Appearance of "add2" chords

That seems logical, if you look at it from a purely English speaking viewpoint. But there are other traditions and languages. In Swedish we use the word “förhållning” (based on German “Vorhalt”) för “suspension”, which doesn’t imply direction at all. A “förhållning” is a dissonance that resolves to a consonance, traditionally mostly downwards, but not always. (One example: a hymn ending cliché is the 4th going to the 2nd resolving to the 3rd.) To be more precise, a “förhållning” is prepared, a “förslag” is unprepared.

That we still use the English abbreviation “sus” is because of the the dominance of English popular music during the 20th century.

Well, in the Fuchs (German) work on counterpoint (which is the standard text in American music schools on 16th century counterpoint), the directions in the English translation for creating and resolving suspensions (don’t know the word used in the German original) states emphatically that the suspension must resolve downwards. Don’t know about Sweden and don’t know about the “dominance of English Popular Music during the 20th century.”

Says the Pedant, shrugging.

–L3B

I thought your previous post was the end of the pedantry session, Len :wink:

Something tells me that not many of the people who use chord symbols even know there WAS a 16th century, let alone that it had counterpoint :astonished:

Pianoleo-- It was the end of THAT session. Then we had another one.

Rob-- And in my experience they often don’t know what a chord is, either.

End of snark session.

It was true at the time, but music didn’t stop evolving in the 16th century. There are examples of “förhållningar” (suspensions seems an inadequate word as you say, since the word itself signifies position) from music by Mozart (to name just one example) where it clearly resolves upwards. So the word changed meaning with time, but the English word for the phenomena didn’t change with the concept.

Don’t know about Sweden and don’t know about the “dominance of English Popular Music during the 20th century.”

Luckily, I do. :wink: But I should have written Anglo-American popular music", my mistake, sorry! During the 20th century much Swedish music terminology changed from German to English. After WWII German quickly became much less popular as a second language in Sweden, and English soon took its place.