English cadence

{ %\override Score.SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t %\set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/16) << \new StaffGroup << \new Staff << \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 4 = 72 \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"voice oohs" \clef treble \time 4/4 \relative c' { \clef treble \time 4/4 f8 e a2 \once \override NoteHead.color = #red gis4 a1 } \addlyrics { (su) -- _ _ mi -- tur, } >> \new Staff << \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"voice oohs" \clef treble \time 4/4 \new Voice \relative c' { d4. c8 b4 b a1 } \addlyrics { su -- _ _ mi -- tur, } >> \new Staff << \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"voice oohs" \clef treble \time 4/4 \new Voice \relative c' { f4 f e4. d8 cis2. e4 } \addlyrics { Chri -- stus su -- mi -- tur, re- } >> \new Staff << \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"voice oohs" \clef "treble_8" \time 4/4 \new Voice \relative c' { a4 f \once \override NoteHead.color = #red g?4. f8 e1 } \addlyrics { su -- _ _ mi -- tur, } >> \new Staff << \clef bass \time 4/4 \new Voice \relative c { d4 d e e a,1 } \addlyrics { Chri -- stus su -- mi -- tur, } >> >> >> }
Excerpt from O sacrum convivium by Thomas Tallis. The courtesy accidental on the tenor's G natural is editorial.

In classical music theory, the English cadence is a contrapuntal pattern particular to the authentic or perfect cadence. It features a flattened seventh scale degree against the dominant chord,[1] which in the key of C would be B♭ and G–B♮–D.

Popular with English composers of the High Renaissance and Restoration periods in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the English cadence is described as archaic[2] or old-fashioned[3] sounding. It was first given its name in the twentieth century.

The hallmark of this device is the dissonant augmented octave (compound augmented unison) produced by a false relation between the split seventh scale degree.

  1. ^ van der Merwe, Peter (2005). Roots of the Classical: The Popular Origins of Western Music, p. 492. ISBN 0-19-816647-8.
  2. ^ Carver, Anthony (1988). The Development of Sacred Polychoral Music to the Time of Schütz, p. 136. ISBN 0-521-30398-2. If the clash cadence is already, "archaic, [and/or] mannered," in the music of Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) it must surely be so now.
  3. ^ Herissone, Rebecca (2001). Music Theory in Seventeenth-Century England, p. 170. ISBN 0-19-816700-8.