What Is an Escape Note (or Échappée)?

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An escape note, or échappée, is a specific type of incomplete neighbour note and more specifically a non-chord note on a weak part of a beat that is

  • preceded and followed by different chord notes
  • approached by rising step and left by descending leap.

What Is a Consonant Escape Note (Échappée)?

A consonant escape note interrupts the usual descending motion of a dissonance (usually a seventh) to its resolution by first rising a step (to the octave):

See also neighbour note.

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).