A neighbour note is a non-chord note on a weak beat or part of a beat between two occurrences of the same note of the same chord or of two different chords. It can be located either a step above or a step below the chord factors:
What Is an Incomplete Neighbour Note?
An incomplete neighbour note is a non-chord note on a weak part of a beat that is
- preceded and followed by different chord factors
- approached by leap and left by step in contrary motion or vice versa.
The chord factors in the first example could also be embellished with passing notes.
The second example contains a type of incomplete neighbour note with a specific label: an escape note or échappée.
What are Double Neighbour Notes or Changing Notes?
When both the upper and lower neighbour notes appear consecutively between which the chord factor is absent, we call these embellishments double neighbour notes or changing notes.
There are two versions:
- first the upper neighbour, then the lower neighbour
- first the lower neighbour, then the upper neighbour.
Both versions are characterized by the following intervallic pattern: a step, a third (between the neighbour notes) and again a step.
See also escape note or échappée.
See also passing note.
See also changing notes.
Select Bibliography
Kennan, Kent. Counterpoint Based on Eighteenth-Century Practice — Fourth Edition (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1999).
Schubert, Peter & Christoph Neidhöfer. Baroque Counterpoint (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006).