Cadences

CADENCES
A cadence is a chord progression of at least 2 chords that ends a phrase or section of a piece of
music. The easiest way to understand cadences in music is to think of the punctuation you find at
pauses and breaks in spoken speech. Take the following spoken rhyme:

Notice how there are different pauses at the end of each line. The 2nd and 4th line have a
period (full stop) at the end – this is because the rhyme could end there and still make sense – it
is a definite pausing point.
The 3rd line has a comma at the end of it because this shows that the rhyme is going to continue.
The rhyme pauses, but is clearly going to continue because it wouldn’t make sense if it stopped
at the end of the 3rd line.

These pauses are weak/strong depending on how much of a sense of completion is created. In a
similar way, music is divided up into phrases/sections. When you listen to the end of a phrase
in music it either sounds like it is finished or unfinished. Whether it sounds finished or
unfinished depends on which cadence is used.

TYPES OF CADENCES
There are 4 main types of cadence you will come across – 2 of them sound finished, whilst the
other 2 sound unfinished:

FINISHED CADENCES
Both of the finished cadences sound finished because they end on chord I. For example, in C
major a finished cadence would end on the chord C. In G major, it would finish on a G chord,
etc…

Authentic Cadence/Perfect Cadence/Full close

This goes from chord V to chord I (this is written V-I). It is the cadence that sounds the “most
finished”.
Here is an example of a finished cadence in C major. Notice how the chords at the end of the
phrase go from V (G) – I (C) and it sounds finished.
       Play Perfect Cadence Example

Plagal Cadence/ Amen cadence

A Plagal Cadence goes from chord IV to chord I (IV-I). It is sometimes called the “Amen
Cadence” because the word “Amen” is set to it at the end of many traditional hymns.
Have a look at and listen to this example in C major:

      Play Plagal Cadence Example

Both of these cadences sound finished because they end on chord I, but they each have their own
characteristic sound. Now let’s have a look at the unfinished cadences:

UNFINISHED CADENCES
Unfinished cadences sound unfinished because they don’t end on chord I. When you hear an
unfinished cadence at the end of a phrase it sounds like the music should not stop there – it
sounds like it should continue onto the next section.

Half Cadence/Imperfect Cadence

A half cadence/imperfect cadence ends on chord V. It can start on chord I, II or IV.
Have a listen to this example in G major. Notice how the last 2 chords are I (G) followed by V
(D).

      Play Imperfect Cadence Example

The music clearly sounds like it should continue.

Interrupted Cadence (Deceptive Cadence)/ False close

An interrupted cadence ends on an unexpected chord – the music literally does sound like it has
been “interrupted”. The most common chord progression you will come across is from chord V
to chord VI (V-VI). So, in this example in A major below, the last 2 chords are V (E) and VI (F
sharp minor). Listen to how frustrating it sounds that the music doesn’t continue:

      Play Interrupted Cadence Example

Again, the music sounds like it is unfinished – it sounds like it has just paused and should now
continue onto a new section.

SUMMARY OF CADENCES
Here is a summary of the 4 cadences – Perfect, Imperfect, Plagal, Interrupted – hope it helps!!