Half Cadence

A half cadence is a type of cadence that ends on the dominant chord of a given tonic. Using Eduoard Du Puy's Ouverture Til Syngestykket Ungdom og Galskab (Overture to the Singspiel Youth and Folly) as an example, the half cadence at the end of this excerpt forms a E7 chord, the dominant of its home key, A major. Half cadences were often used in eighteenth century galant music to create a dramatic hault in the work and to separate section to section.