Suspended 7th chord

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I think I hear 7sus, or a pedal note for a similar effect, in JS Bach sometimes. I imagine somebody utilized it even before Bach. Any composers before JSB I should check?

Is it a Renaissance thing? I don't think Arabic music had it, but I'm not sure.

[DaveF]

I think it's a very Handel thing, the immovable 7th in the bass - I'm no expert on his music, but I'm thinking of "And the Lord hath laid on him" in Messiah. Such tricks were probably too extreme for earlier composers - in the late Renaissance, they were only just discovering the joys of the dominant 7th.

[Harry]

I think it's a very Handel thing, the immovable 7th in the bass - I'm no expert on his music, but I'm thinking of "And the Lord hath laid on him" in Messiah. Such tricks were probably too extreme for earlier composers - in the late Renaissance, they were only just discovering the joys of the dominant 7th.

Correct.

[relm1]

I know this is off topic but tracing contemporary techniques is quite interesting.  For example, I was surprised to hear clusters and discord in Heinrich Biber's Battalia from 1673.

Second movement at 1:40 for example, I couldn't find how to link directly to it.