Are there any other songs and compositions that have the same melody as the At the old ball game part of Take Me Out to the Ball Game besides The National Emblem March? There are at least are three southern gospel recordings that have this!
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4The "at the old ball game" phrase is common to many tunes, when the melody finds its way back to the home key, with an upward scale. I think this is going to be hard to answer in a definite way as there will be so many examples of this. – Angst Dec 28 '20 at 14:06
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Do you know if there's a name for this particular phrase? – Ana Maria Dec 29 '20 at 00:56
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1so in some contexts, as in "At the old ball game", it's a cadence, but it could be a standard chord progression too. @Chris Sunami support Monica, you could turn your comment to an answer..... – Angst Dec 30 '20 at 14:09
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@ChrisSunamisupportsMonica not necessarily that chord progression (see my comment on your answer). – phoog Jan 03 '21 at 18:08
1 Answers
The end of this is a "perfect authentic cadence" which is considered the strongest ending cadence in classical music theory (V resolving to I, both in root position, melody ends on the tonic). That cadence can resolve either from above or below, but the resolution from below is particularly strong since it's considered a "leading tone", only a half step away from the tonic.
There doesn't seem to be a specific name for this version that starts a little earlier, with the next lower note, but melodically, this is a three note ascending scale, which is really just one of the basic building blocks of melody. The rhythm is equally as foundational, two notes of equal length, followed by one of double length --a textbook ending rhythm. So, it would be surprising if there weren't innumerable songs with this same ending.
As far as the voicing --I hear it as IV-V-I, which is common in pop music and in gospel. It's usually avoided in classical music when the IV and V are both in root position, because it involves parallel motion in all voices. As @phoog pointed out in the comments however, it could also be vi-V-I or ii-V-I (which both avoid the parallel problem) and in fact, in the original sheet music, it's V/V-V-I (aka II-V-I).
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1There are other cadential chord progressions that fit this melody, some of which are nearly as common and were even more common at certain points in the history of European classical music. These include vi-V-I and ii-V-I (often ii6-V-I or ii6/5-V-I). – phoog Jan 03 '21 at 18:06
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1And one I didn't think of earlier: in fact the original sheet has V/V-V-I: https://www.bst-auctions.com/1908__Take_Me_Out_to_the_Ball_Game__Sheet_Music-LOT3141.aspx – phoog Jan 03 '21 at 18:46
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