Project 13 – cadences

Project 13-a: F major

For the first cadence, I started with a mere alternation of voices, in a melismatic way, then to aim to the chord of tonic by adding an interval to the chord of dominant in each new bar. It started with the 7th, in bar 3 the 9th is used, the 11th in bar 4, the 13th in bar 5 and then moves to the chord of dominant.

Project 13-b: E minor

I wasn’t going to include this one, because the project was supposed to be done using the keyboard. The instrument used is the guitar, which is also a polyphonic one. I may change this in the end. One of the most natural keys to be used in guitar is E minor – hence the following cadence.

The cadence starts on grade IV (subdominant) this time, moves to grade V, plays some notes based on the chord of 7th of the dominant and then moves to the tonic. The beginning was supposed to start like a micro-polyphony. The same happens in bars 2-3. If this was to be the conclusion of a piece, these pro-motifs should be present in the piece, of course in a more developed way.

In the last bar, the highest note was originally a G, but it didn’t give the same impression of ending, so it was changed by a more appropriate E.

The sound on Sibelius is quite different from the one that can be achieved on a Spanish guitar (I tried at home). It is not an easy piece at my level, but it is playable.

Project 13-c: A major

This is a slower one, conceived more as belonging to a background music piece. The note at the end is one for me – this could be also in the middle of the piece, and then turn in bar 6 to the grade VI of the scale, changing the chord in the right hand, but not the bass note.

Project 13-d: G minor

Something more temperamental at the end. I had to change some notes from the original attempt because they were not playable (or at least, not with my hand width)

There’s a little alternation of hands (bar 3), but the idea here was to move quickly the chord on the keyboard towards the tonic, breaking the rhythm at some point (second beat of bar 2). I just have doubts whether it is a perfect cadence if the last bass is not the dominant note but just one note of its chord, D (the 7th).