Questions: Cadence Types and Harmonic Closure by Ear

Question 1

You are listening to a phrase and it ends on a chord that sounds sustained, open, and unresolved — like a question waiting for an answer. The bass has moved to what feels like an active, unstable note. Which cadence type best describes what you heard?

• A. Authentic cadence — the V–I motion feels active at first
• B. Plagal cadence — the 'amen' quality sounds gentle and open
• C. Half cadence — the phrase ends on V, creating incompleteness
• D. Deceptive cadence — the resolution was withheld unexpectedly

Answer: (C)

The description — open, unresolved, question-like, phrase waiting for a response — is the defining feel of a half cadence, which ends on V without resolving to I. The dominant chord is inherently unstable; landing there at a phrase boundary creates exactly this sense of incompleteness. A deceptive cadence would feel more like a surprise (you expected resolution but got something unexpected), whereas a half cadence feels like suspension or anticipation.

Question 2

A phrase appears to be heading toward a conclusive V–I close, but instead of landing on I, it lands on an unexpected chord that shares two notes with the tonic triad. The music continues rather than ending. Which cadence occurred?

• A. Perfect authentic cadence — the two shared notes create sufficient resolution
• B. Plagal cadence — IV shares notes with I and can substitute for it
• C. Deceptive cadence — V resolved to vi instead of I, denying the expected close
• D. Half cadence — the phrase ended on an unstable harmony

Answer: (C)

This is the deceptive cadence: V moves to vi rather than I. The vi chord shares two notes with I (in C major: vi is A–C–E, I is C–E–G, sharing C and E), which is why it functions as a plausible but unsatisfying substitute. The surprise quality — you expected I and didn't get it — combined with the music continuing, is the hallmark of the deceptive cadence. Composers use it to extend a phrase by denying the expected close.

Question 3

A half cadence creates a sense of incompleteness because it ends a phrase on the dominant harmony without resolving to tonic.

• T. True
• F. False

Answer: True

The dominant chord (V) is inherently unstable in tonal music — it contains the leading tone that wants to rise to the tonic, and its overall sound creates tension that demands release. Ending a phrase there leaves that tension unresolved, producing the 'question mark' feeling. Phrases ending with half cadences often come in pairs with a following phrase that provides an authentic cadence — the question and its answer.

Question 4

The plagal cadence (IV–I) is stronger and more conclusive than the authentic cadence (V–I) because IV is a step closer to I in the harmonic series.

• T. True
• F. False

Answer: False

The authentic cadence (V–I) is the strongest close in tonal music, not the plagal. The V chord contains the leading tone (scale degree 7), which has a strong half-step pull up to the tonic, and the tritone between scale degrees 4 and 7 creates the most harmonically tense interval in diatonic music. The plagal cadence (IV–I) lacks this leading-tone tension; it sounds gentle, soft, and archaic — the 'amen' effect — precisely because it does not have the sharp drive toward resolution that V–I creates.

Question 5

How does training your ear to hear the degree of closure — rather than just whether a cadence happened — improve cadence recognition in practice?

Model answer: Different authentic cadences produce different degrees of closure: a perfect authentic cadence (V–I, both in root position, scale degree 1 in soprano) sounds fully final, while an imperfect authentic cadence sounds more like a comma than a period. Hearing these shades lets you distinguish structural endpoints from mid-phrase resting points. It also helps differentiate deceptive cadences (where closure is withheld) from weak authentic cadences (where closure is partial), and half cadences (open, waiting) from plagal cadences (soft, settled).

Cadence recognition in real music rarely comes with labeled chord symbols. Your ear must navigate continuous musical sound and identify formal boundaries from feeling alone. The degree of closure is the primary cue: fully final (PAC), partially settled (IAC), gently closed (plagal), openly suspended (half), or surprisingly withheld (deceptive). Each has a distinct emotional texture that, with practice, becomes recognizable before any conscious harmonic analysis.