Harmony
Cadences: How Phrases End in Tonal Music
Authentic, half, plagal and deceptive cadences, and the real reason a close sounds strong: what happens in the bass, the top voice and the metre.
Phrase
A unit of melody or harmony, usually around four bars in tonal music, that ends with a cadence and forms a complete musical thought.
Also called: Musical phrase, Melodic phrase
A phrase is a unit of musical thought, often about four bars long in tonal music, that ends with a cadence. The end of a phrase is marked when harmony, melody and rhythm agree that a point of rest has been reached. A four-bar phrase in C major might move from I to V in bars one to three, then close with an authentic or half cadence in bar four. Phrases combine into larger units. A period is two phrases, an antecedent and a consequent, and a sentence is built from a presentation and a continuation. Phrase length is conventional rather than fixed: some phrases are extended by an extra bar, and a phrase ending can overlap with the beginning of the next. Phrase structure is what makes a melody sound paced and grammatical.
Related terms
- PeriodA two-phrase unit in which an antecedent ends on a weaker cadence and a consequent answers it with a stronger one, closing on a tonic.
- SentenceAn eight-bar phrase structure of a presentation, which states a basic idea, followed by a continuation that accelerates toward a cadence.
- CadenceA conventional pattern at the end of a phrase or section that gives a sense of closure, pause or continuation.
- MotifA short melodic, rhythmic or harmonic idea that recurs and develops across a piece, serving as its basic thematic unit.