NON-HARMONIC TONES
NON-HARMONIC TONES, also called Embellishing Tones or Non-Chord Tones are notes in a piece of music that do not fit into the vertical chord harmonically. These notes are present in a piece of music to allow for more melodic movement of each voice, especially the soprano melody.
Take a C Major chord: “C-E-G”. The Non-Chord Tone possibilities to use against this chord are “D”, “F”, “A”, and “B” because these notes are not C Major chord tones. Most often, non-harmonic notes will occur in a weak moment of harmonic rhythm - such as the second eighth note of a beat (the “+”); however, some Non-Harmonic Tones can also be found on strong beats such as downbeats which can make Roman Numeral analysis tricky.
Generally, a Non-Harmonic Tone is preceded by a chord tone in Chord 1 and resolves to a chord tone in Chord 2. The “when” and “how” the Non-Harmonic Tone functions can be identified specifically by a label. Below is a four-measure phrase (you may recognize from your Midterm) and a realization of it with audio. The second example is the four-measure phrase with imbedded Non-Harmonic tones. As you learn about the various Non-Harmonic Tones, practice identifying them in Example 2. The solutions can be found at the bottom of this page. Following the two realized phrases are the most common Non-Harmonic Tones and their examples.
A PHRASE WITHOUT AND WITH NON-HARMONIC TONES
IDENTIFY and LABEL all of the Non-Harmonic Tones in the example above after learning the types below.
NON-HARMONIC TONE CATEGORIES
Each non-harmonic or embellishing tone can be categorized in several ways:
ACCENTED: These are non-harmonic tones occurring on the beat. Some types of non-harmonic tones are only accented and others can be accented or unaccented.
UNACCENTED: These are non-harmonic tones occurring off the beat (on eighth or sixteenth notes). Some types of non-harmonic tones below are only unaccented and others can be unaccented or accented depending on where they are placed.
CHROMATIC: Chromatic Non-Harmonic Tones tend to be easy to spot because they use notes outside of the given key (thus, they are “chromatic”). Most often, these notes are a half-step in either direction from the note they are leaving or approaching.
Unaccented Passing Tone
PASSING TONE (PT)
The PASSING TONE, like the Passing Chord, is a note that connects the notes of two chords that are a third apart with the missing note between. It is one of the most common Non-Chord Tones because it creates stepwise, scalar motion in voices which create comfortable, predictable melodic lines. For example, if the Soprano had an “C” for Chord 1 and a “E” for Chord 2, the Passing Tone between would be a “D”.
Passing tones are usually unaccented, but can also be accented.
Unaccented Neighbor Tone
NEIGHBOR TONE (NT)
The NEIGHBOR TONE, like the Neighbor Chord, is a note that moves away from and back to a common tone between two chords. For example, if the Soprano had an “C” for Chord 1 and holds the “C” over as a common tone to Chord 2, then a Neighbor Tone would be the motion between of “C-D-C” (upper neighbor) or “C-B-C” (lower neighbor).
Neighbor tones are usually unaccented, but can also be accented.
NEIGHBOR GROUP (NG) or DOUBLE NEIGHBOR (DN)
The NEIGHBOR GROUP, or Double Neighbor, is also sometimes referred to as a “Turn” in Classical Music technique. This occurs when both the upper and lower neighbor are used between two chords with a common tone. To continue with the example above, the Neighbor Group versions would be: “C-D-B-C” and “C-B-D-C”.
Just like Neighbor Tones, Neighbor Groups can be unaccented or accented.
ANTICIPATION (ANT)
An ANTICIPATION is when a chord tone of the next chord enters early while the music is still functioning harmonically in the previous chord. In this situation, one voice will move to its note for Chord 2 when the overall harmony is still on Chord 1. An example of this would be Soprano on “C” for a C Major chord but switching to a “B” in anticipation of all voices moving to a G Major chord. An Anticipation can be stepwise or not from its previous tone - the main thing is that the note is a chord tone of the next chord in order.
An Anticipation is always unaccented because it becomes a chord tone when the chord eventually changes.
ESCAPE TONE (ET)
An ESCAPE TONE is a Non-Chord Tone that involves both a step and a leap. From Chord 1, a voice will take one step up at the end of Chord 1 (this note will be a Non-Chord Tone of both Chord 1 and Chord 2), then leap downward to resolve to a chord tone of Chord 2. This seems like a strange sequence but it creates a lot of drama so it can be a desirable method of melodic movement. An example is a C Major chord moving to a G Major chord. The Soprano starts on “E”, moves stepwise up to “F”, and leaps down to “D” for Chord 2.
Escape Tones are always unaccented.
APPOGGIATURA (APP)
An APPOGGIATURA is another Non-Chord Tone that involves both a step and a leap. It is opposite from an Escape Tone in that the Non-Chord Tone is approached by a leap and resolved by a step. The Non-Chord tone also occurs on the beat of Chord 2 as opposed to on an unaccented moment of Chord 1. An example is a G Major chord moving to a C Major chord with “D” in the Soprano leaping up to “F” at the beginning of the C chord before resolving downward to “E” (a chord tone).
Appoggiaturas are always accented.
SUSPENSION (S)
The SUSPENSION is one of the most common Non-Chord Tones. A Suspension holds a note over from Chord 1 into Chord 2 and resolves it downward to a chord tone in Chord 2. For example, as a G Dominant 7th chord moves to a C Major chord, a voice will hold the “F” over into the C Major chord and then resolve it downward to “E”. The three types of Suspension movement in chord tones are 4-3, 7-6, and 9-8. All Suspensions will move stepwise downward.
Suspensions are always accented.
RETARDATION (R)
RETARDATION is almost identical to Suspension but whereas a Suspension holds a note over into the next chord and then resolves downward, the Retardation holds a note over into the next chord and resolves upward. For example, as a G Major chord moves to a C Major chord, a voice will hold the “B” over into the C Major chord and then resolve it upward to “C”. All Retardations will move stepwise upward.
Retardations are always accented.
PEDAL (PED)
A PEDAL is a note specifically in the Bass voice that is held out usually under several chords (two or more, but often more than two) when this Bass note does not fit into the chord tones of the other voices above it. This is different than a Pedal Six-Four chord because in the Pedal Six-Four chord, the Pedal Bass is a chord tone of every chord. When the Pedal is a Non-Chord Tone, it is not part of the chord above it. An example of this might be a Pedal “C” held out under an A minor chord, G Major chord, and C Major chord. The “C” will fit in the exterior chords (A and C) but not in the interior chord (G) and thus, it is a Non-Chord Tone under the G Major chord.
Pedals are unique in that they don’t change through a chord (as they are present before and after the chord) and so are not accented or unaccented.
*CHORDAL LEAP* (CL)
The CHORDAL LEAP is an embellishment tone while technically not being a non-harmonic or non-chord tone because the note is a member of the chord. This label is used when a voice moves from one chord tone to a different chord tone during the duration of the chord. This can happen a single time or a voice might move through all three notes in a triad, which would then be called an ARPEGGIATION (ARP). An example of a Chordal Leap would be the Soprano moving from “C” to “E” over a C Major chord. For this to be an Arpeggiation, the Soprano would move from “C” to “E” to “G” - or any order of the arpeggio of the given chord.
Chordal leaps are unaccented because they will occur after the chord has already been struck.
Here is a handy worksheet to print out so you can keep track of all the Non-Harmonic Tone types in your notes! This is also available on our Canvas page as a PDF to download and print.
