English cadences

Noun

English cadence (plural English cadences)

1. A perfect cadence characteristic of English Renaissance music, involving a flattened seventh note played against the dominant chord (containing a regular raised seventh). Conventionally, the flattened seventh is played as part of a suspension on the penultimate beat, before resolving downwards to the sixth and then fifth of the final chord, while the raised seventh is held before resolving upward to the first; however, more complex variations are also possible.
   • A typical English cadence in C major, involving a B♭ that resolves to A followed by G, suspended on the third beat against a B♮ that resolves to C:
2. A more complex example in G major, from the end of William Byrd’s Browning à 5