The Uses of Evaded cadences. Analyzing Classical Music.
Any piano student can easily spot a perfect authentic cadence.
When asked by their piano tutors, they will confidently answer any type of punctuation mark in pieces they are studying, but as the pieces get a little bit more complex, and their forms longer, such in the case of a Minuet and Trio or in a Sonata form, the punctuation marks in the Harmony, usually through cadences, get more difficult to understand.
For piano beginners, although Harmony is not a common topic, necessary though. Harmony shows us the structure, the skeleton, or we can even say, the pillars of the piece we are playing. The “big picture” that get through this study is fundamental for any performer, as it is quite easy to realize the intentions of the composer in a small or middle dimension. Still, larger sizes as the one mentioned before get out of hands without the proper study of harmonic progressions, functions and cadences. These are “framing functions” as they mark the boundaries of a piece.
If we refer to a development section of a Sonata form, probably we will find evaded cadences, as the main function of it is to arise when everything is prepared for the final event to arrive (at some predestined moment in time). Yet, the sense of a goal event fails to materialize. This situation happens quite commonly in more loose sections, for example, in the B sections of a ternary form.
Following the explanation of Juan Rezzuto in one of his streamed online lessons, he says about the evaded cadences: “It means that what comes after the arrival chord is totally disconnected “harmonic-progression-wise” with the final chord. The evaded-cadence grouping works exactly as opposed to the grouping of the deceptive-cadence. The new material starts with the arrival chord; therefore we say it, groups, forward”.
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