Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of or being a medieval mode having a range from the fourth below to the fifth above its final tone.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In Gregorian music, noting a mode or melody in which the final is in the middle of the compass instead of at the bottom: opposed to authentic. See
mode - In modern music, noting a cadence in which the chord of the tonic is preceded by that of the subdominant. See
cadence .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Mus.) Having a scale running from the dominant to its octave; -- said of certain old church modes or tunes, as opposed to those called
authentic , which ran from the tonic to its octave. - adjective a cadence in which the final chord on the tonic is preceded by the chord on the subdominant.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective music Designating a
mode lying aperfect fourth below theauthentic form. - adjective music Designating a
cadence in which thesubdominant chord precedes thetonic .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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_perfect plagal cadence_, the last two are _imperfect plagal_.
Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928
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But they both heard the bittersweet longing within the plagal cadence, and chose their vocabularies accordingly.
Archive 2007-10-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2007
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The subdominant, which we all know and love from plagal "Amen" cadences, colors much of gospel harmony.
Our Prayer Matthew Guerrieri 2007
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The subdominant, which we all know and love from plagal "Amen" cadences, colors much of gospel harmony.
Archive 2007-10-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2007
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You know who else used to stack his harmonies heavily towards the plagal, the flat side of the circle of fifths?
Archive 2007-10-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2007
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The Beatles incorporated classical elements into rock so seamlessly that it is easy to forget that string quartets and Bach-like countermelodies and bass lines (not to mention plagal cadences) did not always populate pop.
Question of the Day 2007
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Final cadences often have short plagal extensions, with pedal notes normally occurring only at these places, often in the top voice.
Archive 2009-06-01 Lu 2009
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You know who else used to stack his harmonies heavily towards the plagal, the flat side of the circle of fifths?
Our Prayer Matthew Guerrieri 2007
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These “irregularities” in the treatment of the mode do not, however, infringe the rules laid down by Tinctoris in his treatises: each voice respects its own modal unity but, in addition, the combination of the first and second modes in their irregular forms creates a mixture of authentic and plagal which Tinctoris as theoretician allows.
Archive 2009-06-01 Lu 2009
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But they both heard the bittersweet longing within the plagal cadence, and chose their vocabularies accordingly.
Our Prayer Matthew Guerrieri 2007
chained_bear commented on the word plagal
"They talked about modes, agreeing that in general they preferred the Ambrosian to the plagal, and Wray said 'I was at one of their Masses the other day, when they sang the Mixolydian Agnus; and I must confess that the old gentleman's dona nobis pacem moved me almost to tears.'"
--Patrick O'Brian, Treason's Harbour, 59
February 15, 2008