Types of modal cadences in Romanian folklore
Types of modal cadences in Romanian folklore

Summary/Abstract: The high frequency of final modal cadences in Romanian folk songs imposes – for a correct interpretation of tonal-modal structures – a new principle, according to which the true tonal-modal structure of Romanian folk songs is not always determined by the final note. This fact thus contradicts the general validity of the medieval principle according to which the mode or tone of a melody is given by its finishing note, which is considered by some local musicologists as an absolute principle. On the other hand, modal cadences on a note other than the fundamental of the basic mode also reveal - finally - the true modal dominance of entire series of structures. The notes that are here imposed as the main tonal pillars of the cadence are not found in the relations 1 - 5, 5 -1, 1 - 4, 4 - 1, as in music based on the Western concept, but in: 1 - 2, 2 - 1, 1 - 6, 6 - 1.

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