What is an unresolved seventh in terms of music theory?
Most commonly this refers to the 7th of a dominant 7th chord (NOT the 7th note of the scale). In C major, this would be a G-B-D-F chord. Hundreds of years of music tells us that the F of this chord (the 7th, because it is a 7th above the chord’s root) should resolve down by step, to E, in the next harmony. An unresolved 7th (or incorrectly resolved 7th) is any time that this doesn’t happen. [I haven’t studied all of Wagner’s works closely, but in the ones I have, most of his sevenths actually DO resolve correctly…just maybe not when you expect them to…
