Plagal Cadence also Amen cadence, Cadenza plagale (Italian), Plagal Kadenz (German), Cadence plaine (French) The

plagal or church cadence replaces the dominant, or dominant 7th chord, with a subdominant chord, that is a chord on the 4th. The effect is weaker than in the perfect cadence but was popular in music of the sixteenth century. Certainly, both the perfect and plagal cadences, give a feeling of closure when used at the end of pieces of music. The absence of the leading note in the subdominant chord makes it weaker than the dominant chord as a preparation for the tonic chord. The plagal cadence is usually defined as one whose penult is IV and whose final is I (or whose penult is iv and whose final is i). Some theorists have widened its definition to include cadences whose penult is on the subdominant (flat) side of the tonic e.g. ii-I. Under this wider definition the term is best used to describe cadences in which the penult contains the tonic degree. The only triads which contain the tonic degree (except for I and i) are IV, iv, VI and vi. The vi triad is not found as the penult in any effective cadence and so it can be ignored. This gives the following endings: IV-I, iv-i, iv-I, IV-i, VI-i. All of these cadences have a penult which can also harmonise the tonic note. However, the traditional definition is written as either IV-I or iv-i depending on the context. The plagal cadence is sometimes called the Amen cadence because of its use at the end of hymns.

PLAGAL CADENCE
A plagal cadence (PC) is a progression that ends IV-I. It is often referred to as the "Amen" cadence, because it sounds like the "amen" that is sung at the end of many hymns. Here is a progression that features a plagal cadence at the end:

NOTE: Here is an interesting point you may want to ponder. In the example above, the progression V-I that you can see at the end of bar 1 into bar 2 can be thought of as the actual cadence, and the IV-I at the end as merely a "tag", or phrase extension, intended only to stretch out the ending a little longer. What do you think? Here are some plagal cadences: