Which of the following cadences has a stronger desire for resolution?

[Diatonic Dissonance™]

Hey, I was asked this in music, and I'm interested in your opinion.

a) ii-V-I

b) V-IV-I

Or

c) IV-V-I

Personally, I think that V-VI-I (b) comes nowhere near the other two, but I can't quite decide between "a" and "c"...

Right now I'm leaning towards "c".

EDIT: I found that if I make c = IV-V-VIII (I[8va]) I get better resolution than I do if I leave the I loco.

What do you think?

[Speedy Fingers]

It is C.

[Diatonic Dissonance™]

:thumb:

[Firecracker]

My music teacher is a cadence-a-holic.
She will not turn a song off if it has not come to a suitable ending, and by that, she refuses to stop it. Also she won't turn the television off if the person talking is in the middle of a sentence, she has to wait until the said person has finished her sentence until she can turn the television off.

And yes, your question is C.

[clearvision]

Yeah C most def.

[Diatonic Dissonance™]

I thought so.

But a is still pretty powerful.

Especially, if you go, like, ix-V-VIII, with the octaves, know what I'm saying?

But yeah, I think C is right, but I'm saying that A is still pretty effective.

[Diatonic Dissonance™]

What about something like...

X-ixo-vii-viii.

Or, III(8va)-iio(8va)-vii-i(8va).

Sounds pretty powerful...

[Who?JohnPetrucci]

Im definetly leaning towards C.

Because it seriously leaks that it needs resolution.

Rock on with yo theory *** self.

[miku]

I think A and C are about tied.

I could totally imagine C going to iii instead of I.

[Diatonic Dissonance™]

You really think that IV-V-iii sounds powerful?

Hmm, sounds kind of imcomplete to me...

[Ned]

Rameau would say that c) stands for ii7 V7 I. Hauptmann would say that c) stands for I IV I V I, which is more symmetrical. Putting these considerations aside, the answer is a) because it has consistent root movement by descending fifths, which is the strongest root movement. It really needs to be ii7 V7 I, however.

If you want to make it stronger still, go ii7 first inversion, I second inversion, V7 root position, I root position.

[Diatonic Dissonance™]

^ Um... what?

[Ned]

You heard me, Mack.

[Diatonic Dissonance™]

Putting these considerations aside, the answer is a) because it has consistent root movement by descending fifths, which is the strongest root movement. It really needs to be ii7 V7 I, however.
Explainplz

[Ned]

Sorry, your question will have to be more specific.

[Diatonic Dissonance™]

Rameau would say that c) stands for ii7 V7 I. Hauptmann would say that c) stands for I IV I V I, which is more symmetrical. Putting these considerations aside, the answer is a) because it has consistent root movement by descending fifths, which is the strongest root movement. It really needs to be ii7 V7 I, however.

If you want to make it stronger still, go ii7 first inversion, I second inversion, V7 root position, I root position.
Explain those bits please.

[stevenvdb]

Traditionally, the most typical cadence is
IV - V/64 - V7 - I

V/64 in this case means: the tonic chord with the fifth as bass note (so the same bass note as the V7 chord)
Most of the time, the second of those two bass notes is one octave lower than the first one.
Ex. in C major : F3 - G3 - G2 - C3

Also when you go from V7 to I, the third of V7 must resolve to the first of I
and the seventh of V7 must descend to the third of I.

This way, the last chord will sound very resolving

[miku]

Explainplz
I don't see how it isn't self explanitory. The root descends in 5ths, which sounds powerful.

[Ned]

I don't see how it isn't self explanitory. The root descends in 5ths, which sounds powerful.

It has to do with what the acousticians call "fundamental tracking". Even if the fundamental is missing, the ear (in the appropriate circumstances) will infer it from the upper harmonics. The most prominant harmonic that isn't the fundamental or an octave multiple of the fundamental is the third harmonic. To the extent then, that a pitch, out of context (in other words, I'm not talking here about leading tones, and so on), wants to resolve at all, it wants to resolve to what is most likely to be perceived as its progenitor in an harmonic series. Thus G will resolve downward (or even upward) to C, C to F, F to Bb, and so on.

[Ned]

Explain those bits please.

Scale degree terminology is a bit equivocal. For example, the submediant is "sub" because it's the mirror image of the mediant, but the supertonic is "super" merely because it's directly above the tonic. Hard to tell about the subdominant then, but Hauptmann takes it, not merely its name, but its function as well, to be the mirror image of the dominant, thus IV I V I.

[Diatonic Dissonance™]

The answer is a) because it has consistent root movement by descending fifths
Okay, that's the only one thing I don't get now.

Please explain with, like, examples and stuff.

[Ned]

Okay, that's the only one thing I don't get now.

Please explain with, like, examples and stuff.

Let's suppose we're in the key of C major. The root of the D minor, the ii chord, is D. If we construe that D as something that wants to resolve (to progress to another chord, that is), in other words, as something other than the fundamental or octave multiple of an harmonic series, then we will most likely construe it as the third harmonic, and fundamental tracking will make it want to resolve to G. The root of G major, the V chord, is, in turn, G, which, if we construe it as the third harmonic of C, will want to resolve to C. Hence ii V I.

[Diatonic Dissonance™]

in other words, as something other than the fundamental or octave multiple of an harmonic series, then we will most likely construe it as the third harmonic, and fundamental tracking will make it want to resolve to G.
Okay, that's all I didn't get.


Look, do you have a messenger system of some sort? It'd be easier to talk through that.