On Apr 25, 2005, at 1:27 PM, A-NO-NE Music wrote:
Christopher Smith / 05.4.25 / 01:07 PM wrote:
The 4th may resolve to the 3rd eventually, or not, but that distinction is no longer of any importance in chord symbol naming.
Hmmm...
To me, suspended chord means anticipating the resolution, otherwise the
same voicing could derive Dorian or Aorian, that ambiguity I do not like.
Sus chord needs to be supported in the context to me, or shouldn't be
called sus.
But I have a feeling we are in fact thinking the same thing..? :-)
I kind of suspect we are. Are you referring to those chords in some of Herbie Hancock's 60's modal music, where the voicing is D7sus4 but it is obviously being played as D dorian or D aeolian in the blowing, thus implying a non-resolution but to minor? That has more to do with usage than naming, I think. And, incidentally, if we are talking about the same thing, I agree that those ambiguous chords are less pleasing – to me, anyway. Kind of an odd concept when you think of it, that you are saying "No, there is no third in this chord. But if there WAS one, it would be minor, and don't you forget it!"
On the subject of chords in general:
There is a lot of legacy in chord naming, some of which still applies these days, and some of which doesn't, and a whole bunch of which is just confusing (like all chord members being major or perfect by default unless specifically altered in the symbol ... EXCEPT for the 7th being minor by default... EXCEPT for in the case of diminished chords where the 7th is also diminished, so we have an exception to an exception.)
Originally, suspensions (not limited to the 4th of dominants!) were notes held over from the PREVIOUS chord, then resolved by step before the chord changed. Nothing to do with anticipating the resolution. There were a whole bunch of suspensions, rigourously controlled, and as more came into common use, it got complicated. Some, like the 13th and 9th on dominants, started NOT being resolved, and then not being prepared by unison from the previous chord, either, and thus were considered to be consonant extensions on those chords.
I don't know why only the sus4, of all the possible suspensions, made it into jazz and commercial chord symbol nomenclature as the "sus" with no note named, and not other suspensions, which are perfectly good and usable, like the 9-8 and the 2-3 (which are BOTH sus2, but are called the add9 and the sus2 when not resolved, respectively.) But I still maintain that in order to be as clear as possible, that one should include the "4" in "sus4".
Christopher
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