What does clausulae mean?
Clausulae is the plural of clausula, a Latin word meaning 'a small close' or 'ending.' In musicology, the term refers to the standardized cadential formulas that mark the ends of phrases in medieval and Renaissance polyphony; the best-known type, the clausula vera, in which two voices approach a perfect interval by contrary stepwise motion, is widely regarded as the ancestor of the modern authentic cadence. In classical rhetoric, clausulae denote the rhythmically shaped concluding sentences by which orators such as Cicero signaled the close of a period. The word may also describe concluding sections in legal documents. Clausulae belongs to scholarly registers — music history, classics, and paleography — rather than everyday speech, but it repays attention from anyone interested in how Western music and prose developed their habits of closure.
nounClausulae are the plural of clausula: in music, the cadential formulas or closing passages that end a phrase or section in medieval and Renaissance polyphony; in rhetoric and law, the concluding sentence or clause that gives a passage its final shape.
- (music) Cadential figures or closing melodic formulas in medieval and Renaissance polyphony, especially those ending on a perfect consonance.
- (rhetoric) The concluding clauses or final rhythmic sentences that close a period in classical oratory.
- (law, historical) Concluding sections or summary statements appended to legal documents or treatises.
"The manuscript's clausulae reveal how medieval composers signaled the close of each melodic phrase."
"The tenor's rising line culminates in one of the most celebrated clausulae of the Notre Dame school."
"Cicero crafted his clausulae with such rhythmic precision that audiences could sense a sentence's end before it arrived."
Clausulae itself is the standard plural of clausula; the singular is rarely needed except in highly specialized analysis.
"Each section of the motet closes with one of several contrasting clausulae."
Before modern cadences had names, medieval composers marked every musical ending with a formula called a clausula — and 'clausula vera' is literally the ancestor of today's V–I cadence.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of clausulae
Clausulae comes from Latin clausula ('a closing, conclusion'), a diminutive-like derivative of claudere, 'to shut or close,' the same root that gives English 'clause,' 'close,' 'enclose,' and 'cloister.' Medieval theorists borrowed the term for cadential formulas in polyphonic music, while Renaissance humanists applied it to the rhythmic sentence-endings studied in Ciceronian oratory. English usage of the plural form is largely confined to these academic disciplines.
How clausulae is actually used
A technical term encountered mainly in musicology, medieval studies, classics, and legal history; it is almost always used in its plural form and carries a scholarly register.
Easily confused with clausulae
Clauses are grammatical units within a sentence, whereas clausulae are cadential endings in music or formal concluding sentences in rhetoric.