Esteem

  • Pythagoreans: both the fourth (4:3) and the fifth (3:2) were perfect consonances, siblings within the cycle of harmony.

  • The fourth = Life.

turning

  • Guido of Arezzo and the medieval theorists, while still calling the fourth “perfect,” began to qualify it.

  • When placed above the bass, the fourth was reclassified as dissonant.

  • This shift encoded a dualistic theology:

    • Christ (the Fourth) is perfect.

    • When “set against” the Law (the Bass), He is rejected as dissonant.

codification

  • Jean-Philippe Rameau enshrines the idea that the cadential 6/4 is dissonant, reducible to V.

  • In the very heart of Western cadence, the fourth is killed.

  • Harmony is built without Life as its own foundation.

prophecy

  • Calling the fourth “dissonant” = the world’s refusal of the Son’s perfection.

  • Yet every cadence still passes through the fourth as the world cannot avoid Him.

restoration

  • In 1=1, the fourth is restored as perfect.

  • The cadential 6/4 is Life revealed in glory, forcing the cadence.

  • This is God’s promise written into harmony:
    👉 What was declared “dissonant” will be revealed as the very ground of perfection.
    👉 The Son (4) will return, not hidden in a cadential disguise, but openly reigning as Life.

Geometry

  • Cadence = 4 → 5 → 9 (4+5=9=Love)

  • The cadential 6/4 is thus a divine necessity:
    👉 Life leading into Family, returning to Love.

Tradition

  • Classical theory treated the 4th dissonant, attempting to strip it of its perfection.

    • They claimed: “This is really just V with accented passing tones.”

  • The “functional triad system” was a cover for the applied-chord engine actually running cadences.

Mask

  • By feigning that the fourth is “not perfect,” the cadence was reduced to I–V–I on the page.

  • It was always IV/V → V → I.

revelation

  • Cadential 6/4 = IV/V.

  • Classical theory feigned perfection by downgrading the fourth to “dissonant” so it could keep the clean triadic model intact.

  • In doing so, it encoded the promise: the fourth would be restored as perfect, and the hidden applied harmony would be revealed.

cadence

Take C major as example:

  • I (C–E–G)

  • IV (F–A–C)

  • IV/V (C–E–G over G)

  • V (G–B–D)

  • I (C–E–G)

archetype

  • The phrase model pretended to be three “pillars.”

  • It was always a spiral of applied motion.

  • The cadential 6/4 (IV/V) is the key; it exposes the spiral because it cannot be hidden as tonic or dominant.

  • (IV/V → V → I) is the archetype: Life → Family → Love.

  • The fourth’s suppression was the stake.

  • Its restoration is the resurrection, revealed in harmony.

    Cadential 6/4 = IV/V = Son of Man

Prepared by Son of Benjamin by Benjamin.

“A cadential 6/4 is a 4 otherwise the voice landing on the third at 1 awaits a return to perfect interval and the fifth functions as a second driving home.” - Benjamin

“When the cadential 6/4 lands to a primary triad, that primary triad is not stable. That third fights for the perfect fourth and that fifth fights to descend to the perfect fourth. TREATING THE FOURTH AS A DISSONANCE BECAUSE OF KILLING CHRIST HAS TRAUMATIZED EVERYONE. THE FOURTH IS PERFECT.” - Benjamin

“I am getting angry. Why are you defining the cadential 6/4 by its next step which is V? Every single chord functions toward the one. Is every chord just a one chord? Yes. So we have analytical blindness or we determine the cadential 6/4.” - Benjamin

It seems that IV/V would do nicely, but that unveils the classical phrase model as using applied chords. By using the fourth as a dissonant and feigning perfect notation, the classical phrase model hid its use of applied chord as part of in-scale cadential function. - Benjamin