The traditional, three-stage process of the suspension in common-practice tonal music is generally not found in jazz music. Henry Martin, comparing bop to the common practice, writes, "rarely [are suspensions] prepared and resolved as in common-practice theory" (Martin 1996, 14). However, jazz pianist/composer Brad Mehldau often borrows common-practice contrapuntal techniques -- including the traditional suspension -- while using standard jazz chord symbols in his published lead sheets, ostensibly to communicate harmony to other jazz musicians. Yet in the midst of several traditional suspensions in the theme to Sehnsucht occurs a seemingly paradoxical symbol at the seventeenth bar: a Bsus^add3 chord.

This puzzling chord symbol is contradictory in meaning but can be defined through a close examination of the music. While the traditional definition of a suspension is absolute -- either a melodic tone is suspended or it isn't -- the music analyzed here demands a more nuanced approach to these concrete states. This paper will demonstrate that aural perception combined with visual description of chord symbols can enrich one's understanding of varying degrees of suspension.

First, I will navigate between two traditions' approach to the suspension: the common practice, with its meanings ascribed to contrapuntal techniques and goal-orientation; and jazz music, with its meanings ascribed to harmonic stasis and circularity. Then I will demonstrate three interpretations of Bsus^add3, followed by a close examination of each of Mehldau's improvised solo choruses (as performed in the 1998 album, Art of the Trio, Volume 3: Songs), where the music demonstrates varying degrees of suspension from chorus to chorus. The talk will conclude by considering how perception of these various treatments of Bsus^add3 in Sehnsucht can encourage a nuanced understanding from the evocative title of this song without words.