Ron Chaplin wrote:

>I wonder if you would explain a little more about what tension-release is
>in music.

The easiest and most elementary examples of tension-release to explain are
the two most popular cadences that come at the very ends of pieces in the
classical era.  They let you know when the piece is over.  (They also let
you know when a phrase is over, but that's in next week's sermon.)

Think of the words 'THE END' sung.  (This is the 'strongest' ending that
you might hear at the end of a Beethoven symphony...  in fact you might
hear several of them.) Imagine sitting in a car, and being pulled slightly
backwards right before stopping for good...  the pulling backwards is the
tension and the stopping is the release.

The tension is created in a tonal system by having 'active' notes of the
dominant seventh chord (the next to the last chord) being pulled by tonal
magnetism toward the stationary last chord, the rock-solid tonic in the
same key...

Typical resolution:

   THE >------> END
   sol >------> do
   ti  >------> do
   re >-------> do
   fa >-------> mi

In the key of C major, this would be the chord "GBDF" resolving to the
chord "CEG"

The less powerful cadence is one you will hear if you imagine singing
'Amen'...  It is a chord built on the fourth degree of the scale:  fa,
la, do.  The magnetic "pull" is less, thus the tension is less.

   Ahh>------> Men
   fa >------> mi
   la >------> sol
   do >----- > do

Mimi (the unresolved) Ezust