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Authentic Cadence, Perfect Cadence, and the V- I Progression
By a wide margin, the descending fifth progression, V – I, is the most common, most important, and strongest harmonic cadence in music. When a musical phrase ends with a V – I progression, it sounds like “the end”—the end of that phrase, verse, chorus, or whatever the prevailing structure may be.
The V – I cadence has quite a few names:
- Authentic cadence
- Perfect cadence
- Full cadence
- Perfect close
- Full close
- Dominant cadence
- Final cadence
(They couldn’t make up their minds.)