Suspensions

The 4–3 suspension as a procedure: the soprano enters as a consonance, is held while the bass moves under it, and falls one step on the weaker beat.

The 4–3 in minor, where the resolution is the raised third itself — the fall of the suspension manufactures the leading tone.

The 7–6 suspension: a held voice becomes a seventh when the bass steps down beneath it, and resolves to the sixth — the suspension of first-inversion writing.

The 7–6 in minor, riding the natural descent: the suspended voice dissonates against a falling bass that carries no accidental at all.

The 9–8 suspension: the heaviest of the upper-voice suspensions, striking a ninth over the new bass and falling to the octave it had displaced.

The 9–8 in minor, where the ninth strikes over the subdominant and the resolution hands the phrase directly to the dominant.

The suspension turned upside down: the bass is the voice that holds, an upper voice strikes a second above it, and the bass itself resolves by falling.

The bass suspension in minor: the bass falls its half step onto the leading tone, and the chord of resolution is the dominant’s own first inversion.

The 7–6 chain: each resolution is the next preparation, and the device renews itself as long as the bass keeps walking down.

The 7–6 chain in minor, descending the natural scale with the suspensions in an inner voice and the sharp reserved for the close.

The 2–3 chain: the bass holds and falls, holds and falls, suspending against the upper voices at every step of its own descent.

The 2–3 chain in minor, falling by whole and half steps down the natural scale until the sixth chord over the dominant sharpens into the true dominant.