Figures of various types focusing on ^7-^8 may be found randomly in music before about 1700, including the archetypal ^5-^6-^7-^8 and ^8-^7-^6-^5-^5-^6-^7-^8 designs at a longer range of design. I have written about early examples in this PDF essay: rising lines; and about a surprising pocket of rising cadences in English Country dances in another essay: Playford. [NOTE: links were updated on 10 June 2016.] By, and shortly after, 1700, however, two overwhelming influences effectively nullified the rising cadence: the stereotyped figures of Italian operatic and instrumental practices (especially in the so-called cadence galante) and the adoption of the gavotte as the standard for 2/4 contredanses in the French court. It was only after 1770, as the several waltzing dances became increasingly popular in German-speaking areas of central Europe, that the possibility of alternatives arose. By 1820, these were expressed, though in radically different ways, by Beethoven, Schubert, and the Rossini-influenced operas of Adolphe Adam. With the polka's quick rise to universal popularity in the 1840s and with Offenbach's operettas in the 1850s, the change was complete and rising cadence gestures became not just an alternative but a category equal to other cadence types.
This series of posts addresses the early history once again. As is well-known, in the 1640s the Dutch flutist Jacob van Eyck published a pair of remarkable volumes called Der Fluyten Lust-hof: vol Psalmen, Paduanen, Allemanden, Couranten, Balletten, Airs, &c. Konstigh en lieslyk gefigureert, met veel veranderingen. As the subtitle announces, the pieces -- all for solo flute (or solo treble instrument) -- range from Calvinist psalm tunes and well known chorales (such as Vater unser in Himmelreich) to dances and popular tunes. All of them are dressed with "divisions" (diminutions, or the technique that "breaks" a long note into smaller notes), most with multiple versions (met veel veranderingen).
A small number of the tunes have cadence gestures that rise from ^7 to ^8, and several have long-range linear figures that fit one or another model focused on ^8 or on rising from ^5. The first example is the simplest, Wel Jan, whose complete title is "Wel Jan wat drommel," roughly "Okay Jan, what about it?" There are two variations. The tune is reproduced below (remember that you can click on the thumbnail for a larger image), along with the first variation. (The second variation uses eighth-note divisions.)
An interesting comparison may be found in the endings of the theme and the two variations -- these are shown in the final figure below. Note at *1 the origin of a ^3 as an escape tone diminution of E5. Note at *2 that to finish with a final flourish van Eyck adds a bar not in the theme; it is only in this bar that an upper ^2 arises, clearly as an extended ornament of the original cadence.
Reference for the title: Jacob van Eyck, Der Fluyten Lust-hof, edited by Winfried Michel and Hermien Teske (Winterthur: Amadeus Verlag, 1984).
