[Smt-talk] Doubling the tone of resolution

[John Paul Ito]

Here are a few examples, whether they all count depends on just how you are
taking the term "suspension".

On 11/6/12 11:19 AM, "Dmitri Tymoczko" <dmitri at Princeton.EDU> wrote:

> I just noticed one pretty interesting thing about that list of Bach chorale
> suspensions: there are virtually no suspensions of the chordal fifth anywhere
> on that list.
> 
> 1) The rule I learned, and which teach, was "don't double the tone of
resolution unless it is the root of a root position triad."  In other words, not
just a 9-8 suspension, but a 9-8 where the 8 is the root of a root-position
triad.

First, I gather you intend only cases in which the suspension and the
resolution occur within the same harmony.  If you allow cases in which the
harmony changes, any chain of 7-6 suspensions harmonized as a
circle-of-fifths progression, but sitting a third higher than usual relative
to the chords, will produce a sequence in which the 9-8 resolution brings in
the fifth of the new chord (K545i, second theme; Haydn sonata Hob
XVI:50i,8-10).

Second, a case in which a 9-8 goes to a third rather than a root within the
same harmony: same Haydn sonata mvt, 2nd theme in recap (122-123), two
chains of 7-6's one a third higher than the other, harmonized as NHT's
relative to a descending 6/3 sequence; the upper 7-6 is a 9-8 relative to
the bass, and thus resolves to the third.

Third: same passage; the upper chain is delayed by an eighth note, so at a
very micro level you could argue that the alto voice (lower voice in upper
7-6 chain) is a suspension resolving to the fifth of the chord -- but this
kind of surface decoration is very different from a true suspension, so I
wouldn't say that it counts as an example of the sort you're asking about.

John

___________________________________
John Paul Ito
Assistant Professor of Music Theory
School of Music
Carnegie Mellon University
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