Stuart Smith
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- Implied Countermelodies
Suspensionssus or sus 4 suspends, or withholds, the third of a chord and inserts a fourth above the root: 
Although the suspension originated as a melodic device, the sus tone is treated in jazz as a chord tone. It has no obligation to resolve downward by step; however, the jazz artist may choose to provide such a resolution to achieve a particular musical effect. It should be noted that the extensive use of sus 4 chords found in the playing of some recent pianists implies a harmonic system based on chords built in fourths rather than thirds. The tones of the GÏsus4 above, for example, could be rearranged to form the chord D G C F, a “quartal” (i.e., fourth-based) harmony. Standard chord symbol notation is not well suited to the representation of quartal harmony. When quartal harmony is in force, the composer or arranger should probably write out the exact sonorities he or she wants rather than using the sus notation and hoping the performers will guess the desired sounds. Implied CountermelodiesIt is a common practice in jazz to write simple countermelodies into the chord notation. There are two distinct ways to do this, depending on whether the countermelody is a bass line or an upper line: If the countermelody is in the top or inner voice, it can be written as the numeric parts of a sequence of chord symbols. For example, the melody C-B-BÓ-A over a C-minor chord can be written into the chords symbols as Cm CmmajÏ CmÏ CmÎ: 
The chord symbols do not say whether the top or inner part is to play the implied countermelody. This decision is left up to the performer. For an example of this technique, see the opening bars of My Funny Valentine. When the countermelody is the bass line, a different notational technique must be employed: the so-called “slash” chord notation mentioned above. With slash chords, the letter name of each note of the countermelody is written after a slash (“/”) in the chord symbol. For example, the bass line C-B-BÓ-A under a C-minor chord would be written as Cm Cm/B Cm/BÓ Cm/A: 
For an example of this technique, see the opening bars of Like Someone in Love. Both of these techniques have an obvious limitation: the rhythm of the countermelody is tied to the harmonic rhythm indicated (sometimes ambiguously) by the chord symbols. The resulting melodies are necessarily very simple and predictable. For this reason, several authors refer to such melodies as “line clichés.” When the composer or arranger has in mind a countermelody that has its own independent rhythm and contour, he or she should write it out in full. Download 1.17 Mb. Share with your friends:
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