VIm-I cadence

[Jon Riley]

My partner (in 1st year of a music degree) showed me a piece by J.S.Bach
entitled "Fuga 1 a 4 voci", in D minor, which she is analysing (we have no
other identifying details).
She is intrigued by the ending which is on a D major chord, but preceded by
G minor (in 2nd inversion). To her ears, it sounds unresolved, as if the key
(by this point) was G minor, and it was ending on the dominant.
To my ears, it sounded fine - an unusual, but attractive cadence.

I assume it is some kind of plagal cadence, but I haven't come across it
before. Does it have a name of its own, and are there other examples (in
Bach, or music of that era)?

JonR

[Brad Beyenhof]

Post by Jon Riley
My partner (in 1st year of a music degree) showed me a piece by J.S.Bach
entitled "Fuga 1 a 4 voci", in D minor, which she is analysing (we have no
other identifying details).
She is intrigued by the ending which is on a D major chord, but preceded by
G minor (in 2nd inversion). To her ears, it sounds unresolved, as if the key
(by this point) was G minor, and it was ending on the dominant.
To my ears, it sounded fine - an unusual, but attractive cadence.
I assume it is some kind of plagal cadence, but I haven't come across it
before. Does it have a name of its own, and are there other examples (in
Bach, or music of that era)?

Ending a minor tune with a major tonic triad is actually *very* common.
It's known as the "picardy third," and it's one of my favorite
devices. Admittedly, the iv6/4 - i# cadence can sound a bit odd if
you're not expecting it, but it's not enough to define a new key as your
friend suggests. It's still basically plagal, though. It also has the
added benefit of minimal motion, as two of the chord members need to
move only a semitone, and both in the same direction.

[Jon Riley]

Post by Brad Beyenhof

Post by Jon Riley
My partner (in 1st year of a music degree) showed me a piece by J.S.Bach
entitled "Fuga 1 a 4 voci", in D minor, which she is analysing (we have no
other identifying details).
She is intrigued by the ending which is on a D major chord, but preceded by
G minor (in 2nd inversion). To her ears, it sounds unresolved, as if the key
(by this point) was G minor, and it was ending on the dominant.
To my ears, it sounded fine - an unusual, but attractive cadence.
I assume it is some kind of plagal cadence, but I haven't come across it
before. Does it have a name of its own, and are there other examples (in
Bach, or music of that era)?

Ending a minor tune with a major tonic triad is actually *very* common.
It's known as the "picardy third,"

Yes, I'm aware of that. I think it was the preceding iv6/4 that was causing
the raised eyebrows here. (Made the i# sound like a V)

Post by Brad Beyenhof
Admittedly, the iv6/4 - i# cadence can sound a bit odd if
you're not expecting it, but it's not enough to define a new key as your
friend suggests. It's still basically plagal, though. It also has the
added benefit of minimal motion, as two of the chord members need to
move only a semitone, and both in the same direction.

Sure. Still be nice to know if it had its own name, tho :-) (There seem to
be dozens of different names for the usual cadences.)

thanks

JonR

[paramucho]

On Thu, 4 Mar 2004 14:13:09 -0000, "Jon Riley"

Post by Jon Riley
My partner (in 1st year of a music degree) showed me a piece by J.S.Bach
entitled "Fuga 1 a 4 voci", in D minor, which she is analysing (we have no
other identifying details).
She is intrigued by the ending which is on a D major chord, but preceded by
G minor (in 2nd inversion). To her ears, it sounds unresolved, as if the key
(by this point) was G minor, and it was ending on the dominant.
To my ears, it sounded fine - an unusual, but attractive cadence.
I assume it is some kind of plagal cadence, but I haven't come across it
before. Does it have a name of its own, and are there other examples (in
Bach, or music of that era)?

Bach often has a plagal cadence right at the end, but it usually
follows a very definite V-I cadence a few bars earlier.

What he's doing is a bit like an outro -- following the final close
with some runout material. He can be quite free in these sections -- I
recall one where the last third heard in the piece is flat, making it
sound a bit like a blues ending.

[Jon Riley]

Post by paramucho
On Thu, 4 Mar 2004 14:13:09 -0000, "Jon Riley"

Post by Jon Riley
My partner (in 1st year of a music degree) showed me a piece by J.S.Bach
entitled "Fuga 1 a 4 voci", in D minor, which she is analysing (we have no
other identifying details).
She is intrigued by the ending which is on a D major chord, but preceded by
G minor (in 2nd inversion). To her ears, it sounds unresolved, as if the key
(by this point) was G minor, and it was ending on the dominant.
To my ears, it sounded fine - an unusual, but attractive cadence.
I assume it is some kind of plagal cadence, but I haven't come across it
before. Does it have a name of its own, and are there other examples (in
Bach, or music of that era)?

Bach often has a plagal cadence right at the end, but it usually
follows a very definite V-I cadence a few bars earlier.

Yes, one of these does occur 4 bars earlier.

Post by paramucho
What he's doing is a bit like an outro -- following the final close
with some runout material.

That's just how it sounded to me. Do you know this piece?
The runout has a D pedal, over which there's a sense of (what I would call)
Cm6 and D major arpeggios intermingling.
In the melody there is a C#-D resolution again in the penultimate bar, but
over a Gm chord; then a suspension before the melody finishes on F#.

Post by paramucho
He can be quite free in these sections -- I
recall one where the last third heard in the piece is flat, making it
sound a bit like a blues ending.

What a dude. :-) Do you remember the name/source of that piece?

JonR

[Joey Goldstein]

Your subject header has a typo then? It's not VIm-I that you are
concerned about? *That* would be a fairly unusual cadence in a tonal
piece!

But IVm-I happens all time. In pieces in which the primary key is a
major key, IVm, depending on context, is usually looked at as a borrowed
chord from the parallel minor key. In a minor key IVm has subdominant
funtion (SD).

This sound appears so often in jazz and pop tunes that many jazz harmony
texts have gievn it its own harmonic function designation, namely
"subdominant minor function" (SDM).

The SDM functional designation only makes sense in major keys. In minor
keys IVm is just SD function.

If your Bach piece is really in the key of D minor then the truly novel
thing, which is still quite common, is that the piece ends on a D major
chord. As was explained earlier, this too is so common that it has a
name, the "Tierce De Picardy" (the Picardy 3rd). But usually this is
done so that there is an even greater feeling of resolution on the final
chord because the major triad has much more harmonic stability than the
minor triad.

Post by Jon Riley
My partner (in 1st year of a music degree) showed me a piece by J.S.Bach
entitled "Fuga 1 a 4 voci", in D minor, which she is analysing (we have no
other identifying details).
She is intrigued by the ending which is on a D major chord, but preceded by
G minor (in 2nd inversion). To her ears, it sounds unresolved, as if the key
(by this point) was G minor, and it was ending on the dominant.
To my ears, it sounded fine - an unusual, but attractive cadence.
I assume it is some kind of plagal cadence, but I haven't come across it
before. Does it have a name of its own, and are there other examples (in
Bach, or music of that era)?
JonR

[Greg M Silverman]

Joey Goldstein wrote:
[snip]

Post by Joey Goldstein
If your Bach piece is really in the key of D minor then the truly novel
thing, which is still quite common, is that the piece ends on a D major
chord.

[snip]

Not so unusual in Bach. BWV 999, the Prelude in C min, also has this
charateristic (that is, ends on a C major chord). The resolution is thought to
have taken place in a fugue that was suppossed to follow the prelude, but has
never been found in written manuscript and may have ony existed in Bach's head.

gms--