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The move of a dissonant note or chord to a stable one.
Resolve dissonant tones by step, usually downward — the chordal seventh to the third below, a suspension down to its consonance — while the leading tone rises to the tonic. Where and when you resolve shapes the phrase: delaying a resolution with an ornament, an interpolated chord or a deceptive move prolongs the tension, while resolving every dissonance at once flattens it. Listeners follow the dissonant voice, so keep it audible as it moves.
Resolution is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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