Lessons in Music Form Part 5

This important fact concerning the actual value of the cadence-chord remains unchanged, through all the licenses taken in disguising or (apparently) diminishing its value. Whatever means may be resorted to, in modifying the cadence, they do not alter the fact that _the cadence-chord is always ent.i.tled to this full sum of beats_; and these beats virtually represent the cadence-chord, either in its unchanged form (as in Ex. 19 and Ex. 16) or in any of the manifold disguised forms ill.u.s.trated in the following examples.

One of the simplest forms is shown in Ex. 15:--The cadence-chord, on the accented beat of the fourth measure, is ent.i.tled to the six beats contained in that final measure. One beat is borrowed for the preliminary tone of the next phrase (that does not appear in our example, but corresponds to the preliminary tone at the beginning); and three beats are represented by rests, which cancel the resonance of the melody-tone _g_, but do not actually negate the effect of the cadence-chord. In consequence of these two reductions, the time-value of the _cadence-tone_ is diminished to two beats, and the whole cadence a.s.sumes a lighter, less obstinate and stagnant character. Of the six beats belonging to the cadence-chord, four are occupied by the tones of the accompaniment, which thus serves to bridge over the measure of repose without destroying the impression of a cadence.

The treatment of the cadence is similar to this in Ex. 18.

In Ex. 17, No. 1, the cadence-chord falls, properly, upon the primary accent (first beat) of the final measure--in this instance the fifth measure, as we have learned. The six beats to which it is ent.i.tled are all occupied by the simple reiteration of the final melody tone, while the sense of "interruption" is imparted by the long rest in the lower parts.

It is by thus sustaining the rhythmic pulse, during the measure allotted to the cadence-chord, that the desired dual impression,--that of cadential interruption without actual cessation,--is secured. It is like rounding off a corner that might otherwise be too angular or abrupt.

The question naturally arises: What tones are chosen to provide material for this continuation of the rhythm? They are usually derived from the cadence-chord, or its auxiliary embellishments; and the methods employed may be cla.s.sified as follows:

(1) The rhythmic pulse is marked in the accompanying (subordinate) parts, as seen in Ex. 15, Ex. 18, and the following:--

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example 20. Fragment of Mendelssohn.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example 20 continued.]

The point of repose is marked by the longer melody tone _f_, on the accent of the fourth measure. The value of the cadence-chord is recorded, however, in the living tones of the accompanying figure, which here (as in almost every similar case in composition) continues its rhythmic movement undisturbed.

(2) The cadence-chord, or, more properly, the _cadence-tone_ in the melody, is shifted to some later beat in the cadence measure. Thus:

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example 21. Fragment of Mozart.]

In this example there is in reality no irregularity, because the cadence-tone rests upon an _accented beat_ (the fourth, in 6-8 measure), and the conditions of a cadence are fulfilled by _any_ accent, primary or secondary, of the final measure. But it belongs, nevertheless, to this cla.s.s of disguised cadences; for whatever results, thus, in abbreviating the value of the cadence-chord, lightens the effect of the cadence, and serves the desirable purpose so persistently pursued by all good writers. Further:--

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example 22. Fragment of Beethoven.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example 22 continued. Fragments of Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Mozart.]

Nos. 2 and 3 ill.u.s.trate the method most commonly adopted in shifting the cadence-tone forward to a later beat; namely, by placing an embellishing tone (usually the upper or lower neighbor) of the cadence-tone upon the accented beat belonging properly to the latter.

Nos. 4 and 5 are both extreme cases; the actual cadence-tone is shifted to the very end of the measure, so that the effect of cadential interruption is very vague and transient,--and will be quite lost unless the player is intelligent enough to emphasize, slightly, the phrasing (by making a distinct, though very brief, pause before attacking the following measure). See also Ex. 17, No. 2, the first phrase; here, again, the melody runs on (through tones which embellish the cadence-chord, _f-a-c_) to the last 8th-note of the fourth measure.

(3) A certain--entirely optional--number of tones are borrowed from the value of the cadence-chord, as _preliminary tones_ of the following phrase. An ill.u.s.tration of this has already been seen in Ex. 14, No. 2 and No. 3. It is the employment of such preliminary tones, that, as thoroughly explained in Chapter III, creates a distinction between the _melodic_ beginning and the actual vital starting point of the phrase; or that gives the phrase an apparently shifted location in its measures.

Further (the actual cadence-tone is marked):--

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example 23. Fragments of Beethoven and Mendelssohn.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example 23 continued. Fragment of Mendelssohn.]

No. 1 ill.u.s.trates, again, the absence of preliminary tones in one phrase, and their presence in the next. In each of these examples (excepting, perhaps, No. 2) the cadence is so thoroughly disguised that there is little, if any, evidence left of the "point of repose." In No. 4, particularly, the cadence-measure is rhythmically the most active one in the phrase. And yet the presence of a genuine cadence at each of these places, marked *, is as certain and indisputable as in Ex. 19. The ear will accept a cadence upon the slightest evidence _in the right place_,--where a cadence is expected. See, also, Mozart pianoforte sonata No. 10 (in D major), first 12 measures; measure 8 is a _cadence-measure_.

Here follow a few more examples which ill.u.s.trate the most extreme application of this principle of borrowed tones,--a mode of treatment very common in the music of Mozart, Haydn, and, in fact, all cla.s.sic writers:--

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example 24. Fragments of Mozart.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example 24 continued. Fragment of Beethoven.]

It is difficult to believe that in each of these cases the long array of 16th-notes should not const.i.tute the actual beginning of the phrase, but are only preliminary; and yet this is the only correct view to take of it, and it is the view which will simplify all a.n.a.lysis, when thoroughly comprehended. It must be seen that the cl.u.s.ter of 16th-notes in the cadence-measure (of the preceding phrase) is _one-sixteenth short of a full measure_, and, therefore, it does not represent the first measure of the next phrase, because our inviolable rule is that the first measure of a phrase is its first _full_ measure.

The above examples emphasize the correct manner of counting the measures; and they simply ill.u.s.trate possible methods of _disguising the cadence_.

In some cases it is difficult to determine whether the tones which thus disturb the "repose" of the cadence-measure belong to the cadence-chord (that is, to the _present_ phrase), or, as preliminary tones, to the following phrase. Upon careful scrutiny, however, it will be found possible to decide, by examining their melodic bearing, to which phrase they pertain. In Example 22, they are manifestly (even in No. 5) a part of the present phrase; in Example 23 and 24 they are as certainly preliminary to the phrase which follows. In the following example they seem to const.i.tute an entirely independent little "interlude," without direct reference to either phrase:

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example 25. Fragment of Mozart.]

THE ELISION.--Finally, there are some (very rare) instances where the composer appears to yield to the seductive influence of such extensive preliminary groups as those seen in Example 24, and by setting aside the trifling discrepancy, permits the apparent preliminary tones to represent the _actual first measure of the next phrase_. This is easily accomplished, when, as in Example 24, No. 2, it is only one 16th-note short of a full measure. And although this 16th, being the cadence-chord, is actually equivalent to the whole measure, it is sometimes less confusing to the hearer to silence it. This is called stifling the cadence (or Elision); and its presence depends simply upon sufficient proof that what was supposed to be the cadence-measure (and to a certain extent is such) is at the same time _really the first measure of the next sentence_. The following contains an ill.u.s.tration of the elision of a cadence:

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example 26. Fragment of Mozart.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example 26 continued.]

The proofs of this very singular and apparently untrustworthy a.n.a.lysis are: (1) That there is absolutely no doubt about the first cadence, marked *; (2) that a cadence is consequently due, and expected, four measures later,--this proving the measure in question to be the "cadence-measure of the old phrase," as it is marked and as it appeals to our sense of cadence; (3) that the last four measures unmistakably represent a regular, compact phrase,--this proving that the "cadence-measure of the old phrase" is unquestionably _at the same time the first measure, or actual beginning, of the new phrase_. In a word, one measure is lost--not in effect, for the elements of the expected cadence are all present,--but in the counting. This lost measure is the stifled cadence-measure, omitted by Elision.

Such cases are, as stated, very rare; so rare that the student will do wisely to leave them quite out of his calculations.

In order to elucidate the embarra.s.sing matter still more fully, we shall take two more examples of a very misleading character, which the superficial observer would probably define as elisions, but which are almost certainly regular cases of disguised cadence merely:

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example 27. Fragment of Mozart.]

Here again there is no doubt of the presence of a cadence at the first *; but this "cadence-measure" appears almost as certainly to be at the same time the initial measure of a new phrase. This, however, proves not to be the case, because _there are four measures left, without this one_. That is, counting backward from the final cadence, we locate the "first measure" after, not _with_, the cadence-measure. And this is the way the pa.s.sage was meant to sound by its author, and the way it will and must sound to the student who has properly cultivated his sense of cadence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example 28. Fragment of Beethoven.]

This case is extremely misleading; it is hard to believe (and feel) that the characteristic onset of the 16th-triplet figure does not herald the new phrase; but all the indications of strict, unswerving a.n.a.lysis (not to be duped by appearances) point to the fact that this is one of the common cases of disguised cadence, and not an elision of the cadence. The _sforzando_ marks of Beethoven confirm this view, and, as in Example 27, we have our four measures to the next cadence, without this "cadence-measure."

The characteristic traits of all these various phases of cadence formation are:--

(1) That the actual cadence-tone in the melody may be of any time-value, from the full extent of the cadence-measure down to the smallest fraction of that measure. In Ex. 19 it was the former, unbroken; in Ex. 17, No. 1, also, but broken into the six pulses of the measure; in Ex. 20 it was shortened, by a rest, to one-half its real value; in Ex. 26 it was reduced to one-quarter of its true value; in Ex. 25, to one 8th-note; and in Ex. 24, No. 3, to one 16th-note.

(2) That the cadence-tone in the melody may be shifted forward to almost any point beyond its expected position upon the primary accent.

In Ex. 20 (and many other of the given ill.u.s.trations) it stands in its legitimate place, at the beginning of the measure; in Ex. 21 it stands upon the _second_ accent of the measure; in Ex. 22, No. 1, on the second beat in 3-4 measure; in Ex. 22, No. 5, on the third beat of the triple-measure; in Ex. 22, No. 4, on the last eighth note in the measure.

(3) That in almost every case the effect of absolute cessation is softened by marking the rhythm of the cadence-measure; in no case is the rhythm permitted to pause (not even in Ex. 19, where the accompaniment, not shown, is carried along in unbroken 8th-notes). In some part or other, by some means or other, the cadence-measure is kept alive; either by continuing the accompaniment, as in Exs. 18 and 20, or by quickly picking up a new rhythm, as in Exs. 27 and 28. Conspicuous exceptions to this rule will be found, it is true, in hymn-tunes and the like; though occasionally even there, as the student may recall, the rhythm, in some cadence-measures, is carried along by one or more of the inner voices; for example, in the hymn-tune "Lead, Kindly Light," of J. B. d.y.k.es. (See also Ex. 29.)

SPECIES OF CADENCE.--In text-books and musical dictionaries several varieties of the cadence are distinguished, but they are chiefly distinctions without any more than one essential point of difference, namely, difference in force or weight. It is therefore feasible to reduce all these varieties to two,--the heavy cadence and the light cadence. The former is represented by the so-called Perfect cadence, the latter by the many grades of Semicadence.