Music Theory: Melodic Embellishments and Pedal Points

Vocabulary terms and principles covering melodic embellishing tones, voice-leading corrections, accented dissonances, suspensions, and pedal points from the lecture.

Neighbor Tone (NT)

A melodic embellishment where a voice departs from a principal note to an adjacent step and then returns back to the original principal note (e.g., $D$ up to $E$ and back to $D$).

Upper Neighbor Tone

A specific type of neighbor tone where the melody moves up by step from the principal note before returning down to the starting pitch (e.g., $C-D-C$).

Passing Tone (PT)

A melodic embellishment that moves stepwise in a single direction to connect a principal note to another note (e.g., $C-D-E$).

Harmonic Skip

A motion between chord tones used to break away from voice-leading problems and avoid parallel fifths or octaves.

Dissonant Embellishing Tones Rule

The voice-leading rule stating that added dissonant embellishing tones cannot be used to correct or eliminate existing parallel octaves.

Accented Dissonance

An embellishing tone placed on the downbeat or main beat that delays the full arrival of the harmony before moving to a resolution.

Third of the Chord (Accented Dissonance Rule)

The chord member that must not appear in any voice until the decorating accented dissonance has resolved.

$4-3$ Suspension

A common type of suspension or accented dissonance where scale degree $4$ delays the harmony and resolves down to scale degree $3$.

Pedal Point

A sustained tone, typically in the bass (derived from an organist holding a foot pedal), that remains stationary while the chords sounding above it change.

Harmonic Embellishment

A decorative texture (such as a pedal point) where the held note itself is decorated by the changing chords sounding above it, rather than decorating an underlying chord melodically.

Pedal on $5$

The most common pedal point, placed on dominant scale degree $5$ to embellish harmonies usually located at the beginning or conclusion of a piece or section.