Cadences in Early Polyphonic Music

A cadence is a melodic or harmonic formula that conveys the impression of a temporary or permanent conclusion at the end of a phrase, a section, or an entire composition.

Most listeners today are familiar with the sounds and effects of the cadential formulas in modern common-practice harmony, which has its roots in Renaissance music. However, unknown by most listeners and even many musicians are the cadential patterns that preceded, and eventually led to, modern formulas.

Polyphony, music in which voices are combined in different parts or lines, was first described in the 9th century. But early polyphony (called organum) had minimal independence between the voices, and the cadences were largely duplications or extensions of those used in monophonic chant.

Gradually, however, the voices became more independent. By the 13th century, new styles and new forms, especially the motet, had begun to produce polyphonic cadential patterns.

From the 13th to the mid-15th centuries, cadences in early polyphonic music served three historic purposes: they established cadential formulas as important structural elements in music; they consolidated late medieval musical practices into compressed form; and they laid the groundwork for modern cadences.

13th-Century Cadences: Establishing the Formulas
Before 1450, nearly all cadences in polyphonic music were based on a melodic progression in the lowest voice, at that time called the tenor, of II-I (second degree to first degree, or final, of the mode).

During the 13th century, that basic II-I progression in the bottom voice served as a starting point for establishing four primary cadential formulas. The basic features in all four cadences are the same. In a typical three-voice texture, the tenor moves from II down to I while the top voice, a sixth above the tenor (and therefore the seventh degree of the mode), moves up a step to another I and the middle voice parallels the top voice a fourth below.

Four different versions evolved out of the basic pattern because of interval differences among the various church modes in use at that time. The descriptions below pertain to interval relationships, not to absolute pitches, a concept that did not exist in the Middle Ages.

(1) The last two simultaneities-what would now be called chords-are (from the bottom up) G/B/E and F/C/F. The tenor moves down a whole step. Both of the higher voices move up a half step. This formula has come to be called a lydian cadence because it is characteristic in the lydian mode.

(2) The last two chords are A/C/F and G/D/G. The tenor moves down a whole step. Both of the higher voices move up a whole step.

(3) The last two chords are D/F/B and C/G/C. The tenor moves down a whole step. The top voice moves up a half step, while the middle voice moves up a whole step.

(4) The last two chords are F/A/D and E/B/E. In this case, the tenor moves down by a half step. Both of the higher voices move up a whole step. This formula has come to be called a phrygian cadence because it is characteristic in the phrygian mode.

14th-Century Cadences: Embellishing the Formulas
The 14th century is particularly known for its use of musica ficta ("fictive music" or "feigned music"), the practice of raising or lowering a tone from its natural state in a mode by a half step for the sake of smoother harmony or stronger voice leading, especially at a cadence. The term sometimes refers specifically to such raising or lowering that is believed to be implied, but not actually written, in the music.

Even though the words musica ficta became the standard term for this practice in the 14th century, the practice itself goes back to before the 13th century, when it was called musica falsa ("false music").

Musica ficta accounted for the routine practice of raising the top voice or the top two voices in the penultimate chord at a cadence. For example, the A/C/F penultimate chord (cadence no. 2 above) is changed to A/C/F-sharp before progressing to G/D/G. The resulting major sixth between the outer voices in the penultimate chord became the norm, with the minor sixth becoming increasingly rare at cadences. The F-sharp constitutes a leading tone, that is, a seventh degree that is a half step below the final, so called because it typically "leads up" to the final, in this case, the G.

In fact, usually both of the higher voices are raised: A/C-sharp/F-sharp. This version creates a lydian cadence (cadence no. 1 above), also called, especially when created by musica ficta instead of by a lydian mode, a double leading-tone cadence, because both of the higher voices are preceded by half steps.

A similar cadence-that is, a lydian cadence, or a double leading-tone cadence-on C (cadence no. 3 above) requires raising only one tone, the middle one, because the top voice is already a half-step move: D/F-sharp-B to C/G/C.

Only 13th-century cadences no. 2 and no. 3 as defined above are affected by musica ficta. Category 1, the lydian cadence, already has double leading tones. Category 4, the phrygian cadence, already has a half-step move in the tenor and a major sixth between the outer voices; the top voice could not be raised without creating a nonstylistic augmented sixth.

Besides musica ficta, the 14th century has another well-known music-history term: Landini cadence, named after the Italian composer Francesco Landini (c. 1325-1397). In this cadence, the progress from the major sixth to the octave in the outer voices is melodically embellished by the top voice moving down a step before leaping up a third to the final. For example, in penultimate A/C/F-sharp, the F-sharp would move down briefly to E before leaping up to the high G in G/D/G. The Landini embellishment may occur in any of the penultimate forms: no leading tone, one leading tone, two leading tones, or phrygian.

Even though history has named this cadence after Landini (because of his frequent and beautiful use of it), the cadence itself was common before Landini, as in the music of the French composer Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1377). It was also widely used after Landini, as among the Burgundians (15th century).

15th-Century Cadences: Consolidating and Innovating
The final stages of medieval music had one of its greatest flowerings in the Burgundian school, the leading Continental group of composers in the first half of the 15th century. The Burgundians (who were associated in various ways with the cultural sphere of the duchy of Burgundy) included composers in the Netherlands, Belgium, and parts of France. Among them were Guillaume Dufay (c. 1400-1474) and Gilles Binchois (c. 1400-1460).

Their style is noted for its high degree of consonance and for its extensive use of what would now be called sixth chords (triads in first inversion). The penultimate chords described above, from the 13th century on, are sixth chords. The Burgundians consolidated the musical impact of that sound by using it throughout their compositions.

They also consolidated two centuries' worth of cadential styles. The Burgundians still favored the major-sixth-to-octave formula in the outer voices. Their use of the lydian, or double leading-tone, cadence was so prolific that many scholars now refer to it as a Burgundian cadence even though it was widely used a hundred years before the Burgundians. The Burgundians also made regular use of the Landini cadence.

However, one important Burgundian variant in the traditional cadences points to something new. In some cadences, the composers (including Dufay and Binchois) have the major sixth in the penultimate chord in the two top voices and use the bottom voice for a deep tone a fifth below the middle voice, creating what today would be called a root-position chord on the fifth degree of the mode. For example, instead of D/F or F-sharp/B (cadence no. 3 in the 13th-century categories), the penultimate chord is G/D/B. The traditional sixth-to-octave progression still takes place, but between the two top voices.

The historically innovative element is what happens to the low G. It leaps up an octave, over the middle voice, so that the final chord is, as tradition dictates, C/G/C, but the ear hears as the lowest tones in the two final chords not the traditional stepwise II-I (D to C) but the strong leap of G to C.

That Burgundian cadential progression from G/D/B to C/G/C, despite its unusual voice leading, sowed the seeds of cadential patterns that would take full-blown shape in the 16th-century Renaissance and eventually become, in today's major-minor scale system, the familiar dominant-to-tonic (V-I) cadence.
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Grout, Donald Jay, and Claude V. Palisca. A History of Western Music. 5th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996.

Randel, Don Michael, ed. The Harvard Dictionary of Music. 4th ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press--Harvard University Press, 2003.

Sadie, Stanley, ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed. London: Macmillan, 2001.