Suspensions & Appogiaturas

[Classicala]

Hello everybody!

I've heard about these two terms, "Suspensions" and "Appogiatura", but I can't seem to distinguish clearly between the use of the terms.

Correct me if I'm wrong:

Both requires the use of a dissonant note and then resolved later?

[reith]

Oh right. The difference is that an appogiatura is an "accented passing note" or non-hramony note that can happen on any beat. It doesn't have to be prepared before it happens. A suspension is prepared on the previous beat and tied over. Yes, both have to be resolved onto a harmony note.

suspension:
bar line
|
D....D....C
G....G........
D....E........
B....C.........

Vb..Ia

The D in the treble of the Vb chord is tied over to the C major chord and resolved onto C. So a suspension has three stages - preparation-suspension-resolution.

I think I got that right.

[stevel]

Originally Posted by Classicala

Hello everybody!

I've heard about these two terms, "Suspensions" and "Appogiatura", but I can't seem to distinguish clearly between the use of the terms.

Correct me if I'm wrong:

Both requires the use of a dissonant note and then resolved later?

Not quite.

First off, people use the term App. differently. Some use it generically to apply to ANY UNPREPARED ACCENTED dissonance (suspensions are am accented prepared dissonance). Others define it more specifically as a dissonance that is skipped to, and resolved by step (which many people call incomplete neighbors - confusing, huh!).

Suspension:
D F |F E
B A |G--
The second F in the soprano is a suspension (the | is a bar line). The F on the last beat is consonant with the A, then, it is held over the bar (usually tied, but of replayed, is called an "articulated" suspension) and becomes dissonant with the G, then resolves to the E (consonant). These three elements F | F E are called the Preparation, Suspension, and Resolution. The Preparation must be consonant, the Suspension dissonant, and the Resolution consonant. We call this one a 7-6 suspension because the F forms a 7th with the G then it becomes a 6th with the G when the F moves to E. The possible types are: 9-8 (they don't call it 2-1), 7-6, and 4-3, and in the lower part, 2-3 (the suspended note is in the bass, and resolves down, which is why the numbers get larger in that one).

If the bass note moves on at the time of resolution, we call it a "suspension with change of bass", so:
D F | F E
B A | G C
Would be called a 7-3 suspension.

By the way, Suspensions ALWAYS resolve downward. Some people call an "upward resolving sus" an "irregular resolution", but most people now call something that looks and acts like a sus, but resolves upward, a "Retardation":
B | B C
G | C--
Is heard commonly at the end of pieces (thus a 7-8 Ret).

Side note - a lot of suspensions are ornamented, but they call it an "ornamented resolution" (should be ornamented suspension):
D F | FEF E
B A | G-- C
The first E is an ornamentation or elaboration, not the note of resolution - it's the second one that happens on the beat )also, BTW, the duration of the Prep, Sus, and Res were always the same duration in the early days, though later composers started messing with it more).

One more thing - there's something they call the "consonant suspension" or a "suspension figure" (basically, if it looks and acts like X non-chord tone, but is a chord tone, we call it a "figure"). Here's a consonant sus:
G A | A G
E F | C--
The A is not dissonant with the C, but it sure looks and acts like a sus. If it is in a context where there are other parts doing "normal" sus, and then we get this one consonant example, we'd say it's a sus figure (or cons. sus) just because of the pattern. Additionally, in a chordal setting, a distinction is made between dissonant notes, and non-chord tones. If we understand that the harmony on beat 1 above (the C in the bass) is supposed to be a C chord, and not an am in first inversion, then we know the A does not belong to the chord, and thus a non-chord tone - which is not dissonant, but TREATED as a dissonance. Thus a 6-5 sus is considered the consonant suspension.

Now, an App is in the stricter form, a Sus without preparation. so instead of:
D F | F E
B A | G--
we get:
D C | F E
B A | G--
The F is dissonant, and its resolution to the E looke like a sus, but there's no consonant prep. Since it is leapt to, we call it an App. Many people define App. as leapt to, and stepped from, usually in opposite direction (leap up, step down almost always).
But if we have:
A G | F E
C - | G -
The F is stepped to. The people who call the leapt to version an App, call this one an "Accented Passing Tone". But the people who use App genrically - for any unprepared accented dissonance no matter how approcahed, call this an App to.

So in short:
Sus - consonantly prepared accented dissonance, resolved by step down.
Ret - consonantly prepared accented dissonance, resolved by step up.
App - unprepared accendted dissonance, resolved by step.
note: prepared and unprepared here mean "by the same note" so in the case of the app, the previous note may be consonant of dissonant, but not the same pitch as the app itself.

Hope that helps,
Steve

[Ron Ofir]

(basically, if it looks and acts like X non-chord tone, but is a chord tone, we call it a "figure")

Can you explain that again? I'm not sure what you mean.

[stevel]

Originally Posted by Ron Ofir

Can you explain that again? I'm not sure what you mean.

Here's an example:

E F E G A G E F E
C---------------

Assume the top part is triplets.

The F is an upper neighbor (auxilliary). The note A is consonant with the bass, so it's not really a Neighbor tone. However, it kind of mimics the idea of EFE as GAG. So while it's not officially a neighbor tone, we often say it's a neghbor tone "figure" because it behaves similary. It would be more relevant if you had a passage like:
E F E F G F G A* G F G F D F D E F E where * is consonant, but all the other middle notes are negihbors. It's fulfilling the same basic function - i.e. decorating the main note, even though it's consonant, thus an "upper neighbor figure".

If there is a chord, the same type of decoration might take place:
G A G
E----
C----
C----

We don't say that this is, in the key of C, I-vi6-I. We say it's a I chord with the A being decorative. So even though the notes C C E A do make a chord, the chord is actually a C chord, not am, and therefore the A is a Non-Chord Tone. It is still consonant, but not part of the chord. As a Non-Chord Tone, it is an Upper Neighbor.

You may however get a dissonant note that IS part of the chord, for instance:
G F E
B C
G C

The F note turns the G chord into a G7. Thus, even though it's a dissonance, it is a chord tone. Therefore we usually analyze such an event as V-V7-I in C (or V-7-I, or sometimes simply V7-I depending on the context). But we would say that the F note is part of a "Passing Tone Figure". By that, we mean it looks and acts like a passing tone, but it's really a chord tone.

So in essence if it looks and acts like a dissonance in a non-chordal context but is consonant, we call it a figure, and if it looks and acts like a non-chord tone in a chordal context but is a chord tone, we call it a figure.

Steve

[Ron Ofir]

Aha, I get it now. Thanks!

[stevel]

Originally Posted by stevel

You may however get a dissonant note that IS part of the chord, for instance:
G F E
B C
G C

Sorry, this one should have looked like
G F E
B - C
G - C

Steve