David Lodewyckx

Marpurg's Galant Cadence: An Overlooked Cadence Type in Contemporary Schema Theory

In the second volume of his Kritische Briefe (1763), Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg mentions "eine besondere Art von ganzer Cadenz", which he considers to be typical for "[d]er galante Styl". This cadential schema features a dominant 6/4-chord with the first scale degree in the top voice. The resulting 'dissonant' fourth (considered against the bass), does not resolve by a descending diatonic semitone, but instead moves up a whole tone before coming to a final resolution into the tonic chord. The distinctive voice leading pattern in the melody thus consists of 1-2-1.
First, I will outline the originating history of this 'Marpurg cadence' in the galant repertoire from ca. 1730, the point in history which Marpurg himself indicated as its genesis. Three variants of Marpurg's (rather abstract) schema will be exemplified and discussed, together with their role in the development towards a distinct cadential scheme.
Second, I will examine in how far partimento and solfeggio practice contributed to the widespread dissemination of this 'Marpurg cadence' in both vocal and instrumental galant music. Solfeggi by e.g. Leonardo Leo, Nicola Porpora, and Giuseppe Aprile at least seem to demonstrate that this cadential schema was undoubtedly an integral part of the Neapolitan musical training from the 1730s on.

Finally, I will propose to include 'Marpurg's galant cadence' as a full-fledged schema in existing partimento and galant cadence typologies. Analogous to Gjerdingen's Do-Si-Do and Mi-Re-Do, I will suggest to subsume this schema under the category of Do-Re-Do cadences. Because of its peculiar combination of upper voice and bass, however, the 'Marpurg cadence' deserves its specific designation.