Resolution (music)

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title: "Resolution (music)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["consonance-and-dissonance"] description: "Musical change from dissonance to consonance" topic_path: "general/consonance-and-dissonance" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolution_(music)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Musical change from dissonance to consonance ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Dominant_seventh_tritone_resolution.png" caption="outward}}"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Regular_resolution.png" caption="consonance]] (a more final or stable sounding one)."] ::

Dissonance, resolution, and suspense can be used to create musical interest. Where a melody or chordal pattern is expected to resolve to a certain note or chord, a different but similarly suitable note can be resolved to instead, creating an interesting and unexpected sound. For example, the deceptive cadence.

Basis

::quote A dissonance has its resolution when it moves to a consonance. When a resolution is delayed or is accomplished in surprising ways—when the composer plays with our sense of expectation—a feeling of drama or suspense is created. ::

{ \override Score.SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/12) \new PianoStaff \new Staff \relative c' { \clef treble \key bes \major \time 2/4 r8 -.\p -.[ -.] -.\ff r } \new Staff \new Voice \relative c { \clef bass \key bes \major \time 2/4 \stemUp 8 \stemNeutral -.[_\markup { \concat { "V" \raise #1 \small "7" \hspace #1.5 "I" \hspace #2 "V" \raise #1 \small "7" \hspace #1.4 "I" } } bes-.] -. -. r \bar "|." } \new Voice \relative c, { \clef bass \key bes \major \time 2/4 \stemDown bes8 } } |width=300|caption=Dominant seventh resolutions in the last measures of Beethoven's Piano Sonata in B major, Op. 22 (1800).}}Resolution has a strong basis in tonal music, since atonal music generally contains a more constant level of dissonance and lacks a tonal center to which to resolve. The concept of "resolution", and the degree to which resolution is "expected", is contextual as to culture and historical period. In a classical piece of the Baroque period, for example, an added sixth chord (made up of the notes C, E, G and A, for example) has a very strong need to resolve, while in a more modern work, that need is less strong - in the context of a pop or jazz piece, such a chord could comfortably end a piece and have no particular need to resolve.

Example

An example of a single dissonant note which requires resolution would be, for instance, an F during a C major chord, C–E–G, which creates a dissonance with both E and G and may resolve to either, though more usually to E (the closer pitch). This is an example of a suspended chord. In reference to chords and progressions for example, a phrase ending with the following cadence IV–V, a half cadence, does not have a high degree of resolution. However, if this cadence were changed to (IV–)V–I, an authentic cadence, it would resolve much more strongly by ending on the tonic I chord.

References

References

1. Benjamin, Horvit, and Nelson (2008). ''Techniques and Materials of Music'', p.46. {{ISBN. 0-495-50054-2.
2. Kamien, Roger (2008). ''Music: An Appreciation'', 6th Brief Edition, p.41. {{ISBN. 978-0-07-340134-8.
3. Forte, Allen (1979). ''Tonal Harmony in Concept & Practice'', p. 145. Third edition. {{ISBN. 0-03-020756-8.

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