Nonchord tone

Example of nonchord tones (in red)  Play .

A nonchord tone, nonharmonic tone, or embellishing tone is a note in a piece of music that is not part of the implied chord within the harmonic framework. Similarly, a chord tone is a note that is a part of the functional chord (see: factor (chord)). Nonchord tones are most often discussed in the context of the common practice period, but can be used in analysis of other types of tonal music as well.

Chord and nonchord tones are defined by their membership in a chord: "The pitches which make up a chord are called chord-tones: any other pitches are called non-chord-tones."[1] They are also defined by the time at which they sound: "Nonharmonic tones are pitches that sound along with a chord but are not chord pitches."[2]

For example, if a piece of music implies a C Major chord, then notes CEG are members of that chord, while any other note played at that time is a nonchord tone. Such tones are most obvious in homophonic music but occur at least just as frequently in contrapuntal music.

"Most nonharmonic tones are dissonant and create intervals of a second, fourth or seventh",[2] which are required to resolve to a chord tone in conventional ways. If the note fails to resolve until the next change of harmony, it may instead create a seventh chord or extended chord. While it is theoretically possible that for a three-note chord there are (in equal temperament) nine possible nonchord tones, nonchord tones are usually in the prevailing key. Augmented and diminished intervals are also considered dissonant, and all nonharmonic tones are measured from the bass, or lowest note sounding in the chord except in the case of nonharmonic bass tones.[2]

Nonharmonic tones generally occur in a pattern of three pitches, of which the nonharmonic tone is the center:[2] 1 - 2 - 3 Preceding tone - Nonharmonic tone - Following tone (chord tone) - - (chord tone) Preparation - Dissonance - Resolution

Nonchord tones are distinguished through how they are used. The most important distinction is whether they occur on a strong or weak beat and are thus accented or unaccented.[2] They are also distinguished by their direction of approach and departure and the voice or voices in which they occur, and the number of notes they contain.

Over time some nonchord tones supposedly became chord tones, such as the seventh in a seventh chord. In European classical music "The greater use of dissonance from period to period as a result of the dialectic of linear/vertical forces led to gradual normalization of ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords[in analysis and theory]; each additional non-chord tone above the foundational triad became frozen into the chordal mass."[3]

Certainly no one doubts the need for embellishments....They are indeed indispensable, for consider their uses. They connect notes, animate them, lend them a special effect and weight when required, make them pleasing and thus arouse a particular attentiveness. Embellishments help to clarify the content of the notes—be it sad, joyful, or of other nature....
—C.P.E. Bach (1753), [4]

Unaccented

Anticipation

Anticipation  Play .

Neighbor tone

Neighboring tone.[5]  Play 
Upper neighbor tone  Play .

In practice and analysis, neighboring tones are sometimes differentiated depending upon whether or not they are lower or higher than the chord tones surrounding them. A neighboring tone that is a step higher than the surrounding chord tones is called an upper neighboring tone or an upper auxiliary note while a neighboring tone that is a step lower than the surrounding chord tones is a lower neighboring tone or lower auxiliary note.

Incomplete neighbor tone

With a skip away from a harmony tone to a non-chord tone, and resolved with a step back to a harmony tone (usually in the opposite direction from the approach).
or
With a step away from a harmony tone to a non-chord tone, and resolved with a skip back to a harmony tone (also usually in the opposite direction from the approach).

Escape tone

Escape tone.  Play 

Passing tone

Passing tone.[6]  Play 
Passing tone  Play .

Accented

Passing tone

As with above but on an accented beat.

Accented passing tone.[6]  Play 

Neighbor tone

A neighbor tone where you step up or down from the chord tone, and then move back to the chord tone.[7]

Suspension

Suspension.[8]  Play 
Suspension as an elided passing tone.[8]  Play 
Endeavor, moreover, to introduce suspensions now in this voice, now in that, for it is incredible how much grace the melody acquires by this means. And every note which has a special function is rendered audible thereby.
Suspension  Play .

Suspensions may be further described using the number of the interval forming the suspension and its resolution; e.g. 4-3 suspension, 7-6 suspension, or 9-8 suspension. Suspensions resolve downwards; otherwise it is a retardation. A suspension must be prepared with the same note (in the same voice) using a chord tone in the preceding chord; otherwise it is an appoggiatura.

2-3 suspension in Lassus's Beatus vir in sapientia, mm.23-24 ( Play ). Note that the suspended tone is in the lower voice.

Decorated suspensions are common and consist of portamentos or double eighth notes, the second being a lower neighbor tone.

A chain of suspensions constitutes the fourth species of counterpoint; an example may be found in the second movement of Arcangelo Corelli's "Christmas Concerto".

Appoggiatura

Appoggiatura  Play .

Portamento

Portamento.  Play 

Nonharmonic bass

Nonharmonic bass from Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms 3rd mov. ( Play ) [11]

Examples include the Elektra chord.[12] See also: pandiatonic.

Involving more than three notes

Changing tones

Changing tones.  Play .

Pedal point

Another form of nonchord tone is a pedal point or pedal tone (PD) or note, almost always the tonic or dominant, which is held through a series of chord changes. The pedal point is almost always in the lowest voice (the term originates from organ playing), but it may be in an upper voice; then it may be called an inverted pedal. It may also be between the upper and lower voices, in which case it is called an internal pedal.

Pedal point.  Play 

Chromatic nonharmonic tone

Chromatic nonharmonic tones (in red) in Frédéric Chopin's op. 28, no. 21, mm. 1-4[13]  Play .

A chromatic nonharmonic tone is a nonharmonic tone that is chromatic, or outside of the key and creates half-step motion. The use of which, especially chromatic appoggiaturas and chromatic passing tones, increased in the Romantic Period.[13]

See also

Sources

  1. ↑ Kroepel, Bob (1993). Mel Bay Creative Keyboard's Deluxe Encyclopedia of Piano Chords: A Complete Study of Chords and How to Use Them, p.8. ISBN 978-0-87166-579-9. Emphasis original.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Benward & Saker (2003). Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I, p.92. Seventh Edition. ISBN 978-0-07-294262-0.
  3. ↑ "Debussy and the Crisis of Tonality", p.72. Author(s): Roland Nadeau. Source: Music Educators Journal, Vol. 66, No. 1, (Sep., 1979), pp. 69-73. Published by: MENC: The National Association for Music Education.
  4. ↑ Forte, Allen (1979). Tonal Harmony in Concept & Practice, p.388. ISBN 0-03-020756-8.
  5. ↑ Jonas, Oswald (1982) Introduction to the Theory of Heinrich Schenker (1934: Das Wesen des musikalischen Kunstwerks: Eine Einführung in Die Lehre Heinrich Schenkers), p.89. Trans. John Rothgeb. ISBN 0-582-28227-6.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Jonas (1982), p.94.
  7. ↑ "Nonharmonic Tones".
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Jonas (1982), p.96.
  9. ↑ Forte (1979), p.304.
  10. ↑ Benward & Saker (2009). Music in Theory and Practice, Vol. II, p.8. ISBN 978-0-07-310188-0.
  11. ↑ Andriessen, Louis & Schönberger, Elmer (2006). The Apollonian Clockwork: On Stravinsky. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 9789053568569.
  12. ↑ Lawrence Kramer. "Fin-de-siècle Fantasies: Elektra, Degeneration and Sexual Science", Cambridge Opera Journal, Vol. 5, No. 2. (Jul., 1993), pp. 141-165.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Benward & Saker (2009), p.217-18.