EXTEMPORE PLAYING - online tutorial

Share page


	The Auxiliary Note and the Pas sing-Note 35
	For rules as to the use of this figure, the student shoulp consult any work on counterpoint; they are rather outside the scope of this volume. Closely allied to the 'neighbour' is the passing-note.' The former involves a return, real or implied, to the principal tone; the latter is used as a link connecting one tone with another. Any two tones standing in their simple melodic form at the distance of a third, may be connected by the obvious expedient of rilling in the gap. This is the passing-note. Passing-notes may be used ascending or descending; in any voice; or with one, two or three voices moving at the same time. There is really no limit to their possibilities except that imposed by taste and judgment, and the possible combinations thus introduced make it sometimes difficult to analyse the music, with a view to deciding which notes are essential and which merely ornamental. Glancing through this door, we see the whole realm of counterpoint stretching before us. This field is not for the keyboard student, at any rate not at present. But he needs to know what are the general principles of passing-notes, so that he may be able to introduce them occasionally with correct results. Here are a few specimens in one voice:

	Here are others in two voices:

	Many others can be thought out and attempted by the student. The following will show the use of this device by the great composers.