A staircase descending into fire and dust.
The Progression
The Andalusian cadence is a descending four-chord figure — i–♭VII–♭VI–V — whose bass walks stepwise down from the minor tonic to the dominant. Despite the name it is not truly a cadence in the textbook sense but a repeating progression, one whose falling motion evokes the Phrygian flavor of flamenco and the sun-baked tragedy of Spanish music. The final V, a major chord borrowed for its leading-tone bite, snaps the loop back to the minor tonic with a hint of scorched drama.
The descent is everything. Each chord lowers the bass by a whole or half step, and the major V at the bottom — with its raised third against the minor mode above — produces the distinctive Phrygian-dominant color that reads instantly as Andalusian, Middle Eastern, or simply fateful. It sounds ancient and inevitable, a slow fall that keeps beginning again.
Structure
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Roman numerals | i – ♭VII – ♭VI – V |
| Example in C | Am – G – F – E |
| Chords used | Minor Triad (i), Major Triad (♭VII, ♭VI, V) |
| Character | Dark, Spanish, descending, tragic |
| Function | Stepwise minor descent to a Phrygian dominant |
In Practice
It is the harmonic signature of flamenco and passes freely into rock, classical, and film scoring — "Hit the Road Jack," "Sultans of Swing," the flamenco tradition writ large, and countless tango and surf tunes descend this same staircase. Its brooding character connects it to the minor-leaning vi-IV-I-V, and its link to the Scales & Modes of the Phrygian family gives it that unmistakable color.