Ewald Demeyere

In my essay The Indugio (Part 1), I explain that an Indugio —a term by Gjerdingen— is essentially a pedal point on ④, set with a sixth chord or a 6/5 chord used to delay the conclusion of a cadence. In this essay, I address a variant that Gjerdingen also discusses but didn’t give an

A term of Robert O. Gjerdingen, named after the comic character of the commedia dell’arte. The Pulcinella exists in two versions. The (Complete) Pulcinella The (complete) Pulcinella is a cadential gesture with a ③–④–⑤–① snippet in the bass that ignores the usual sixth chord or 6/5 chord on ④. Instead, the bass of a Pulcinella

This essay is the first of two exploring a schema that Robert O. Gjerdingen has labelled Indugio (Italian for the act of lingering). An Indugio is essentially a pedal point on ④ set with a sixth chord or a 6/5 chord used to postpone the conclusion of a cadence. To facilitate the reading of this

A term of Robert O. Gjerdingen. An important ornament in the melody of a Converging Cadence is what Gjerdingen calls a High ➏ Drop. Instead of setting ④ with ➋ (a vertical sixth), it is set with a high ➏ (a vertical third), interrupting the stepwise descent. As such, the snippet ➋–➊ is pushed back

This essay discusses some examples given by Robert O. Gjerdingen in his book Music in the Galant Style of a Romanesca followed by a Prinner. A typical galant pair of schemata is that in which a Romanesca begins a composition (a proposta schema) and is followed —or ’answered’— by a Prinner (a risposta schema). For

As we saw in my essay The Quiescenza: The Basics, a Quiescenza is a tonic pedal point with four or five sonorities, 5/3 – [7♭/5/3 –] 6/4 – 7(♮)/4/2 – 8/5/3, and a ➎–➏–➐–➊ or ➊–♭➐–➏–(♮)➐–➊ treble line that can be used as a proposta schema or occur in a closing passage. In this essay,

This essay is the first of two exploring a schema that Robert O. Gjerdingen has labelled Quiescenza (Italian for a state of repose or inactivity). A Quiescenza is a tonic pedal point with four or five sonorities, 5/3 – [7♭/5/3 –] 6/4 – 7(♮)/4/2 – 8/5/3, and a ➎–➏–➐–➊ or ➊–♭➐–➏–(♮)➐–➊ treble line that can

A Cudworth cadence is of the most common and typical galant cadences. It combines a ③–④–⑤ bass with a complete descending scale in the upper part from ➊ to ➊. Gjerdingen named this cadence in honour of English musicologist Charles L. Cudworth (1908–1977), who first discussed this type of cadence. This is the model Cudworth

(This essay also discusses the High ➏ Drop.) Term by Robert O. Gjerdingen. A Converging cadence, which is a type of half cadence, “is so named by virtue of the way its two outer voices move toward each other, converging on the dominant” (Gjerdingen (2007), p. 159). The Two-Part Converging Cadence A Converging cadence can