What Is a Passo Indietro?

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A term coined by Robert O. Gjerdingen.

A Passo Indietro (It. “a step to the rear”) is a synonym for a clausula altizans or a ⑤/④–③ cadence. Gjerdingen explains: “A descent in the bass from ④ to ③ often preceded a stronger cadence. A deflection downward before reversing into the upward stepwise ascent of the standard bass [③–④–⑤–…] seems to have been a preferred strategy.”1

Select Bibiography

Bernhard, Christoph. Tractatus compositionis augmentatus, in: Die Kompositionslehre Heinrich Schützens in der Fassung seines Schülers Christoph Bernhard (fourth edition). Modern edition, ed. Joseph Müller-Blattau (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1926/2003).

Gjerdingen, Robert O. Music in the Galant Style (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

Neuwirth, Markus. Fuggir la Cadenza, or The Art of Avoiding Cadential Closure — Physiognomy and Functions of Deceptive Cadences in the Classical Repertoire, in: What Is a Cadence? Theoretical and Analytical Perspectives on Cadences in the Classical Repertoire, ed. Markus Neuwirth and Pieter Bergé (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2015), p. 117–155.

Walther, Johann Gottfried. Praecepta der Musicalischen Composition (Weimar, 1708). Modern edition, ed. Peter Benary (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel (Jenaer Beiträge zur Musikforschung — Band 2), 1955).

Werckmeister, Andreas. Harmonologia musica oder kurtze Anleitung zur Musicalischen Composition (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1702).

  1. Gjerdingen, 2007: 167. ↩︎