Cadence
A cadence is the chord progression that ends a musical phrase, and it tells the listener whether the music has finished or will go on.
What are the four cadences?
Each cadence is named by its last two chords. In C major:
| Cadence | Also called (UK) | Chords | In C major | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Authentic | Perfect | V → I | G → C | Ends. Nothing left open. |
| Plagal | Plagal | IV → I | F → C | Ends softly, without a leading tone. |
| Half | Imperfect | … → V | ends on G | Stops unfinished, like a comma. |
| Deceptive | Interrupted | V → vi | G → Am | Sets up an ending and swerves. |
The American and British names describe the same four cadences.
How do you recognise a cadence by ear?
Ask two questions at the end of a phrase.
- Did it land on the tonic? Authentic and plagal do. Half and deceptive do not.
- Was there a pull, or did it just settle? In an authentic cadence the leading tone (B in C major) rises a semitone into the tonic, and you hear it arrive. A plagal cadence has no such note, so it settles. A deceptive cadence has the pull and then lands on vi, A–C–E, which shares two notes with C–E–G and is almost home.
Many tunes are built in pairs: a first phrase ending in a half cadence, answered by a second ending in an authentic one.
What is the most common confusion?
Naming a cadence by the chord it starts on. A half cadence is defined by ending on V, whatever comes before it, so I–V, IV–V and ii–V are all half cadences.
The two naming systems collide on one word. A British imperfect cadence is a half cadence, ending on V. An American imperfect authentic cadence is still V–I: it only misses one of the conditions of a perfect authentic cadence, which are both chords in root position and the tonic as the top note.
The word also gets mixed up with cadenza, which shares its origin but means something else: a solo passage, often improvised or written to sound improvised, usually near the end of a concerto movement.
Try it: The Four Cadences plays short progressions and asks which of the four ways each one ended.