Discussion 9a - Non-chord Tones, Part 1

Non-chord Tone Non-sense

“What if there are multiple chord tones in a row?”

• Sometimes you can have two passing tones in a row. This would be labeled as a Double Passing Tone (DPT).
• Sometimes you can have two neighbor tones in a row, enclosing the upcoming chord tone. This would be labeled as a Neighbor Group (NG).
• These are the only two cases where multiple NCT’s can occur in a row. If it appears like there are multiple of a different type of NCT, then the harmony might need to be re-analyzed.

Sus corner cases:

• If the suspension is in the bass, the suspension is measured against the most dissonant voice. Consequently, the second number will be bigger than the first. In reality, the only bass suspension you will encounter will end up being 2-3.
• If a Re to Do suspension occus in the tenor voice where it goes from a second above the bass into unison with the bass, it is labeled 2-1. This is the only case where a Re to Do suspension is labeled 2-1.
• If a Re to Do suspension occurs in any octave higher than the bass, it is labeled 9-8.
• If the bass is moving while another voice is resolving a suspension, each note in the suspension gets labeled relative to whichever note is in the bass when it occurs. For example, if the alto does a “Fa Me” suspension while the bass goes “So Do”, it would be labeled “sus 7-3”, because Fa is a seventh above So and Me is a third above Do.