Hey

can anyone help me with listening and identifying cadences.
I just don't seem to get it if its not perfect. :S

help meee :S


thanks
micky

Well, one way of id-ing a plagal cadence is how it sounds like the 'amen' sound...it'll sound finished, but not as final as a perfect cadence.

And with an imperfect cadence, you'll be finding yourself wanting to sing the tonic again - whenever this happens you'll know it's an imperfect cadence because you'll almost be 'wanting a perfect cadence' in your head!!

Hope that makes sense. Sorry if it doesn't work - it works for me, though!!

Laura

yeah i know stuff like that its just i don't get it.

I don't know.

im confused

Well, are you using any method or just trying to recognise cadences by getting to know 'what they sound like' in some vague way?

What you need to do is focus on the bass part of what you are played. If you can sing a scale (let's use C major) then were you to sing the 5th degree to the 1st that would be what the bass line does at a perfect cadence. Note here that it is the degrees of the scale you are identifying; were the bass to rise from G to the upper C i.e. by a 4th, that is still a perfect cadence. Some people get confused and think that is a plagal cadence. [Don't confuse intervals (V-I) with cadence types, by thinking the bass will always jump a 5th.]

So the method is this. Listen to what you are played and pick out the bass line. Work out (having been given the key chord) what degrees of the scale the bass had in the 2 cadence chords.
If V - I it is perfect, if IV to I it is plagal.

Now there is a 'cheat' for the interrupted cadence. If you heard the 5th degree of the scale in the bass (i.e. under a dominant chord) you'd expect it (for the sake of argument) to be the 1st chord of a perfect cadence. If it is followed by something more striking which prevents the perfect cadence from happening, it is an interrupted one.

Be careful with calling the Plagal and Amen cadence; the bass goes IV to I but the melody (which you should not listen to) doesn't necessarily go C - C (i.e. you could sing Amen on a single note) since there top part could go F to E; in church Amens are not always sung to the same note for both syllables as is often thought. I agree that the plagal cadence sounds finished, but not in quite such a positive way as a perfect one.

The Imperfect cadence sounds in complete but the bass can do various things. If it ends on the 5th degree, then it is an imperfect cadence.

I expect others will add to this thread. The same method doesn't suit everypne, but I restate that it is the bass part you need to pick out.

Bourdon16 has said most of the stuff I use to work out cadences but is there not a website that could give you practise in identifying cadences?? I don't know of one, but surely someone knows of something?
I know that would really help me too...

I divide cadences into finished and unfinished

Finished - perfect or plagal. Hold the tonic in your head - if it is a plagal cadence - IV-I - the tonic is present in both chords and sounds fine with both chords. If it is a perfect cadence - V-I - the tonic is discordant with the dominant chord.

Unfinished - imperfect or interrupted. Imperfect sounds like the music wants to continue - like an unanswered question. Imperfect - ending on dominant, sounds OK and an expected chord, whereas the interrupted sounds unexpected - going off in an unexpected direction.

Hope this helps :-)

is the end of mozarts requim (i think its second movement)

a plagal cadence where it goes "A-men"

?

right...

perfect: sounds finished, is you sing the tonic doesn't fit
plagal: sounds finished, if you sing the tonic, sounds nice
imperfect: not finished, but sounds right
interrupted: unexpected chords and intervals

I find it helps to know what the tonality of the chords are - not so much in a major key but in a minor key:
Major key
Perfect is Major - Major
Imperfect is Major or Minor - Major
Plagal is Major - Major
Interupted is Major - Minor

Minor keys
Perfect - Major - Minor
Imperfect - Minor or Diminished - Major
Plagal - Minor - Minor
Interupted Major to Major

Which instrument do you play? Do you have any keyboard skills? It REALLY helps if you can sit down and play through every cadence each day, one after the other. It might be slow to start with, but you will speed up and your ear will start to get attuned to them.........

Lots of good suggestions from several people, including this one, except that I wouldn't play through all the cadences one after another - at least not to star with ... I'd spend a week or two concentrating on each one separately - all possible keys and arrangements - until you can easily recognize them by the unique quality of the harmonic change.

This book is really good. If you can work through it at a keyboard you will really know some harmony when you are finished Harmony in Context . It is no longer in print but you can still find it second-hand. But it is the Steinit and Sterman book you want - not the Roig-Francoli b ook with the same title.