[a. F. cadence, ad. It. cadenza ‘falling, cadence in music,’ on L. type cadentia sb., f. cadent- pr. pple. of cad-ĕre to fall. The literal sense is ‘action or mode of falling, fall,’ and in this sense it was used by 17th-c. writers; but at an early period the word was in Italian appropriated to the musical or rhythmical fall of the voice, and in this sense occurs as early as Chaucer. Cadence is in form a doublet of CHANCE, the direct phonetic descendant of cadentia.]
I. In verse and music.
1. ‘The flow of verses or periods’ (J.); rhythm, rhythmical construction, measure.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, 627. To make bookes, songes, and dities In rime or else in cadence.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., V. xii. 315. Had he cald Lucyus Procurature … Ðat had mare grevyd þe Cadens, Ðan had relevyd þe sentens.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, Prol. 46. Throu my corruptit cadens imperfyte.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. ii. 126. The elegancy, facility, & golden cadence of poesie.
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect. (1851), 292. An eare that could measure a just cadence, and scan without articulating.
1763. J. Brown, Poetry & Mus., iv. 37. Measured Cadence, or Time, is an essential Part of Melody.
1824. Dibdin, Libr. Comp., II. 130. The periods flow with a sort of liquid cadence.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, iv. 102. The Iambic is nearest in cadence to the language of common life.
b. The measure or beat of music, dancing, or any rhythmical movement: e.g., of marching.
1605. Z. Jones, trans. De Loyer’s Specters, 19 b. Now daunses … haue neede of nothing … but onley of Number, measure and true cadence.
1755. Gray, Progr. Poesy, I. iii. To brisk notes in cadence beating Glance their many-twinkling feet.
1777. Sir W. Jones, Arcadia, Poems 109. Not a dancer could in cadence move.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., III. V. 195. Dancing round them to the cadence of the music.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., vi. The occasional boom of the kettle-drum, to mark the cadence.
1862. F. A. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (ed. 9), 6. Cadence, in slow time 75 steps … are taken in a minute.
2. ‘The fall of the voice’ (J.).
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. vii. (1811), 66. This cadence is the fal of a verse in euery last word with a certaine tunable sound which being matched with another of like sound, do make a [concord].
1616. Bullokar, Cadence, the falling of the voice.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1778), II. 150. A low voice, with a … sweet cadence at the end of it.
1824. L. Murray, Eng. Gram., I. 366. The closing pause must not be confounded with that fall of the voice, or cadence, with which many readers uniformly finish a sentence.
b. ‘Sometimes, the general modulation of the voice’ (J.).
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 9, ¶ 1. The Smallcoal-Man was heard with Cadence deep. Ibid. (1710), No. 168, ¶ 5. With all the … Cadence of Voice, and Force of Argument imaginable.
1760. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, 276. Amen, said my Mother … with such a sighing cadence of personal pity.
1844. A. B. Welby, Poems (1867), 87. The low cadence of her whispered prayer.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., III. i. § 22 (1864), 361. A third quality of vocal sounds is cadence or accent.
1862. Trollope, Orley F., xxxviii. ‘No’ said Peregrine, with a melancholy cadence in his voice.
1863. Miss Braddon, J. Marchmont, I. 263. In every changing cadence of the low winter winds, in every varying murmur of the moaning waves, she seemed to hear her dead father’s funeral dirge.
c. Local or national modulation, ‘accent.’
1727. Swift, Gulliver, III. i. 182. I returned an answer in that language, hoping … that the cadence might be more agreeable to his ears.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 241. The Scotchman who had not yet acquired the cadence of the English, would naturally use his own in speaking their language.
3. The rising and (esp.) falling of elemental sounds, as of a storm, the sea, etc.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 287. Blustring winds, which all night long Had rous’d the Sea, now with hoarse cadence lull Seafaring men orewatcht.
a. 1828. Mrs. Hemans, Release Tasso, in Poet. Wks. (1828), 117. The low cadence of the silvery sea.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxix. 377. A murmur had reached my ear for some time in the cadences of the storm.
4. Music. The conclusion or ‘close’ of a musical movement or phrase. Also sometimes = CADENZA.
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., 73. A Cadence wee call that, when comming to a close, two notes are bound togither, and the following note descendeth.
1795. Mason, Ch. Mus., i. 14. A perfect cadence then marks its termination.
c. 1860. Goss, Harmony, xiii. 42. A Cadence or Close, signifies the last two chords of any passage; the principal cadences are those which conclude on the key-note. When the last chord is the triad on the key-note, preceded by the triad or chord of the 7th on the dominant, it is called the Perfect Cadence.
1867. Macfarren, Harmony, I. 27. As performers insert a flourish at a close or cadence, we conventionally use the word cadence, to denote the flourish introduced at a close.
1879. Parry, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 290/2.
5. Horsemanship. ‘An equal Measure or Proportion, which a Horse observes in all his Motions, when he is thoroughly managed’ (Farrier’s Dict. in Bailey). Cf. quot. 1833 under CADENCED.
6. transf. Harmonious combination of colors.
1868. Swinburne, Ess. & Stud. (1875), 364. The cadence of colours is just and noble: witness the red-leaved book … on the white cloth, the clear green jug on the table, the dim green bronze of the pitcher.
II. In the Latin sense of falling.
† 7. Falling, sinking down; mode of falling. Obs.
1613. R. C., Table Alph. (ed. 3), Cadence, falling, properly the ledging of corne by a tempest.
a. 1660. Hammond, Wks., IV. 687 (R.). The cadence, or manner how Paul falls into those words, is worthy to be both observed and imitated.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 92. Now was the Sun in Western cadence low.
† 8. The falling out of an occurrence; chance.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 8. This opportunitie is a meeting and concurring of diuers cadences, which at one instant do make a matter very easie.
