2.1.6 Shadow-note treatment
Question. Are non-chord tones (shadow notes, suspensions, anticipations) prepared and resolved properly?
How to check.
- Identify every non-chord tone in every voice. (A non-chord tone is a pitch not in the orbit’s pitch-class set at that moment.)
- For each non-chord tone, determine its function: passing tone, neighbor, suspension, anticipation, escape tone, multiset-shadow note?
- Verify proper treatment:
- Passing tone: approached and left by step in the same direction.
- Neighbor: approached and left by step in opposite directions, returning to the same chord tone.
- Suspension: prepared (was chord tone in previous chord), then held into new chord, then resolved by step.
- Anticipation: a chord tone of the next chord sounded before the chord arrives.
- Multiset-shadow: a non-chord tone that belongs to the multiset of a sister orbit (e.g., A4 over Q877, where A is in the related Q777). These are not “errors” — they are deliberate shadows. But they should be heard as such.
Common findings. Beginners sometimes use non-chord tones without resolving them, treating them as freely available pitches. This is a violation in second-fourth species but acceptable in fifth species if the non-chord tone is doing real work (e.g., establishing a wing-color or producing a multiset-shadow).