Lower Auxiliary

Custom Search

Chromatically Altered Passing Tone

Harmony Manual

Cambiata

LOWER AUXILIARY
A lower auxiliary is a non-harmonic tone a step below two chord tones of the same pitch and appears in a weak rhythmic position. Lower auxiliaries may be chromatically altered to create a semitone when one does not appear diatonically.

FIGURE 8.11: Lower Auxiliaries
CHANGING TONES
Changing tones are two non-harmonic tones approaching a chord tone, one above and one below. The first must occur in a weak rhythmic position. The second may be in a weak or strong rhythmic position.

FIGURE 8.12: Rhythmic Position of Changing Tones
Changing tones may be preceded by the same pitch as the note of resolution,

FIGURE 8.13: Changing Tones Preceded by the Same Note as the Note of Resolution

or by a chord tone a third removed from the following chord tone. The latter is frequently called Nota Cambiata. Similar melodic direction is used from the first chord tone through the changing tones.

FIGURE 8.14: Nota Cambiata
The changing tone below the next chord tone may be chromatically altered to create semitone movement.

FIGURE 8.15: Changing Tones with Chromatic Alteration