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

Term coined by Robert O. Gjerdingen. In the words of Gjerdingen, referring to the first movement of Keyboard Sonata in C major KV545 by Mozart: “The endings of the first and second halves of a famous Mozart keyboard sonata present the two most common variants of the Final Fall… The first is the more galant,

An appoggiatura is a non-chordal note on a beat

Term coined by Robert O. Gjerdingen, after an observation by Leonard B. Meyer. In the words of Gjerdingen, “in the 1970s, Leonard B. Meyer noticed that many eighteenth-century phrases resembled the opening of the hymn tune ‘Adeste Fidelis’. Its melody, believed to date from the early eighteenth century, opens with a variant of the Do-Re-Mi

A risposta schema (or riposta schema) is a schema that follows (‘responds to’) a proposta schema. See also proposta schema. Select Bibliography Gjerdingen, Robert O. Music in the Galant Style (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

A proposta schema is a schema that begins a composition or an important section of it. See also risposta schema. Select Bibliography Gjerdingen, Robert O. Music in the Galant Style (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).