Non-chord Tones (Non-harmonic Tones)

Hello everybody! This is Dr. Meyer here with a video for you on non-chord tones, sometimes known as non-harmonic tones. Let's get started. Have you ever been analyzing a piece of music and wondered what to call those pitches that don't fit nicely into your row numeral or jazz chord analysis? Take this Beethoven piece for example. Have a listen. What can we call tones like these? It just so happens that not all tones belong in a chord. Composers use non-chord tones to enhance their melodies, perhaps to make them more interesting. As it appears here, most non-chord tones are associated with melodies, but not all of them, as we will see. These tones are considered dissonances, as they are not part of the underlying harmony. Let's define one more facet of non-chord tones before we list them. Whether the non-chord tone falls on a strong or weak part of the beat is an important factor of identifying them. If a dissonance occurs on the beat, it is called an accented dissonance. Off the beat, it's called unaccented. We know that each beat has a pulse in any meter, but sometimes it's also important to consider whether the dissonance is occurring on a weak or strong beat within the hypermeter as well. Okay, let's identify some non-chord tones. Two unaccented non-chord tones are the passing and neighbor motions, respectively. The passing tone occurs between two stable tones, filling in the gap in a single direction. You may see more than one passing tone in a row to fill a larger gap, but it's most common to see a gap of a third filled, as in the example on the left. We will label the passing tone with a PT or just a P. Here's what it sounds like. The neighbor tone also occurs between two stable tones, just like the passing tone. However, neighbor tones occur between instances of the same stable tone. Neighbor tones, just like passing tones, will always consist of stepwise motion. Here's a neighbor tone. In the previous examples, we saw unaccented passing and neighboring motions, which occur during weak portions of our beat in cut time. You will also see passing and neighboring motions occur during metrically strong moments, thus the accent. For clarification, I have added the accent mark above each label, but it is not always necessary. Here are the accented passing and accented neighbor tones. Four non-chord tone types are a result of neighboring motion and have special labels. The first example on the top left resembles a neighbor tone, as it embellishes the same stable tone, but both upper and lower neighbor are visited before returning home. We call these double neighbor tones. You may also see them called changing tones. Whether the upper or lower neighbor is visited first does not really matter, as long as both are present before returning to the stable tone. Here's what these sound like. The top right example leaps from a chord tone G to D, the neighbor below a stable tone of resolution, that being E. Since a neighbor tone is present, but it is not preceded by the same stable tone, we call this an incomplete neighbor tone. Here's the sound of an incomplete neighbor. Two more neighbor motions remain. The bottom left example is a kind of incomplete neighbor tone that is accented. We call it an appoggiatura. The hallmark of an appoggiatura is a leap, which is usually up, to a dissonance from a consonance, like the G leaping to a dissonance D here, and the resolution, which is usually down by step, but always in the opposite direction after the leap. So for an appoggiatura, think leap up, step down. Again, appoggiaturas are almost always accented. Here's what this example sounds like. For more on a very special type of appoggiatura, please watch my video on the cadential 6-4. The last example on the bottom right features a step from a consonance, followed by a leap back to a consonance. We call these escape tones. Escape tones are generally unaccented, so they're kind of the opposite of an appoggiatura. However, their leaps will always be in the opposite direction from the step, just like appoggiaturas. So for escape tones, think step up, leap down. Here's what this example sounds like. An anticipation is essentially a stable tone that arrives too early. This unaccented non-chord tone anticipates a change of harmony before becoming a chord member of the new harmony once it arrives. We typically find anticipations at the end of larger phrases or sections. Here's what these two examples sound like. Another non-chord tone is the pedal point. This tone is one of the few that does not relate to the melody. A pedal point is a static tone, repeated from a previous chord, usually in the bass or lower register. A pedal point can be used to prolong a harmony, like tonic or dominant, by keeping a static pitch in the bass. Here's what this example sounds like. The last type of non-chord tone is slightly more involved, in that it requires careful treatment of the dissonance. Suspensions. Suspensions are formed of three critical parts. The preparation, which could be accented or unaccented, the suspension itself, which is always accented, and the resolution, which is generally unaccented. The preparation is the chord tone, which is a consonance. The suspension is the same note as the preparation, and it occurs simultaneously with a change of harmony. The suspension then proceeds down by step to a resolution, which occurs over the same harmony as the suspension. A suspension is a lingering chord tone, belonging to a previous chord, that forces a late arrival of the new chord's chord tone, the resolution. Let's look at some types of suspensions. The most common suspensions, and their resolutions, concern the upper voices, which form the following intervallic patterns against the bass. 4-3, 9-8, and 7-6. That is, upon the arrival of the accented non-chord tone, an interval of a 4th, 9th, or 7th, respectively, will be formed with the bass note, each resolved down by step to their corresponding chord number. With the exception of 9-8, the pitch class of the resolution tone should never sound in another simultaneous voice with the suspended tone. That just creates too much cognitive dissonance. Here is what a 4-3 suspension sounds like. And a 9-8 suspension. And a 7-6 suspension. There's one suspension type that occurs in the bass line only. That is what we call a 2-3 suspension. This time, the interval of a 2nd is formed between the bass and the upper voice, which is resolved downward to a 3rd. It sounds like this. Sometimes, instead of the label S-U-S, it is more typical to notate these intervals as a pattern in the figured bass figures, so look out for those as well. Finally, we have reached our final non-chord tone. That is the retardation. A retardation is essentially an upward-resolving suspension. It is almost always reserved for the final chord of a large formal division or movement, and frequently appears simultaneously with a suspension. Not in this particular example. So we have a chord tone that's being held over, and instead of resolving down, it's resolving up in this particular instance. Here's what this guy sounds like. Again, sometimes instead of R-E-T, we will be notating the intervallic pattern in the figured bass figures, so look out for that. Now it is your turn to practice. Listen to the Beethoven Violin Sonata, C minor movement 2. See if you can identify the non-chord tones. The Roman numeral analysis has been provided for you, as well as a list of the non-chord tones that we just discussed. Pause the video and take your time. Here's what the music You should have identified these chord tones as non-chord tones. And here's how you should have labeled each function. As you can see, there are several suspensions here. Each is prepared by the chord before, suspended over the accented metric beat, and resolving down by step. We also see multiple passing tones and neighbor tones filling in the gaps between the harmonies. The last measure also features an accented passing tone or a double appoggiatura. I know it's hard to label it as an appoggiatura now, but it functions much like one as it has a downward resolution and it's a decoration of the dominant chord at the cadence. Again, for more clarification, watch the cadential 6-4 video for more on this. Well, you did it. You learned about non-chord tones, so let's recap. Non-chord tones are not part of a chord, so they need to be identified as such. They can occur on the beat or off the beat. Their location helps to strengthen or weaken their effect of the decoration or the elaboration. We didn't see any examples in this video, but it is possible to have chromatically inflected non-chord tones, that is, tones that are not in our key signature. And lastly, many of these tones have a specific way in which they move and resolve, especially that of the suspension, which needs careful preparation and resolution. That's it for this video. Thanks for watching!