted quarter, because of the

preliminary tone (e, before the first accent) which, in the original

(op. 68, No. 28), precedes the next phrase in exactly the same manner.



Illustrations of the regular cadence will be found, also, in Ex. 15 and

Ex. 16; in the latter,--consisting as it does of four consecutive

phrases, four cadences occur, distinctly marked by the longer tone on

the accented beat of each successive fourth measure.