Clausula cantizans = ⑦–① cadence Clausula altizans = ⑤/④–③ cadence Clausula tenorizans = ②–① cadence Clausula basizans (or bassizans) = ⑤–① cadence Treatises up to and including the first half of the 18th century mostly considered cadences from a melodic and polyphonic point of view. Instead of seeing a cadence in terms of a chord
A Neapolitan sixth chord is a chord on ④ with a minor third and a minor sixth. It typically occurs in minor, although you may occasionally encounter it in major as well. In both modes, the sixth doesn’t belong to the scale but is a chromatically lowered version of ➋, giving its specific flavour to
What Is a Neapolitan Sixth Chord? Read More »
Gjerdingen argues that “the fluid mixing and matching of schemata would seem to exemplify perfectly the ars combinatoria [or ‘art of combinations’] … this was a philosophical tradition cited by Riepel and other eighteenth-century musicians” (Gjerdingen, 2007: 99 & 115). Select Bibliography Gjerdingen, Robert O. Music in the Galant Style (New York: Oxford University Press,
What Is Ars Combinatoria? Read More »
A term of Robert O. Gjerdingen. A descending melodic sixth or a descending stepwise melodic progression from ➋ to ➍ as an ornament of ➍, after which the latter steps down to ➌. The High ➋ Drop is often used in the context of a Prinner. Gjerdingen has labelled this ornamental gesture the High ➋
What Is a High ➋ Drop? Read More »
We speak of complementary rhythm (in a two-part setting) when two parts alternate a rhythmic motive so that a regular rhythmic pattern emerges.
What Is Complementary Rhythm? Read More »
A direct octave occurs when two voices move in the same direction, the upper voice leaping, and produce a vertical octave. This voice leading is normally considered a (soft) error, although composers did accept it under certain conditions, for instance by including a suspension in an inner voice at the moment of the direct octave.
What Is a Direct Octave? Read More »
A direct fifth occurs when two voices move in the same direction, the upper voice leaping, and produce a vertical fifth. This voice leading is normally considered a (soft) error, although composers did accept it under certain conditions, for instance by including a suspension in an inner voice at the moment of the direct fifth.
What Is a Direct Fifth? Read More »
In his influencial Abhandlung von der Fuge (1753), Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718–1795) uses the expression per arsin et thesin “to refer to the entrance of a theme (usually a fugue subject) with displaced accents, former strong beats becoming weak and vice versa” (Walker, Arsis, thesis). (Marpurg was a German author, music critic, music theorist and
What Does Per Arsin Et Thesin Mean? Read More »
Sine pausa (without pause) refers to the fact that several voices, which are involved in canonic or stretto constructions, produce a simultaneous start of the same motif, theme or fugal subject, whether or not at different pitch levels, in inversion or including different rhythmic proportions. See also stretto. Select Bibliography Demeyere, Ewald. Johann Sebastian Bach’s
What Does Sine Pausa Mean? Read More »
In music, stretto essentially means the overlapping of the same melodic idea/subject in two or more voices. Stretto can thus be considered a canonic technique, although it is usually applied only to a particular passage or passages within a piece that is not itself a canon. Stretto occurs typically in fugues. Paul Walker gives the