Just saw this post! Tendency tones are notes within a chord, considered as dissonance, that have a fixed destination to their resolution. Therefore they are said to have a "tendency" to go somewhere designated.
For example, in a progression of V7 to I in C major. The tendency tones of V7 would be F and B. F being the 7th, is obliged to resolve to E of chord I and B being a leading note is obliged to resolve to C of chord I.
There are other examples of tendency tones too, they are mostly the 7th note of a seventh chord, or notes that are chromatically altered. 7th note of seventh chord is to resolve downward and those chromatically altered note continue to resolve in the same direction, i.e. say in Neapolitan chord of C minor, the D flat, chromatically altered from D natural, would need to resolve in the same direction in which it is flattened. So D flat needs to resolve to C of the next chord (provided your progression is N6-Ic-V-I; if it is N6-V-I, the D flat would first go to the B natural before moving to the C.
Kirsten, strictly speaking, there isn't 2-1 suspension, that would mean dissonance of a second resolving to unison. They didn't like that sort of sound at all: just imagine two voices singing second apart and then "melting" into a unison. It's weird right?
However, 9-8 suspension is accepted in Baroque period, though it's not used in Renaissance, because it resolves to the note (8) which is already in another voice - make sense? In other words, in its pure and original form, a suspension does not resolve to the note which is already present in another voice. And a suspension resolves DOWNWARD only - now, though, you will come across theory that says it can also resolve upward stepwise, but that's not Renaissance suspension. In fact, suspension should be thought of as a delayed arrival of the consonant note.
Therefore, the term "tendency tone" is usually used to describe notes within a chord that are required to resolve to specific notes in another chord. And these so called tendency notes aren't necessarily dissonances! Think of the D flat in Neapolitan chord, it's perfectly a consonance within the chord!
The D flat goes to the C, like I said, is because of a harmonic pull - if you alter a note chromatically, it continues to resolve in the direction in which you alter it i.e. so if you flatten it - meaning it chromatically changes downward, its resolution shall continue in that same direction. Not so much to do with voice-leading.
Sorry Kirsten!
ReplyDeleteJust saw this post! Tendency tones are notes within a chord, considered as dissonance, that have a fixed destination to their resolution. Therefore they are said to have a "tendency" to go somewhere designated.
For example, in a progression of V7 to I in C major. The tendency tones of V7 would be F and B. F being the 7th, is obliged to resolve to E of chord I and B being a leading note is obliged to resolve to C of chord I.
There are other examples of tendency tones too, they are mostly the 7th note of a seventh chord, or notes that are chromatically altered. 7th note of seventh chord is to resolve downward and those chromatically altered note continue to resolve in the same direction, i.e. say in Neapolitan chord of C minor, the D flat, chromatically altered from D natural, would need to resolve in the same direction in which it is flattened. So D flat needs to resolve to C of the next chord (provided your progression is N6-Ic-V-I; if it is N6-V-I, the D flat would first go to the B natural before moving to the C.
Clear....?
Much clearer now. Thank u. so tendency tones are like suspensions in bach chorale, whereby the 7th resolves to 8th, 4th-3rd n 2nd-1st, aye?
ReplyDeleteAnd chromatically altered notes like N6 has to be resolved downwards chromatically. this also gives good voice-leading aye?
Kirsten, strictly speaking, there isn't 2-1 suspension, that would mean dissonance of a second resolving to unison. They didn't like that sort of sound at all: just imagine two voices singing second apart and then "melting" into a unison. It's weird right?
ReplyDeleteHowever, 9-8 suspension is accepted in Baroque period, though it's not used in Renaissance, because it resolves to the note (8) which is already in another voice - make sense? In other words, in its pure and original form, a suspension does not resolve to the note which is already present in another voice. And a suspension resolves DOWNWARD only - now, though, you will come across theory that says it can also resolve upward stepwise, but that's not Renaissance suspension. In fact, suspension should be thought of as a delayed arrival of the consonant note.
Therefore, the term "tendency tone" is usually used to describe notes within a chord that are required to resolve to specific notes in another chord. And these so called tendency notes aren't necessarily dissonances! Think of the D flat in Neapolitan chord, it's perfectly a consonance within the chord!
The D flat goes to the C, like I said, is because of a harmonic pull - if you alter a note chromatically, it continues to resolve in the direction in which you alter it i.e. so if you flatten it - meaning it chromatically changes downward, its resolution shall continue in that same direction. Not so much to do with voice-leading.
Ohh! thank u so much!
ReplyDelete