Cadenza

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**Cadenza** is a major character who appears in the 2017 remake film, *Beauty and the Beast*. He is a harpsichord who is described as "a neurotic maestro".

## Role in the film

In the opening of the film, Cadenza who serves as the castle's court composer is seen playing the harpsichord at the Prince's ball while his wife, Madame de Garderobe who is an well-known opera singer, sings, and their dog FrouFrou watches, only to be interrupted by the sudden arrival of an old beggar at the castle with the latter seeking shelter from a raging thunderstorm. Then when the Prince refuses to give shelter to an old beggar, she reveals herself to be an Enchantress. She curses the Prince to take the form of a Beast, and she also curses the castle staff, with Cadenza turned into a harpsichord, his wife turned into a wardrobe, and FrouFrou into a footstool.

Years later, Maurice, just fresh from a wolf chase, stumbles upon the castle. He hears a harpsichord playing and follows the sound to the ballroom. When Cadenza notices Maurice was looking at him, he immediately douses his candles and falls silent. Maurice is still unnerved, trying to escape from the castle grounds. But he is intercepted and imprisoned by the Beast, after being discovered for stealing a rose from the castle's garden.

Later, after Belle takes Maurice's place as a prisoner, Lumière decides to arrange a dinner spectacle for her despite the Beast's orders. He recruits Cadenza to make music, but Cadenza is at first unsure of his playing ability. When he tests it out, he is stopped by "another cavity". Lumiere reminds him that if he is ever to see his wife again, he must help Belle feel welcome. He is convinced and promises to play despite the "dental pain", but Cogsworth requests that he play quietly so as not to alert the Beast. The harpsichord sarcastically agrees and asks if there are any other "tasteless demands" that Cogsworth has in mind.

After a successful dinner, Belle wanders into the forbidden West Wing and is frightened away by the temperamental Beast. Later, when Belle is rescued from wolves by the Beast, she takes him back to the castle to nurse him back to health. When Belle inquires the staff as to why the Beast is as selfish as he is, they tell her that when his loving mother died of the plague, he was taken under the wing of his cruel father, who shaped him to exact version of himself.

Later, Cadenza laments and wonders if he will ever be with his love again. His hopes are renewed when Belle and the Beast start to grow closer to each other. When they share a dance, Cadenza plays a romantic song for the two. But when the Beast lets Belle go to help her father (after Maurice was captured and beaten by Gaston's henchmen), Cadenza and the rest of the staff begin to lose hope and begin to accept their fate of forever being antiques.

That all changes when Gaston and an angry mob invade the castle, looking to kill the Beast. Cadenza used himself to barricade the doors, with the other castle staff members supporting him in preventing the mob in gaining entry to the castle. During the ensuing battle, Madame de Garderobe joins the fight. Cadenza is overjoyed to see his wife again. Cadenza bodyslams and pins down LeFou, who begs Gaston to help him out, but Gaston abandons him to find the Beast, with Cadenza being shocked by the latter's act of betrayal himself and pities LeFou. When he rams aside several other villagers, an elderly female (later revealed at the end to be Cogsworth's wife) ordered the villagers surrounding him to have him "silenced". Luckily, his wife managed to show herself to him in years and prevented that, allowing the maestro to fire his keys at the attackers like bullets. The staff wins the battle against the mob, forcing the mob to retreat in horror and confusion. But when the last petal falls from the Beast's rose upon the Beast's death, they all begin to lose their human essence. Cadenza watches in sadness as his wife becomes an ordinary wardrobe shortly before turning himself into an ordinary harpsichord.

Miraculously, when Belle confesses her love for the Beast, a villager named Agathe, who is eventually revealed to be the Enchantress, lifts the curse from the castle, restoring the Beast and the staff to their human forms and the castle to its former glory. Cadenza is happily reunited with his wife and they perform together at Belle and the Prince's ball, showing off a new set of healthy teeth as he plays.

## Gallery

BATB Textless Character Poster Int 2017 03.jpgCadenza posterBTB BusShelter Cadenza v3 Sm.jpgBeauty-beast17-disneyscreencaps.com-118.jpgCadenza performing the harpsicord, with Garderobe singing at the Prince's ballBeauty-beast17-disneyscreencaps.com-168.jpgCadenza before his transformation as a harpsicordBeauty-beast17-disneyscreencaps.com-287.jpgCadenza and Garderobe (holding FrouFrou in their hands) watches in horror as the Prince was transformed into a Beast by the Enchantress's curse, with the rest of the castle staff enduring the same fate with the Prince, including the formerBATB 2017 02.pngBeauty and the Beast - Golden Globe 5.jpgLumière & Cogsworth standing on CadenzaMasetrocadenza1.pngCadenzafightingvillagers.pngBeauty-beast17-disneyscreencaps.com-2610.jpgBeauty-beast17-disneyscreencaps.com-11663.jpg"Ooh...ouch." - Cadenza showing pity at LeFou after being betrayed and abandoned by Gaston, while the former continues to pins the latter downBeauty-beast17-disneyscreencaps.com-13132.jpgCadenza with Garderobe after the spell is broken, minus most of his teethBeauty-beast17-disneyscreencaps.com-13268.jpgBeauty-beast17-disneyscreencaps.com-13354.jpgBeauty-beast17-disneyscreencaps.com-13364.jpgBeauty-beast17-disneyscreencaps.com-13454.jpgBeauty-beast17-disneyscreencaps.com-13584.jpg
## Trivia

* Cadenza's character is similar to Forte, the main antagonist of *Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas*, in that they are both maestros who have been turned into instruments with keys, although Forte became a massive immobile pipe organ while Cadenza is a standard harpsichord. The biggest difference between the two is that they have polar opposite personalities: Forte is a villain who seeks attention from the Beast and doesn't want to be human again while Cadenza is a good-natured person who wants to be human again.
* A musical feature of harpsichords is their inability to vary dynamics, as the plucking action of the strings prevent the instrument from playing louder or softer. As a result, harpsichords are capable of playing only one dynamic. This is possibly why Cadenza was offended by Cogsworth telling him to "play quietly" at Belle's dinner, as this could not be done on a harpsichord.
* At the beginning of the film, Cadenza had a full set of teeth in very poor health, and after the spell was broken he only had a few of them left due to using them during battle. However, at the very end, he seemed to have gotten them replaced by a brand new sparkling clean set of teeth. Despite this, he is shown with his original unhealthy teeth in the credits.
	+ Promo posters for the film show Cadenza with his healthy teeth from the film's ending.
* Cadenza's hairstyle and dressing in a human form bears a resemblance to Ludwig van Beethoven, a famous and well-renowned German composer and pianist of the Classical and Romantic music Era.
* Cadenza in which his name is taken from refers to its description as improvised or written-out ornamental passage in music played or sung by a soloist or soloists.

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