“The Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera Cadence Analysis 


    The Phantom of the Opera is my favorite musical and to honor the musical I decided to choose the song “The Music of the Night” by Andrew Lloyd Webber. “The Music of the Night” has HC-PAC cadence. Half cadence (I – V) is a musical progression from tonic (I- the first note in the scale) to dominant (V – the fifth note in the scale). Tonic to dominant progression creates a sense of tension; the half cadence creates a pause, but the listener expects the music to continue to a resolution. Perfect authentic cadence is a musical progression from dominant to tonic and provides the ending or resolution to the musical section “The Music of the Night” alternates between two contrasting musical sections. The first, second, fourth, and sixth verses are musically similar. In the first verse half cadences ending on the dominant fifth note are found at the words sensation, imagination, and write .  The half cadences heighten the emotion of the words; they compel the listener to understand the Phantom’s irresistibility and make the listener interested in continuing the musical journey. At the end of the first verse the PAC (the tonic first note) ends with the word “night” in the phrase “music of the night”.  The resolution being that one cannot resist the darkness of the music of the night, or in other words, the Phantom.  The second, fourth, and sixth verses follow this same pattern of HC-PAC with different lyrics. The third, fifth, and ending verses are similar to a bridge, or a part of the song where the music shifts. The ending note in these musical sections is also half cadence, here the resolution is to cycle you back to the main melodic versus.



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