Music Glossary

Cadence: A melodic or harmonic punctuation mark at the end of a phrase, major section or entire work.
Cadence Types:
  • Perfect Authentic Cadence PAC.  (V7 or V moving to I. Both chords in Root position)
  • Imperfect Authentic Cadence IAC. (V or V7 moving to I, but with inverted chords or the soprano not finishing on the tonic)
  • Half Cadence HC. (A cadence that ends on a V chord. The V chords can be approached with chords such as I, ii, IV,  V/V, etc.) 
  • Plagal Cadence PC. (IV chord moving to I)
  • Deceptive Cadence DC. (A cadence that looks to end to I, but substitutes another chord instead)

Figured Bass: figured bass numeral is a technique for indicating chord position or voicing. Root or inversion. Stems from the Baroque compositional practice. See table below.

Figured-Bass Chart