A Lydian cadence is a type of
half cadence
In Western musical theory, a cadence () is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (1999). ''The Harvard Concise Dic ...
that was popular in the
Ars nova
''Ars nova'' ()Fallows, David. (2001). "Ars nova". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. refers to a musical style which flourished in the Kingdom of ...
style of the 14th and early 15th century. It is so-called because it evokes the
Lydian mode
The modern Lydian mode is a seven-tone musical scale formed from a rising pattern of pitches comprising three whole tones, a semitone, two more whole tones, and a final semitone.
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Because of the importance of the major scale in modern m ...
based on its final chord as a tonic, and may be construed with the chord symbols VII-I (if the final is taken as a Lydian-mode tonic) or III-IV (if the final is taken as a in major). It is also the most common type of double-leading-tone cadence, as it contains two leading-tone resolutions (- and -). A frequently-used type of
Landini cadence
A Landini cadence (Landini sixth or Landini sixth cadence), or under-third cadence, is a type of cadence (music), cadence, a technique in music composition, named after Francesco Landini (1325–1397), an influential Italian composer, in honor o ...
is based on the Lydian cadence, with the upper voice dropping to before skipping back up to the tonic.
Cadences
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