Suspension

What it means

A suspension (German Vorhalt) is a dissonant note on an accented beat that takes the place of a chord tone and subsequently resolves into it stepwise. It “holds back” the chord tone, so to speak, by delaying it. The tension between expectation and delayed arrival is its effect.

In the notation

It is recognizable by a note on a heavy beat that does not belong to the chord and moves, in the next step, into a chord tone. It is often tied over from the previous bar by a tie — then it is prepared. In figured bass notation, suspensions appear as pairs of numerals, for instance 4–3 for the fourth suspension, which resolves into the third, or 9–8 for the ninth suspension, which resolves into the octave.

Musical use

The classic form is the prepared suspension: the note first sounds consonant, stays held while the harmony changes, thereby becomes dissonant, and resolves downward. Alongside this there is the free suspension, which is leapt to without preparation, and the suspension from below, which resolves upward — mostly when it lies a semitone below its goal.

Especially frequent is the fourth suspension on the dominant before the close, which delays the third and thus the leading tone. The cadential six-four chord, too, is a double suspension before the dominant.

The suspension is to be distinguished from the passing note and the neighbour note: these stand unaccented, are reached stepwise, and do not change the harmony; the suspension stands accented and is part of the sonority. And it differs from the suspension chord in that this uses the suspension as an independent colour, without resolving it.

The suspension mostly stands on an accented beat and resolves on an unaccented one.

Performance practice

Give the suspension weight and the resolution relaxation — never the reverse. Hold prepared suspensions across the tie without re-attacking them. And take a touch of time on the suspension; it is the moment of tension that the resolution answers.