Research Results For 'Plagal'

AUTHENTIC

In music, the term authentic describes something as having as immediate relation to the tonic, in distinction from plagal, which has a correspondent relation to the dominant in the octave below the tonic.

CADENCE

In music, cadence is the name given to the closing - usually last two - chords of a phrase. The varieties of cadence may be grouped as perfect, imperfect and interrupted. The perfect must have its last chord on the tonic. When the penultimate chord is on the subdominant it is called an 'authentic'; when on the dominant, a 'plagal' cadence. The harmony of the imperfect is often that of the perfect reversed. The interrupted is a progression of chords leading the ear to expect a tonic chord, but another is substituted for the latter; the effect is often as charming as it is unexpected.
Research Cadence

GREGORIAN TONES

In music, the Gregorian tones are a tonal system introduced by Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great). In the early ages of church music the Greek system of tetrachords, or what was supposed to be the Greek system, was followed. There were in the time of Ambrose of Milan fifteen so-called Greek modes or scales in use. In order to simplify church music he selected four of these scales, the Dorian, Phrygian, AEolian, and Mixo-Lydian, to which he attempted to reduce all the chants and melodies sung in church. This selection of scales was soon found to be too limited. The church singers refused to be bound to it, and it failed to represent the melodies actually in use. In these circumstances Gregory I introduced a new reform and extension of church music. To each of the scales admitted by Ambrose he added a new scale or mode, commencing with the fourth below the key-note of the original scale. These new scales he called plagal, while to the four introduced by Ambrose he gave the name of authentic. He introduced the practice of naming the tones by the letters of the alphabet. The scale of C, with the semitones between the 3d and 4th, and the 7th and 8th, which in the modern system is called the natural scale, and is the pattern on which all the others are formed, was one of the plagal scales introduced as an innovation by Gregory I.
Research Gregorian Tones

PLAGAL

In music, plagal describes a piece as having a scale running from the dominant to its octave. It is said of certain old church modes or tunes, as opposed to those called authentic, which ran from the tonic to its octave.
Research Plagal

PLAGAL CADENCE

In music a plagal cadence is a cadence in which the final chord on the tonic is preceded by the chord on the subdominant.
Research Plagal Cadence

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