ANALYZING CLASSICAL FORM

(//), which signals that the cadential dominant is suddenly broken off just prior
to its anticipated resolution to tonic. This symbol also graphically shows that
the following harmony does not belong to the cadential progression.

132

Abandoned Cadence
A cadence is abandoned when, in the context of a potentially occurring authentic cadence, something goes awry with the cadential dominant. Two situations
typically give rise to cadential abandonment:

1. The cadential dominant is undermined if it is originally placed in first or

second inversion or if it becomes so inverted after initially appearing in
root position.
2. The cadential dominant is omitted altogether.
In the case of an evaded cadence, the cadential dominant is locked firmly into
root position, and so the problem concerns the absence of an event associated
with the final tonic. With the abandoned cadence, on the contrary, the problem
concerns the cadential dominant itself, which is either undermined or omitted.
Like cadential evasion, cadential abandonment is rarely used in the context
of simple main themes. The technique is thus broached again in later chapters.
Example 5.6: the second phrase of this sentence begins directly with an expanded
cadential progression. The arrival of the dominant in root position sets up expectations for cadential closure. But in the course of m. 7, the dominant becomes
undermined when the bass line ascends stepwise, such that the harmony is
inverted to its six-five position, thus rendering the resolution to the tonic at m. 8
as noncadential. (Note that even after reaching the tonic, the bass continues to
press up to I6 in a manner that denies all the more any sense of genuine cadence.)
The failure to realize the expected cadence motivates a repeat of the
continuationcadential phrase, which this time sees the dominant harmony
residing entirely in root position until its resolution to tonic, which finally brings
the PAC.

EXAMPLE 5.6

Beethoven, Violin Sonata in E, Op. 12, No. 3, i, 113

(continued)