Clause

Clause ( Latin / Italian clausula ) has been a formulaic phrase in western music theory since the 12th century, which is used in polyphonic music to articulate a conclusion. The term “cadenza” has often been used in the same meaning as cadenza or cadentia , especially in Italian sources since the late 15th century. In today's parlance, the clause aims in particular at the tone sequences that contribute to the conclusion in the individual voices of a polyphonic sentence, and cadence at the sound progression, which consists of the combination of several clauses.

Structure in two voices

A fundamental aspect is the sequence from the penultimate tone or sound ( panultima ) to the target tone or sound ( ultima ) of the final turn . From the 16th century onwards, the third to last station ( Antepenultima ) is also included in the theoretical consideration. Even the oldest counterpoint treatises (14th century), which focus on two-part voices, emphasize that the

• Ultima should be a perfect consonance ,
• which is achieved through a step-by-step countermovement, i.e. after an imperfect consonant panultima ,
• whereby a semitone movement of one of the two voices is also desirable:

The third - fifth (3–5) option became increasingly unusual in the 16th century at the latest. The episodes 6–8 and 3–1 remained as a framework for clauses or cadence.

The progression of imperfect consonance - perfect consonance - was expanded by adding a syncope dissonance in front of the panultima :

Designations

Since the 16th century, German-speaking music theorists in particular have been naming the tone sequences within these interval progressions after the parts of a choral movement: However, this assignment did not rule out that these clauses are also used in other parts. The two clauses that form the cadence structure from the series 6–8 and 3–1 are still referred to by Johann Gottfried Walther in 1732 as the clausulae principales (main clauses):

• Tenor clause ( clausula tenorizans ): reaches the target tone of the cadence step by step from above;
• Treble or soprano clause ( clausula cantizans ) reaches the target sound of the cadence gradually from the bottom, usually after a syncope dissonance.

Cadenzas in which the semitone step to the target tone is not in the soprano but in the tenor clause are used in the 16th century and later. a. clausula in mi (Mi cadence). Today it is also called the Phrygian cadence .

If, on the other hand, the semitone step is in the soprano clause, the clausulae principales can be underlaid with a bass clause ( clausula bassizans ) consisting of a fifth or fourth ascent to the target note of the cadence. Viewed from this bass part, the syncope dissonance between the clausulae principales is a tied fourth ( fourth lead ). Above this, old clauses ( clausula altizans ) can be set that begin with the panultima of the bass clause (or an octave above) and then add either the fifth or the third of the final chord. The ultimate of an old clause is therefore not the target tone of the cadence. In the 16th century, the tenor clause was increasingly taken as a matter of course upwards into the third above the target tone and has since appeared in two variants:

Cadenza Plagale

A Phrygian tenor clause cannot be combined with a bass clause, because the two panultimes would not form a pure fifth , but a diminished fifth (in the following note example h – f), which is considered a dissonance . Instead, the lower voice can bring the lower terez to the panultima of the tenor clause and reach the lower fifth of the ultima of the tenor clause by falling fourth or increasing fifth. Viewed from this bass voice, the syncope dissonance between the clausulae principales is a tied ninth (non-lead). Padre Martini 1774 calls a cadenza with a fourth or fifth rise in the bass part Cadenza Plagale (in contrast to Cadenza Ordinaria , where the regular bass clause is in the lower part):

See also

• Landino Clause
• Parallel cadence

literature

• Johann Gottfried Walther : Musicalisches Lexicon or Musicalische Bibliothec [...]. Wolffgang Deer, Leipzig 1732 ( online ).
• Thomas Daniel: counterpoint. A set theory for vowel polyphony of the 16th century . Dohr, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-925366-43-1 .
• Ludwig Holtmeier : Art. Cadence / Clause . In: Lexicon of Systematic Musicology , ed. by Helga de la Motte-Haber u. a., Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2010, ISBN 978-3890075662 , pp. 202-206.
• Johannes Menke : Counterpoint I: The Music of the Renaissance . Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2015, ISBN 978-3-89007-825-0 .
• Klaus-Jürgen Sachs: The contrapunctus doctrine in the 14th and 15th centuries . In: The medieval theory of polyphony (= history of music theory 5), ed. by Frieder Zaminer, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1984, ISBN 3-534-01200-3 , pp. 161-256.
• Siegfried Schmalzriedt : Art. Clausula . In: Concise dictionary of musical terminology . Vol. 1, ed. by Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht and Albrecht Riethmüller , editor-in-chief Markus Bandur, Steiner, Stuttgart 1972 ( online ).
• Siegfried Schmalzriedt: Art. Cadence . In: Concise dictionary of musical terminology . Vol. 3, ed. by Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht and Albrecht Riethmüller , editor-in-chief Markus Bandur, Steiner, Stuttgart 1972 ( online ).

Web links

• Examples of clauses
• Clauses and cadences on YouTube , as of April 6, 2018.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Schmalzriedt, Art. Clausula , pp. 4–5.
2. ↑ Schmalzriedt, Art. Kadenz , p. 1.
3. ↑ Schmalzriedt, Art. Kadenz , p. 8.
4. ↑ Sachs 1984, p. 192.
5. ↑ Schmalzriedt, Art. Kadenz , pp. 7–8.
6. ↑ Walther 1732, p. 171; Schmalzriedt, Art. Cadence , p. 8
7. ↑ Schmalzriedt, Art. Kadenz , p. 9
8. ↑ See e.g. B. Daniel 1997, p. 208.
9. ↑ Schmalzriedt, Art. Kadenz , p. 9