neighbor note

noun

variants: or less commonly neighbor tone or neighboring tone or neighboring note

Definition of neighbor note

: a nonharmonic note that is approached stepwise from above or below and returns to the previous note Within this motive and elsewhere in the movement, the semitone neighbor note will prove to be the most consequential motivic cell … — Stephen E. Hefling, ed., Nineteenth-Century Chamber Music, 1998

— called also (chiefly British) auxiliary note, auxiliary tone

— see counterpoint illustration

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The first known use of neighbor note was in 1900

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