View source for Landini cadence

{{Image frame|content=<score vorbis="1" lang="lilypond">
    { << \new StaffGroup <<
        \new Staff <<
            \clef treble \time 4/4
            \relative c'' {
                \clef treble \time 4/4
                b2 a c1
                }
            >>
        \new Staff <<
            \clef treble \time 4/4
            \new Voice \relative c' {
                d1 c \bar "||"
                }
            >>
    >>
>> }
</score>|width=300|caption=A Landini cadence on C}}[[Image:Landini cadence.png|thumb|right|In a Landini cadence the motion from the [[leading-tone]] to the [[tonic (music)|tonic]] is interrupted by the [[submediant]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Ammer |first=Christine |date=2004 |title=The Facts on File Dictionary of Music |page=212 |isbn=0-8160-5266-2}}</ref> {{audio|Landini cadence.mid|Play}}.]]
[[Image:Landini cadence on E.png|thumb|248px|Three-voice Landini cadence on E<ref name="Randel">{{cite book |first=Don Michael |last=Randel |date=1999 |title=The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians |page=106 |isbn=978-0-674-00084-1}}</ref> {{audio|Landini cadence on E.mid|Play}})]]
[[Image:Landini cadence on E 6-8.png|thumb|Landini cadence on E, characterized by contrary motion in the outer voices & characteristic melodic pattern in the top voice.<ref>{{cite book |last=White |first=John D. |date=1976 |title=The Analysis of Music |page=128 |isbn=0-13-033233-X}}</ref> {{audio|Landini cadence on E 6-8.mid|Play}}]]

A '''Landini cadence''' ('''Landini sixth''' or '''Landini sixth cadence'''), or '''under-third cadence''',<ref name="Merwe">{{cite book |author-link=Peter van der Merwe (musicologist) |last=van der Merwe |first=Peter |date=2005 |title=Roots of the Classical: The Popular Origins of Western Music |page=501 |isbn=0-19-816647-8}}</ref> is a type of [[cadence (music)|cadence]], a technique in [[music composition]], named after [[Francesco Landini]] (1325–1397), an influential Italian composer, in honor of his extensive use of the technique. The technique was used extensively in the 14th and early 15th century.

In a typical [[Medieval music|Medieval]] cadence, a [[major sixth]] [[interval (music)|musical interval]] is expanded to an [[octave]] by having each note move outwards one [[steps and skips|step]].  In Landini's version, an [[Nonchord tone|escape tone]] in the upper voice narrows the [[interval (music)|interval]] briefly to a [[perfect fifth]] before the octave. There could also be an inner voice; in the example the inner voice would move from F{{music|#}} to G, in the same rhythm as the lower voice.

Landini was not the first to use the cadence ([[Gherardello da Firenze]] appears to be the first whose works have survived), and was not the last:  the cadence was still in use well into the 15th century, appearing particularly frequently in the songs of [[Gilles Binchois]] and in the music of [[Johannes Wreede]].  However, Landini seems to have been the first to use it consistently.  The term was coined in the late 19th century by German writer A.G. Ritter (1884), in his ''Zur Geschichte des Orgelspiels'', Leipzig.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |first=David |last=Fallows |year=2001 |chapter=Landini Cadence |title=Grove Music Online |access-date=May 12, 2020 |url=http://www.grovemusic.com/ |url-access=subscription |archive-date=May 16, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516041031/http://www.grovemusic.com/ |url-status=dead }}

==External links==
*[http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/harmony/landini.html "What is a Landini cadence?"], ''Early Music FAQ''. Discussion on Landini cadence and its uses in later works.

{{Cadences}}
{{Music of the Trecento}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Landini Cadence}}
[[Category:Cadences]]
[[Category:Medieval music theory]]