Elision&EmbellishedFinalCadence BACH

DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2249.2008.00259.
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Music
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e 2008
MARK
LISIONAnalysis
Blackwell
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ANSON
IN bACH ’S pPublishing
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 -
E   E F C 

J. S. B’ P
Most tonal pieces or movements conclude with a clear, unadorned, perfect

cadence. This is true only insofar as one disregards embellishments such as
melodic anticipations of the tonic and 7–8 suspensions over the tonic. But
many composers, including Bach, sometimes embellish the final or structural
cadence to the point where it sounds qualitatively (if not structurally) different
from a plain or modestly adorned cadence. I shall refer to this phenomenon
generally as the ‘embellished final cadence’.1 At first glance, it superficially
resembles an interrupted cadence. The resolution of the dominant to the tonic
is richly decorated, even obscured, by interpolated harmonies (such as the
submediant and subdominant) and/or melodic figuration, including suspensions
and chromatic passing notes. Experienced listeners will hear an embellished final
cadence as an elaboration of a simpler model – usually a perfect cadence.2
One especially important means by which Bach embellishes a final cadence
has not been adequately examined in the literature: elision of the tonic note.
This happens when 7 (typically sounding in an inner voice over the dominant)
proceeds to w7 (over the tonic), rather than to 1. The locus classicus for this
pattern is the conclusion of the Prelude in C major from the Well-Tempered
Clavier, Book I (hereafter WTC I; see Ex. 1). This passage elaborates what is
basically a perfect cadence, delaying the resolution of 2 to 1 (and of 7 to 8 in
an inner voice) until the last bar. Five other preludes from WTC I exhibit this
type of elision at their conclusions: those in C minor, Ew minor, Bw major,
B major and B minor. (Interestingly, no prelude from WTC II ends this way.)
It should be noted here that, even if the elision ( Ö 7– w7) coincides with a 2–1
resolution in the top voice (as in the Preludes in E w minor and B w major), the
effect of elision still obtains.
This article begins with a series of analytical reflections on these six
preludes, intended to explain – or at least suggest – why Bach’s use of elision
at the final cadence is appropriate in each case. Sometimes the elision is
strongly motivated, or perhaps even necessitated, by the design of the prelude.
I then present a general survey of Bach’s embellished final cadences, of which
I infer six basic types or models (subject to variation). They include not only
the aforementioned type of elision, but also other kinds of interrupted cadences
which elaborate the structural cadence. In order to place Bach’s practice in
Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007) 267

© 2008 The Author.
Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
268 MARK ANSON-CARTWRIGHT
Ex. 1 Prelude in C major, WTC I, bars 31–35
historical context, I shall briefly discuss a few related examples by other com-
posers mostly from a later period.
The specific type of elision addressed in part one is historically significant
in two respects. First, it happens at the structural cadence much more often in
Bach’s music than in that of any other major composer. Second, and more
important, the phenomenon is relatively infrequent in Bach’s enormous oeuvre.
The technique is, as I shall argue, closely associated with the genre of keyboard
prelude (including a number of chorale preludes).
The Pedal Point as ‘Harmonic Frame’

A stereotypical technique of extending the concluding tonic chord is through
a pedal or organ point, a stock device deployed in countless ways by Bach and
others in nearly every genre. Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel, in the final
chapter of his celebrated Versuch, recommends the use of a pedal point at both
the beginning and the conclusion of a free fantasy.3 Many preludes from both
books of WTC use the pedal in this way. Although a concluding pedal point
may coincide with an embellished final cadence, it usually serves simply to
extend the tonic of a (more or less) unadorned perfect cadence.
In a valuable article on Bach’s ‘pattern preludes’ in WTC I, Joel Lester coins
the term ‘harmonic frame’ to denote a brief progression, usually over a tonic
pedal, which frames the key at the start and/or end of a prelude.4 Lester also
demonstrates ‘the principle of heightening complexity’ in Bach, the notion that
‘whenever material returns, it is reworked into more complex form’.5 As I will
show, this principle is most clearly exemplified in the last four bars of the
Prelude in C major – a masterful reworking of the opening four bars. Lester
believes that these pattern preludes form a ‘mini-series’ – a distinct pedagogical
program nested within the larger scheme of WTC I. The preludes considered
in the present study, despite their shared features, do not form a unified series.
But they do reveal something significant about Bach’s attitude to the genre.
© 2008 The Author. Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007)

Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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Ex. 2 Praeludium from Partita No. 1 in B w major, beginning and ending compared
Before examining the Prelude in C major in detail, let us briefly consider

the Praeludium of Bach’s Partita No. 1 in B w, whose beginning and ending are
shown in Ex. 2. Though not mentioned by Lester, this piece perfectly illustrates
the principle of heightening complexity. The concluding pedal is a varied
restatement of the opening, intensified, above all, by the use of w7 (Aw, in bars
19 and 20, tenor voice): the downward resolution of this note is counteracted
by the eventual ascent, in the soprano, from AÖ to Bw, giving a stronger aura of
finality to the tonic chord than would result from a literal repeat of the opening
pedal point.
Prelude in C major (WTC I): Motivations for the Elision

Like the Praeludium in Bw, the Prelude in C major from WTC I opens and
closes with a harmonic frame. In both pieces, the concluding frame differs
from the opening frame with respect to chromaticism and figuration. In the
Praeludium, w7 is added to the tonic chord after the structural cadence; but in
the Prelude, w7 coincides with the structural cadence in bar 32. The latter type
of event is significantly, if not radically, different from the former (more
frequent) one: the Prelude thus ends with an embellished final cadence, while
the Praeludium does not.
Despite the great appeal of the Prelude for teachers, theorists and composers
(notably Chopin and Gounod), the unusual character of its conclusion has not
been adequately addressed.6 One striking feature of the ending has received its
analytical due: the cadenza-like manner in which Bach regains, according to
Schenker, the ‘obligatory’ register of the start of the piece.7 Yet no one has
offered an adequate account of the elision. It is not enough for an analyst
simply to acknowledge its presence, or to account for it in structural terms.
One must also ask why it occurs at all.8
Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007) © 2008 The Author.

Ex. 3 Three tonic pedal points

(a) Reduction of the Prelude in C major, bars 31–35
(b) A hypothetical five-bar tonic pedal
(c) Recomposed version of the Prelude in C major, bars 31–35
First of all, the elision pays handsome rhythmic dividends from the point of
view of the Prelude’s overall design. The immediate intrusion of w7 results in a
four-bar group or hypermeasure where a five-bar group might otherwise have
occurred (compare Exs. 3a and 3b). Both versions preserve the harmonic
rhythm of one chord per bar. But Bach’s version also creates a durational and
metric identity between the opening and closing four-bar frames. Of course,
Bach did not have to elide C in order to create a four-bar pedal. Ex. 3c presents
a compromise between the preceding examples, in which w7 follows 1 within the
bar. This solution is weak, however, since it disrupts the prevailing harmonic
rhythm. Listeners who know the Prelude (in its final version) would surely be
disturbed to hear the B w only in the second half of bar 32, rather than in both
halves. Indeed, they would hear the alternate version of the ending as wrong.

E  B’ P 271
We may do well to ask why the elision sounds so appropriate at the final
cadence. One reason is that, in addition to creating a hypermetric correspondence
between the beginning and ending, the elision maintains the music’s drive
towards an ultimate state of repose, achieved only in the final bar. Whereas in
bar 32 the tension of the long-sustained dominant pedal is released in the bass,
the tension in the top line is not resolved until the last chord of the piece. This
final chord – the only one which is not arpeggiated – contains resolutions to C
in two (or, implicitly, even three) registers, the highest one being the obligatory
register.9
Lester calls attention to the Bw in bar 32 without referring to the elision as
such. For him, chromaticism is one of four features which set the concluding
frame apart from the opening one, thereby exemplifying the principle of height-
ening complexity. Lester also notes that: (1) the progression is underpinned by
a bass pedal; (2) by the end of the passage, the E–F–F–E melody is not carried
by the top voice; (3) the figuration pattern which characterises virtually the
entire prelude disappears in the penultimate bar (bar 34).10 I would add the
following observations to Lester’s list: the register of the closing frame is an
octave lower than at the beginning, notwithstanding the final return of the
obligatory register; and a crucial change in figuration occurs in bar 33 (rather
than bar 34), where the peak note of the arpeggio occurs a semiquaver later
than in all previous bars and is thus syncopated. Moreover, the peak note is
not repeated in this or the following bar, as it is in earlier bars.
The elision in bar 32 seems to be motivated by something beyond the
principle of heightening complexity – at least with respect to the opening and
concluding frames. It makes sense to relate the elision to chromatic ideas
presented earlier in the Prelude, especially in three passages: bars 11–12; bars
18–20; and bars 22–23 (see Ex. 4). Each of these passages foreshadows a
different aspect of the concluding cadence. Bars 11–12 present the semitone
B–Bw, but without the effect of an elision (see the tenor); bars 18–20 present
the progression V7–I–V7/IV (as opposed to what happens in bars 31–32: V7–V7/
IV); and finally, the elision in bars 22–23 occurs at a different pitch level from
the elision at the final cadence (the bass FC progresses to Aw and, implicitly, to
FÖ in the tenor; G is thus elided). It is the central passage (bars 18–20) which
relates most significantly to the final cadence. In bar 20 the chordal seventh Bw
is introduced as a passing note (i.e. as part of the succession 8–7 over the
bass C). If we accept species counterpoint as a tool for understanding Bach’s
dissonance treatment, then we may consider bars 18–20 as the model for bars
31–32, where the inner voice C (that is, the octave over the bass) is bypassed
in favour of the chordal seventh Bw. Thus, the conclusion of the Prelude is as
much a trope on the pivotal central bars (18–20 or 21) as it is a reworking of
the opening frame.
Heard in isolation, the last five bars of the Prelude in C, like the other
progressions in Ex. 3, signify or articulate an ending. But when those same
bars are heard in relation to earlier events – the opening frame, the chromatic

Ex. 4 Prelude in C major, bars 10–24
passages mentioned above and the long dominant pedal – they complete the
process of closure, which Kofi Agawu has aptly characterised as a ‘global
mechanism’.11 The integral relation between the ending and the piece as a
whole makes this ending, and especially the elision, sound appropriate for this
Prelude.
Elision in Other Preludes from WTC I

Five other preludes from WTC I contain elision at the structural cadence: those
in C minor, E w minor, Bw major, B major and B minor. In all except the Prelude
in B major, the elision coincides with the onset of a tonic pedal. Aside from
the shared feature of elision, the preludes are quite distinct in design. Even the
two pieces which are most similar with respect to their harmonic and voice-leading

E  B’ P 273
Ex. 5 Conclusions of five preludes from WTC I

(a) Prelude in C minor
(b) Prelude in Ew minor
plans – the preludes in C major and C minor – are set apart by obvious differences,
most notably the changes of tempo and texture that occur near the end of the
Prelude in C minor.
Ex. 5 shows the concluding cadences and tonic pedals from five preludes in
the order in which they appear in WTC I. The bars containing elision are
aligned. Some points of correspondence between these preludes and the Prelude
in C major may be noted. In all the preludes except the one in B major, the
elision occurs in an inner voice. In three cases (C minor, Ew minor and Bw major)
a resolution to 1 occurs at the same time, and in the same register (except in

Ex. 5 Continued
(c) Prelude in Bw major
(d) Prelude in B major
(e) Prelude in B minor
Bw major), as the w7 in the inner voice. In the Prelude in C minor, the tonic
note occurs under E Ö, the same upper-voice resolution as in the Prelude in C
major.12 The Preludes in Ew minor and Bw major, in contrast to those in C major
and C minor, contain top-voice resolutions from 2 to 1 at the structural

E  B’ P 275
cadence. Finally, an obvious shared feature of the minor-mode preludes is the

appearance of raised 3 simultaneously with lowered 7 over I. Thus, elision is a
more highly charged event in minor than in major keys, at least with respect
to chromaticism.
As we have seen, the Prelude in C major enacts a tonal narrative in which
the elision plays a double role. It takes the listener by surprise at first but in
retrospect can be heard as a logical, even inevitable, response to earlier events.
The intrusion of Bw at the final cadence creates the effect of a peripeteia, in
Frank Kermode’s sense of the term: it is ‘a disconfirmation followed by a
consonance’.13 As for the inevitability of the elision, there is no way to prove
this, except to assert that the prelude’s conclusion would be much less satisfying
without it.
The elision at bar 34 of the Prelude in C minor is not prepared by earlier
events to the same degree as in the Prelude in C major (although the AÖ to Aw
in bars 15–16 might be heard to anticipate it). It nevertheless sounds perfectly
appropriate: it is marked not only harmonically, but also by an abrupt change
of tempo from presto to adagio, as well as by its duration (it is the first
sustained, as opposed to broken, chord in the entire piece). The specific voicing
of the altered tonic harmony in bar 34, with EÖ in the top voice, recalls the
harmony at the structural cadence of the Prelude in C major.14 It is possible
that Bach designed the elision in the Prelude in C minor as a deliberate
recollection of the end of the previous prelude – one that is admittedly con-
cealed by differences of mode, texture and tempo. The adjacency of these two
preludes lends credence to this conjecture.
The Prelude in Ew minor stands apart from the other preludes in many ways,
particularly in its haunting expression of grief and in its elaborate and wide-
ranging melodic design. The prelude concludes with not one but two ‘discon-
firmations followed by a consonance’ or interrupted cadences.15 The first of
these occurs in bar 29, in the wake of a powerful cadential preparation, including
a Neapolitan sixth (bar 26), a recitative-like ascent in the right hand to a peak
cw3 and a cadential six-four chord. The crucial agent of this cadence is the bass,
which ascends from Bw to Cw – a concealed echo of the prelude’s opening
melodic motion from Bw to Cw. Indeed, this motivic idea also appears in the
bass of bars 5–6, immediately after the initial tonic prolongation (bars 1– 4).
The second interrupted cadence, in bar 37, functions on a deeper level as the
structural cadence, the inner-voice Dw being the agent of a foreground delay.
Like the earlier cadence, this one is preceded by a cadential six-four (albeit in
a different voicing). One might thus have expected the second cadential six-
four, like the first, to unfold without any disturbances. In this light, the elision
in the inner voice casts a grim shadow over the top line’s melodic descent from
2 to 1.
The Prelude in Bw major, though essentially a one-part form like the preludes
discussed above, divides into two sections of equal length marked by the abrupt
change of texture and rhythmic pacing at bar 11. (The tempo marking of

Ex. 6 Prelude in B major, WTC I
adagio which appears at this place in many editions, though inauthentic, is not
inappropriate.) The harmony at this crucial juncture of the prelude is the first
of three instances of the tonic with added w7. This piece thus contains two
‘premonitions’, as it were, of the elision at the structural cadence. With this
much advance notice, the elision sounds much less surprising than in the other
preludes we have examined. And yet it contains a feature which draws special
attention to the cadence: the approach to A w (w7) by way of a passing G (in the
tenor) rather than directly from A (see Ex. 5c). This idea is presented as a
stretto imitation of the alto beginning a crotchet earlier, the first overtly imitative
passage in the entire prelude.
Of the six preludes from WTC I which contain elision at the structural
cadence, the Prelude in B major stands apart in significant ways (see Ex. 6).
In the most important respect, it does not conclude with a tonic pedal point.

E  B’ P 277
Ex. 6 Continued
Indeed, if one locates the structural cadence in bar 15 rather than in the final
bar, then it comes across as a comparatively understated event.16 There is,
however, a compelling reason for hearing bar 15 as the point of structural
arrival: the thematic identity between bars 4–5 and bars 13–14. By transposing
the earlier bars up a fourth (i.e. from the key of the dominant to the key of the
tonic), Bach leads the listener to expect the arrival on the tonic in bar 15 to
echo the arrival on the dominant in bar 6 (as local tonic). Yet, just when one
would expect the top voice to cadence on B, that very note is withheld (or
elided), and AÖ appears instead (the expected resolution of AC to B in the top
voice is deferred to bar 19). To hear the concluding, unambiguous arrival on
the tonic (supporting 1) as the true arrival would be to confuse structural
levels. Just as, at the end of the Prelude in C major, B resolves directly to C
not at the structural cadence, but rather three bars later (over the tonic pedal),
so too, in the Prelude in B major, a direct motion from AC to B is saved until
the last bar (where it receives the support of a foreground V7–I cadence). These
two preludes thus exhibit different, yet related, ways of extending the final
tonic after it has arrived at the background level. The elision provides the music
with the impetus or momentum to remain in motion after the tonic has
arrived.17

Elision, as a compositional idea, is worked into the overall design of the

Prelude in B major in as compelling a manner as in the other preludes. There
are explicit – and thematically parallel – instances of elision in bars 4 and 13
(that is, the middle-voice motions from EC to EÖ and from AC to AÖ, respectively).
These features arguably set the stage for the more significant elision at bar 15.
(From the viewpoint of performance practice, it is perhaps appropriate to play
a slight ritardando from the middle of bar 14 into the start of bar 15 so as to
project the sense that this is indeed the structural cadence; otherwise the
cadence might be unduly overshadowed by the ensuing cadence in bar 19.) A
more subtle anticipation is the suspension in bar 2 of the middle-voice AC over
the bass B, with its split resolution ( 7− 86). As David Beach notes in his analysis,
the main resolution here is to the sixth, GC.18 This interpretation is confirmed
in subsequent bars, where the 7–6 suspension pattern is elaborated both explic-
itly and implicitly.
The weakening of the AC to B resolution – with the evasion of B in favour
of GC – emerges as a significant compositional gambit in the prelude. When AC
reappears as a suspended seventh in the top voice of bar 4, it resolves exclu-
sively to GC. This successive deflection from B to GC points to two later events
in the piece: the tonicised VI chord of bar 10 – a middleground goal, in Beach’s
view, situated near the mid-point of the prelude; and the elision of the top-
voice B in bar 15 in favour of AÖ. This chromatic note, AÖ, leads twice to GC,
first as a brief melodic note in bar 15, supported by IV, then more emphatically
in the bass of bar 16, where GC sounds for the entire bar.19
In light of my suggestion that elision in the Prelude in C minor recalls the
ending of the Prelude in C major, an organisational idea may be inferred for
WTC I as a whole: the use of elision at the close of both the first and last pair
of preludes. It is conceivable that Bach intended to frame the collection by
means of this shared feature.
Embellished Final Cadences in Bach: Six Models

The preludes discussed above belong to a larger group of pieces by Bach
containing embellished final cadences. Table 1 – the result of a broad but
selective survey of Bach’s music – divides this group according to six harmonic
or contrapuntal models found at the conclusion of each piece or movement.
Ex. 7 illustrates each model as it appears in one representative work. (An
exception is model Ia, shown here in a ‘generic’ version; the specific instances
appear in Exs. 1 and 5.) The models are transposed to G and in most cases
stripped of figuration for ease of comparison. Since models are by definition
subject to variation, Table 1 includes comments (in the right-hand column) on
distinctive features of individual pieces which are most pertinent to the present
argument. Before examining these models in detail, I should mention that the
family in Table 1 is fairly homogeneous: it includes sixteen chorale preludes
and chorale-based pieces for organ; eight free keyboard preludes (mostly from

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Ex. 7 Embellished final cadences: six models
WTC I); six chorales (set for four voices); two fugues (BWV 565 and Contra-
punctus 2 from BWV 1080); and one chorale-based item from the St. John
Passion (BWV 245 No. 60).
The six models in Ex. 7 may be viewed as three pairs, each aligned vertically
for ease of comparison. The important shared features of the paired items can
be readily gleaned from the Roman numerals. Pieces based on models Ia and
IIa generally contain clear V–I bass progressions (the few exceptions being
noted in the right-hand column of Table 1). Pieces based on the other models
contain interrupted cadences on either VI (see models Ib and IIb) or IV6 (see
models Ic and IIc). Although any of these last four models may contain Ö7 (in
contrast to C7), it is not that feature, but rather the progression to VI or IV6,
which makes them embellished final cadences.20
Ex. 7 may be viewed as two rows of models, distinguished by the quality of
the V triad. In the top row (models Ia, Ib and Ic) the structural V is a major
triad; but in the corresponding models in the bottom row, V is either minor (as
in models IIb and IIc) or altered from major to minor just before the cadential
motion (as in model IIa). If one defines a perfect cadence in strict terms as a
V–I progression with both chords in root position and with V as major, then
only models Ia, Ib and Ic may be viewed legitimately as elaborations of perfect
cadences. The other models may be said to elaborate different cadential types,
most of which are modal rather than tonal. Before exploring this issue at

© 2008 The Author.
280
Table 1 Embellished final cadences in works by Bach, grouped according to the models in Ex. 7
Model Typical harmonic Pieces or movements which exhibit the model Remarks (Figured-bass accidentals
progression are specific to each key.)
(Examples BWV Title Key/mode
may differ.)
Ia V7–V7/IV–IV–V7–I 245 ‘Mein teurer Heiland’ D major See end of last chorale verse (bar 38);
(St. John Passion, No. 60) Ö7 in the bass
7
6
4
4
5
I
549 Prelude and Fugue C minor See end of Prelude
605 ‘Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich’ G major
MARK ANSON-CARTWRIGHT
(Orgel-Büchlein)
623 ‘Wir danken dir’ G major 3-bar soprano pedal; Ö7 in the bass
(Orgel-Büchlein)
846 Prelude 1 (WTC I) C major
847 Prelude 2 (WTC I) C minor Foreground V 43 in bar 33
853 Prelude 8 (WTC I) Ew minor
866 Prelude 21 (WTC I) Bw major
868 Prelude 23 (WTC I) B major Background cadence in bar 15,
869 Prelude 24 (WTC I) B minor not bar 19
Ib V7–VI–IV–I 719 ‘Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich’ G major 3-bar soprano pedal
(Neumeister Sammlung)
Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007)
854 Prelude 9 (WTC I) E major 2 1 2 –bar soprano pedal

957 ‘Machs mit mir, Gott’ G major 11 2 –bar soprano pedal
1095 ‘O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig’ F major 5-bar soprano pedal
Ic VC–IV6–IV–I 1080 Contrapunctus 2 (Art of Fugue) D minor
IIa V8C 7Ö –V7/IV–IV–I 613 ‘Helft mir Gottes Güte preisen’ B minor
(Orgel-Büchlein)
7
6
4
4
5
I 4
658 ‘Von Gott will ich nicht lassen’ F minor V 3–V7/IV etc.
(18 Chorale Preludes)
Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007) 665 ‘Jesus Christus, unser Heiland’ E minor
666 ‘Jesus Christus, unser Heiland’ E minor VII°7–min V 65 – V 42/IV (bass: DC–DÖ–DÖ)
678 ‘Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot’ G Mixolydian
(Clavier-Übung III)
679 Fughetta super ‘Dies sind die heil’gen G Mixolydian (Soprano FÖ–E–FC–G over bass D–G)
zehn Gebot’
(Clavier-Übung III)
6 4
737 ‘Vater unser im Himmelreich’ D minor minV – V 2/IV etc.; 31/2-bar soprano pedal
IIb minV–VI–IV–I 64/2 ‘Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ’ G Mixolydian
E  B’ P

(Chorale No. 160*)
314 ‘Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ’ A Mixolydian
(Chorale No. 288*)
6 7
370 ‘Komm, Gott Schöpfer’ G Mixolydian minV–VII –V /IV–IV–I
565 Toccata and Fugue D minor See end of Fugue
689 Fuga super ‘Jesus Christus unser F minor 5-bar tenor pedal
Heiland’ (Clavier-Übung III)
769 Canon per augmentationem C major Vw64 – V 42/VI–VI6–V7/IV–IV–I
(Variations on ‘Vom Himmel hoch’)
6
1093 ‘Herzliebster Jesu’ G minor minV–VII –IV–I; 3-bar soprano pedal
6 6
IIc minV–IV –VC/IV–I 48/3 ‘Ach, Gott und Herr’ Bw major Vw– V 5 /IV–IVw–I
(Chorale No. 279*)
298 ‘Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot’ G Mixolydian VÖ– V 65 /IV–IV–I
(Chorale No. 127*)
654 ‘Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele’ Ew major Vw–IV6– V 65 /IV–IV–I; 5-bar soprano
© 2008 The Author.
(18 Chorale Preludes) pedal

4 6
10/7 ‘Meine Seel erhebt den Herren’ G minor minV– V 2/IV–IV –IV–IÖ; 4-bar soprano
(Chorale No. 358*) pedal
*The chorale numbers refer to those in 371 vierstimmige Choralgesänge von Johann Sebastian Bach, 3rd edn (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1832).
281
length, I would like to consider the fact that most of Bach’s embellished final
cadences feature a tension or contrast between C7 and Ö7 (leading note and
subtonic). This contrast is produced in one of three basic ways: (1) juxtaposition
of the two notes (see models Ia and IIa); (2) near-juxtaposition of the two
notes (models Ib and IIc); or (3) absence of the leading note at the cadence
(model IIb), where the effect of absence may depend on the presence of the
leading note earlier in the piece, as in BWV 565. In model IIa, the ‘shift’ from
C7 to Ö7 just before V resolves produces two effects: changing V from major to
minor, and providing consonant preparation of the seventh of V7/IV. Bach’s
elaborations of this model sometimes contain an inverted structural V7, as in
BWV 658, 666 and 737 (see comments in Table 1, right-hand column). One
piece listed under model IIa does not involve a direct shift from C7 to Ö7 over
V at the final cadence (see BWV 679, bar 31). In this respect, it differs from
the companion piece, BWV 678, where FC yields to FÖ over the structural D
just before the final cadence (see bar 58). However, in BWV 679, FC does
appear four times in bar 30, so that the appearance of FÖ over the bass D in
bar 31 sounds almost like a juxtaposition; for that reason, BWV 679 belongs
to this group in Table 1.
Models Ib and IIb have their roots in Renaissance polyphony. The latter
model has a more obvious ‘modal’ quality because it contains a minor V (minV).
An example of model Ib in the Ionian mode is the close of the first Kyrie of
Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli (see Ex. 8). This formula can sound utterly
different in Bach’s hands: recall the conclusion of the Prelude in E major from
WTC I, with its marvellous blend of wistful chromaticism and lilting arpeggios.
Ex. 8 Palestrina, Missa Papae Marcelli, Kyrie, end of first part

E  B’ P 283
Ex. 9 Lori Burns, Bach’s Modal Chorales, p. 49 (Ex. 22), Mixolydian plagal
cadences
Considered simply as a harmonic progression, that ending is rare in Bach’s

major-key works. Nevertheless, it sounds perfectly ‘normal’.
Returning to the question of tonal versus modal contrast, let us now
consider model IIb, the more frequent of these two formulas, so as to address
some of the analytical challenges posed by Bach’s Mixolydian compositions. In
her valuable book, Bach’s Modal Chorales, Lori Burns tackles the long-standing
analytical problem of how to comprehend the dual presence of modal and tonal
harmony within Bach’s music, particularly in his chorales. In some cases, as
Burns observes, the modal features of a piece may be understood in tonal
terms; at other times, they require modal interpretation. A number of Bach’s
Mixolydian chorale settings, for example, conclude with a plagal gesture whose
structural function may be viewed either modally or tonally. Burns presents five
abstract models of Mixolydian plagal cadences, reproduced in Ex. 9. Models
(a) through (d) are modal in that they give structural weight to VI and IV. A
tonal interpretation gives these chords less weight, as in model (e), where they
are subordinated to the V–I cadential progression.
Burns argues that ‘[t]he decision to stress the plagal formulas should be
justified by their contextual analytical pertinence, not by any abstract structural
features’.21 Thus, in her reading of BWV 314, ‘Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ’
(originally in A Mixolydian), Burns favours model (c) over model (e), mainly
because of a motivic association between the opening of the chorale and the
ending – an organic link which would be reduced out by a purely tonal inter-
pretation.22 Burns’s modal approach makes sense for BWV 64/2, 314, and 370.
But for most of the pieces listed in Table 1, I favour a tonal approach, one that
takes all harmonies after the structural V as extending or embellishing I.
History, Genre and Style

The foregoing discussion of Bach’s individual works points to two broader,
interrelated, issues: the generic or stylistic significance of embellished final
cadences for Bach; and the use and significance of such cadences in tonal
music written after Bach’s death.

Perhaps the most striking historical fact about embellished final cadences is
their compositional rarity, both in Bach and the music of later composers.
Within Bach’s oeuvre, such final cadences occur most often in either keyboard
preludes or chorale-based compositions, types which intersect in the genre of
the chorale prelude. Otherwise put, Bach is most likely to use the embellished
final cadence when the piece has an improvisatory or introductory character
(strongly evident in the Preludes in C major, C minor and Bw major from WTC I)
and/or a chorale melody deployed as a cantus firmus. One might thus expect
to find elision, or at least some kind of embellished final cadence, in some of
Bach’s fantasies – works with a patently improvisatory character. It is surprising,
then, that Bach’s fantasies do not in fact include elisions. In this regard, the
‘Free Fantasy’ in D major by Bach’s most prolific son, Carl Philipp Emanuel,
published in his Versuch, affords an interesting borderline case. On the one
hand, the work concludes with a tonic pedal point in which Ö7 (CÖ) is introduced
after the structural cadence (at least according to the figured-bass 8–Ö7 given
above the final bass-note D). In Bach’s partial realisation of the figured-bass
framework, however, the top voice proceeds from CC to CÖ, effecting an elision
of the implicit octave D.23
Embellished final cadences are entirely absent from Bach’s dance movements.
For similar stylistic reasons (involving the various exigencies of the classical style
and sonata form), they appear only occasionally in music of the classical period.
Mozart, for instance, avoids them altogether, even in the most likely places: in
the preludes K. 284a (formerly known as the Capriccio in C, K. 395/300g), or in
his keyboard fantasies (K. 394, 396, 397 and 475), especially those written in 1782,
when he was immersed in the music of J. S., W. F. and C. P. E. Bach. With the
exception of K. 397, Mozart’s music does not reflect the influence of contemporary
North German composers, despite his attested admiration for C. P. E. Bach.
Mozart’s avoidance of embellished final cadences may be partially due to
stylistic differences between the Lutheran North and the Catholic South.
Chorale-based compositions (which are amongst the few genres in which J. S.
Bach embellishes his final cadences) are simply not part of Mozart’s heritage.
The Lutheran tradition of the chorale prelude finds its last great practitioner
in Brahms: for instance, three of his Elf Choralvorspiele, Op. 122 conclude with
embellished cadences (Nos. 2, 3 and 7).
Mozart’s antipathy towards such cadences may be usefully contrasted with
his striking predilection for various kinds of interrupted cadence. A particularly
apt example occurs in the midst of the great sextet from Don Giovanni (bars
114 ff.) just before five of the six singers exclaim: ‘Leporello, che inganno è
questo!’ (‘Leporello, what a deception this is!’).24 Mozart only employs such
deceptions within the main body of a piece or movement, never at the every
end. They often point to a goal even as they subvert it, but they never serve to
embellish the structural cadence itself.
Haydn, by contrast, exploits elision near the end of several symphonic move-
ments, albeit in contexts which are structurally less marked than Bach’s: see

E  B’ P 285
Symphonies Nos. 91/iv, bar 219; 94/ii, bar 145; 98/ii, bar 81; 99/iv, bar 258;
and 101/iv, bars 250 ff. Beethoven rarely uses elision or plagal embellishment
at the structural cadence. A familiar, if exceptional, example of elision appears
in the Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor at the end of the cadenza of the first
movement. The reason for this scarcity is that a structural cadence in the
classical style is nearly always clear, even though – or perhaps because – the
path leading up to it may be filled with digressions and thwarted attempts. In
his final period, Beethoven would revisit and galvanise elision technique in the
Bagatelle in C, Op. 119 No. 7. The very unusual final cadence involves not V7,
but minor V7 (that is, a G minor seventh chord) progressing to Iw7 (i.e. V7/IV).
Over the final tonic pedal, which lasts eleven bars, the top voice gradually rises,
culminating with a triumphant motion from BÖ to C. Beethoven here follows
the practice of numbers 10, 12 and 20 of the ‘Diabelli’ Variations, where the
final structural tonic enters as some form of V of IV.25 Although such works
occupy a stylistic universe very distant from Bach’s, they are arguably indebted
to his harmonic idiom.
Embellished final cadences remain exceptional in music of later composers.
Interpolations of IV (or VI and IV) between V and I are more common than
elision of the sort we find in Bach (i.e. V7/IV in place of I). See, for instance:
Schumann, ‘Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben’, the third song from
Frauenliebe und -Leben (last five bars); Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, conclusion of
Act III (bars 1680–82); Brahms, Intermezzo in Ew major, Op. 117 No. 1 (last
five bars); Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto in D major, first movement (bars 319–
24); and Debussy, ‘La fille aux cheveux de lin’, from Préludes, Book 1 (from
bar 27 to the end). This small, yet highly variegated, sample reveals the sheer range
of styles in which the embellished final cadence could occur. It also shows that,
for nineteenth-century composers from Schumann to Debussy, the technique
afforded none of the generic connotations it seems to have had for Bach.
In closing, I would like to suggest a very general connection between Bach
and Chopin with regard to closure in preludes. Listeners can rightly expect the
final cadence of a prelude – regardless of the composer or improviser – to be
handled freely, or even to be undermined. Some preludes defer closure by
ending on the dominant: see the (independent) Prelude in C minor for lute,
BWV 999, and the Prelude of Mozart’s K. 394, which is immediately followed
by the Fugue. Some of Bach’s preludes, not to mention some of Beethoven’s
bagatelles, point ahead to the spirit, if not the technical features, of closure held
in abeyance which distinguishes a number of Chopin’s preludes. The Prelude
in F, Op. 28 No. 23, illustrates this in a very obvious way – see bar 22, where
Ew is suddenly added to the final tonic chord. Only recently has closure been
recognised as a central issue in Chopin’s preludes, indeed as a feature insepa-
rable from questions of genre.26 It is likewise time for theorists who wish to
know what sort of piece a prelude by Bach is – or might be, theoretically
speaking – to pay closer attention to elision as a means of undermining (and,
paradoxically, enhancing) the structural cadence.

NOTES
I am grateful to Joel Lester for his comments on an earlier version of this article.
1. I shall use the terms ‘final cadence’ and ‘structural cadence’ interchangeably, with
the proviso that the structural cadence is not necessarily the last cadence to occur.
Nevertheless, in the pieces I shall examine, the last cadence usually does coincide
with the structural cadence.
2. The normative status of the perfect cadence with 2–1 in the top voice (as a means
of articulating global closure) is a familiar principle or tenet of Schenkerian theory.
3. C. P. E. Bach, Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments, trans. William
Mitchell (New York: Norton, 1949), p. 432. The chapter on the free fantasy
appears in part 2 of the Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (Berlin,
1762), pp. 325–41.
4. Joel Lester, ‘J. S. Bach Teaches Us How to Compose: Four Pattern Preludes of
the Well-Tempered Clavier’, College Music Symposium, 38 (1998), p. 34 and passim.
5. Lester, ‘J. S. Bach’, p. 37. Lester further develops this thesis in a later study:
‘Heightening Levels of Activity and J. S. Bach’s Parallel-Section Constructions’,
Journal of the American Musicological Society, 54/i (2001), pp. 49–96.
6. On Chopin’s compositional response to the prelude, see Robert Wason, ‘Two
Bach Preludes/Two Chopin Etudes, or Toujours travailler Bach, ce sera votre meilleur
moyen de progresser’, Music Theory Spectrum, 24/i (2002), pp. 103–20.
7. On ‘obligatory’ register, see Heinrich Schenker, Free Composition, trans. and ed.
Ernst Oster (New York: Longman, 1979), p. 52 and Fig. 49/1. See also Schenker’s
analysis of the prelude in Five Graphic Music Analyses (New York: Dover, 1969).
8. Schenker does not explain or take note of the elision either in Five Graphic Music
Analyses or in his correspondence with Felix-Eberhard von Cube concerning the
same analysis. For discussion of the latter, see William Drabkin, ‘A Lesson in
Analysis from Heinrich Schenker: the C Major Prelude from Bach’s Well-
Tempered Clavier, Book 1’, Music Analysis, 4/iii (1985), pp. 241–58. In fairness
to Schenker, we may recall Drabkin’s remarks in connection with this ‘wordless
analysis’: ‘one could never be sure that the analytical issues emphasised by such
a text would have been the ones which Schenker himself felt vital to the piece’
(p. 242). In two other published analyses of the prelude, the elision is likewise
passed over without comment; see Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff, A Generative
Theory of Tonal Music (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1983), pp. 260–64; Lester,
‘J. S. Bach Teaches Us’, p. 39. A contrapuntal explanation of the elision appears
in Allen Cadwallader and David Gagné, Analysis of Tonal Music: a Schenkerian
Approach (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 402, n. 6.
9. On obligatory register, see n. 7.
10. Lester, ‘J. S. Bach Teaches Us’, p. 39. Further to Lester’s analysis, it could be
remarked that the opening frame is partially echoed at two internal junctures
of the prelude: that is, the top voice’s initial E–F–F–E is echoed in G major as
C–C–B in bars 9–11, and then (partially) in C major as F–F–E in bars 17–19,
an octave lower than the original statement.

E  B’ P 287
11. V. Kofi Agawu, ‘Concepts of Closure and Chopin’s Opus 28’, Music Theory Spectrum,
9 (1987), p. 4.
12. As Lester notes (‘J. S. Bach Teaches Us’, p. 34), the frames of the C major and
C minor Preludes are extremely similar, notably with respect to the E–F–F–E
motive, although the connection between the beginning and ending is more
obscure in the case of the C minor piece.
13. Frank Kermode, The Sense of an Ending (New York: Oxford University Press,
1967), p. 18.
14. Edward Laufer reads the harmony at bar 34 as an anticipation of tonic, rather
than as the structural arrival. See his ‘On the First Movement of Sibelius’s Fourth
Symphony: a Schenkerian View’, in Schenker Studies 2, ed. Carl Schachter and
Heidi Siegel (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999),
p. 132 (Ex. 6).
15. A graph of this prelude appears in Eric Wen, ‘Bass-line Articulations of the
Urlinie’, in Schenker Studies 2, p. 286 (Ex. 11). Whereas Wen takes the top voice’s
arrival on 1 at bar 29 (the first interrupted cadence), I would take it at bar 37,
which may even be heard as an anticipation of the definitive arrival at bar 40.
16. In his analysis of this prelude, which he based on an unpublished graph by Ernst
Oster, David W. Beach also locates the structural cadence at bar 15. See Beach,
‘The Submediant as Third Divider: Its Representation at Different Structural
Levels’, in James M. Baker, David W. Beach and Jonathan W. Bernard (eds.),
Music Theory in Concept and Practice (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester
Press, 1997), p. 334.
17. John Rink’s notion of ‘structural momentum’ is not strictly relevant here, since it
applies not to codas appended to the structure (which thus follow the descent of
the fundamental line), but to formal codas which include part of that descent.
See John Rink, ‘“Structural Momentum” and Closure in Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9
No. 2’, in Schenker Studies 2, p. 120.
18. See Beach, ‘The Submediant as Third Divider’, pp. 325; 328 (Fig. 9). A similar
analysis of this passage is given in Beach, ‘Schenker’s Theories: a Pedagogical
View’, in Aspects of Schenkerian Theory, ed. David Beach (New Haven and London:
Yale University, 1983), pp. 10–11.
19. Beach does not draw any connection between the foreground GC s and the toni-
cised submediant which he identifies as an important middleground goal in bar
10. The foreground significance of GC lends support to Beach’s and Oster’s readings
of the middleground.
20. Pieces that lack a structural V at the final cadence are not included in Ex. 7 or
Table 1, although they are related to the phenomenon under consideration here.
The chorale preludes BWV 653 and 668, for example, conclude with the progression
6
V5 /VI–VI–IV–I. In both pieces, the root of the structural V is elided in the bass.
21. Lori Burns, Bach’s Modal Chorales (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1995),
p. 49.
22. Burns, Bach’s Modal Chorales, p. 95.
23. See C. P. E. Bach, Essay, pp. 442–45.

24. For more on the Sextet, see Carl Schachter, ‘Che inganno! The Analysis of Deceptive
Cadences’, in Schenker Studies 3, ed. Allen Cadwallader (Hildesheim: Georg
Olms, 2006), pp. 279–98.
25. Edward T. Cone, ‘Beethoven’s Experiments in Composition: the Late Bagatelles’,
in Beethoven Studies 2, ed. Alan Tyson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977),
p. 96.
26. See Agawu, ‘Concepts of Closure’; Jeffrey Kallberg, ‘Small “Forms”: in Defense
of the Prelude’, in The Cambridge Companion to Chopin, ed. Jim Samson (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 124–44; and Justin London and
Ronald Rodman, ‘Musical Genre and Schenkerian Analysis’, Journal of Music
Theory, 42/i (1998), pp. 101–24.
ABSTRACT
In a number of Bach’s keyboard preludes, the final cadence is richly decorated
by interpolated harmonies and melodic figuration, so that it superficially
resembles an interrupted cadence. The present study explores Bach’s techniques
of embellishing such final cadences. Sometimes, the tonic note is elided and the
leading note ‘resolves’ to the lowered seventh degree of the scale, as in the Prelude
in C major from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I. Another technique of
embellishment is the interpolation of submediant and/or subdominant harmonies
between dominant and tonic. A survey of Bach’s oeuvre indicates that he wrote
embellished final cadences exclusively in keyboard preludes and chorale-based
genres (including chorale preludes). A brief concluding discussion of embellished
final cadences in works by later composers provides a broad context in which
to appreciate the generic and historical significance of this phenomenon.


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DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2249.2008.00259.

E   E F C 

Most tonal pieces or movements conclude with a clear, unadorned, perfect

Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007) 267

Ex. 1 Prelude in C major, WTC I, bars 31–35

The Pedal Point as ‘Harmonic Frame’

© 2008 The Author. Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007)

Before examining the Prelude in C major in detail, let us briefly consider

Prelude in C major (WTC I): Motivations for the Elision

Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007) © 2008 The Author.

Ex. 3 Three tonic pedal points

(b) A hypothetical five-bar tonic pedal

(c) Recomposed version of the Prelude in C major, bars 31–35

© 2008 The Author. Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007)

Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007) © 2008 The Author.

Ex. 4 Prelude in C major, bars 10–24

Elision in Other Preludes from WTC I

© 2008 The Author. Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007)

Ex. 5 Conclusions of five preludes from WTC I

(b) Prelude in Ew minor

Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007) © 2008 The Author.

(d) Prelude in B major

(e) Prelude in B minor

© 2008 The Author. Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007)

cadence. Finally, an obvious shared feature of the minor-mode preludes is the

Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007) © 2008 The Author.

Ex. 6 Prelude in B major, WTC I

© 2008 The Author. Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007)

Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007) © 2008 The Author.

Elision, as a compositional idea, is worked into the overall design of the

Embellished Final Cadences in Bach: Six Models

© 2008 The Author. Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007)

Ex. 7 Embellished final cadences: six models

Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007) © 2008 The Author.

854 Prelude 9 (WTC I) E major 2 1 2 –bar soprano pedal

E  B’ P

(18 Chorale Preludes) pedal

Ex. 8 Palestrina, Missa Papae Marcelli, Kyrie, end of first part

© 2008 The Author. Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007)

Considered simply as a harmonic progression, that ending is rare in Bach’s

History, Genre and Style

Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007) © 2008 The Author.

© 2008 The Author. Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007)

Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007) © 2008 The Author.

© 2008 The Author. Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007)

Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007) © 2008 The Author.

© 2008 The Author. Music Analysis, 26/iii (2007)

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