Re: 7b5, or 7#11?

"Steve Latham" <llatham@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:Aow7k.230$cv5.29@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> So why, when add9 existed already?    The last three D's  *are* a 9th 
>> above the root!
>
> I think the philosphy is that:
> Sus 4 means replace the 3 with 4 (or move the 3 to 4 etc.)
> So "add 4" should mean that the 4 being added should be adjacent to the
3 
> it would have been replacing.

Yes.

> So sus 2 and "add 2" would of course mean the same thing.

No "sus 2" means the 2 is there instead of the 3.    [The "sus" chords
take 
their name from a "suspension" in which the 2 or 4 come from a previous 
harmony and would resolve onto a 3, but haven't quite got around to doing 
so. <g>]

> I think the confusion is that 9ths are probabaly (or at least have been)

> more common historically than 11ths, and triad forms of the past were
more 
> likely to use sus4 of all of the sus/add family, that 2nds were
"unknown" 
> and 11ths were on 7th forms and thus distinct.

Again i think you're placing to much reliance on some kind of implied 
inversion.    When you name a chord C7 you know it has CEGBb but there is 
absolutely no implication about the inversion.   Similarly in C9 with 
CEGBbD.

> Personally, I think
> C E G D should be add 2  period. "9" should be reserved strictly for
those 
> chords that also include the 7th (or the 6th in the case of a 6/9)

Well the "add" in "add9" actually means the 7th is omitted.

Actually, mulling it over, I could see a case for renaming Cadd9 as C2 
(without the add).   If you take your case from C6, and say that digits 9,

11, 13 mean stack thirds on the 7th, but digits lower than 7 mean just add

that note,  then C2 and C4 would be fine for Cadd9 and Cadd11, and have
the 
merit of conciseness.     (I've always thought "add" was clumsy.)   But, 
even taking into account what you're saying about C2, this is not really 
general practice.

> But I'm not going to bother trying to change the evolutionary process 
> (except in miniscule increments :-)

It may happen though :-)

Dave
-- 
David Webber
Author of 'Mozart the Music Processor'
http://www.mozart.co.uk
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