Theory Question: Escape Tone, Appoggiatura-- what is a skip?

[stubbsonic]

I see in the definitions of two non-chord-tones, Escape Tone or Appoggiatura, the use of the term "skip". An escape tone is approached by a step and resolves with a skip. An appoggiatura is approached by a skip and resolved by a step (in the opposite direction).

In beginning piano books, a "skip" refers to moving in thirds-- i.e. skipping over one scale note.

In the above NCT definitions, does skip refer to a movement of a third, or could it also be referring to a leaps of larger intervals (esp, 4ths, but also 5th, etc). To me, it seems that if the skip is limited to a 3rd, then those definitions are pretty narrow. Any opinions?

[mesayre]

To me a skip can be any interval, though at an interval of a 5th or so I guess I start calling it a "leap". I suppose I'd only use it on upward intervals. But there's no real rule there. Some people skip higher than others.

[stubbsonic]

Certainly, a skip refers to something that is not a 2nd. I could imagine even the augmented 2nd that occurs between the 6 & 7 of a harmonic scale as a step (and not a skip).

It's funny your distinction about leaps being upward only and not downward. I use leap to refer to either direction-- which is (sometimes tragically) how leaping works.

[FMiguelez]

I would only call it "skipping" when a letter name is skipped. So even an augmented second wouldn´t be a skip.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

FWIW... after about 55 years playing music, I've never found such detailed descriptions helpful in actually playing or understanding music. I tend to leave such details to music theorists and musicologists. My approach to such matters is largely one of "taste" rather than accepted norms. Maybe that's a result of having started out as a percussionist. We just don't care as much about notes as we do rhythms and defining time precisely.

[stubbsonic]

Yes, I'm bringing it up because I have two students, one currently home for the summer from music school, and another aspiring to go to music school, and we were talking about the concept of Chord Tones and Non-Chord Tones and how they are "considered" in music theory.

When I looked at the wikipage on the subject, there wasn't a definition of "skip" and it just made me curious if there was some consensus on it.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Frankly, I have NEVER come across the term "leap" very often. Passing tones and leaps, or put another way: scales or arpeggios. I find that much more useful when thinking of phrases, which is, after all what we're talking about here. I guess you could make the argument that we're talking articulation (because we are) which brings me to paraphrase Aaron Copeland's quote:

Any time a learned man put two words together about music, one of them will be wrong.

[mesayre]

"Leap" is something I heard fairly frequently to describe a large interval - more often than skip actually. I come from a brass playing/ vocal background, in which case it is a description of the physical sensation of the performance.

All that being said, my use of any of these words is pretty rare, and not very specific. Most of the time I'd just use the interval name. But these days I'm most often just mumbling to my screen, which doesn't have strong feelings on terminology.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

"Leap" is something I heard fairly frequently to describe a large interval - more often than skip actually. I come from a brass playing/ vocal background, in which case it is a description of the physical sensation of the performance.

All that being said, my use of any of these words is pretty rare, and not very specific. Most of the time I'd just use the interval name. But these days I'm most often just mumbling to my screen, which doesn't have strong feelings on terminology.

[cuttime]

My understanding is that a skip is anything other than a (scale) step.

[mikehalloran]

Oh dear...

I started on trumpet, learned banjo and guitar on my way to the double-bass, what I consider my first "real" instrument. Along the way, I discovered that I could sight-sing and enter notation. My earliest professional gigs were as a choral conductor—right place, right time and I wasn't afraid to try. Go figure.

In short, I'm a disaster when it comes to such things. I grabbed what I needed to know for the next gig and moved on. 50+ years later... yikes!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I grabbed what I needed to know for the next gig and moved on. 50+ years later... yikes!

EXACTLY!

[primeevolutionary]

I’ve often joked that I know everything about theory except I forget what an appoggiatura is as I’ve forgotten so many times.

A leap can be any interval greater than a step (a major or minor second).

Steps and leaps can be in either direction for escape tones and appoggiaturas.

18th Century rules only allowed for an escape tone to be a step up from the chord and a leap down a third

That being said, other than for analysis and music theory test, it isn’t really useful to know.

[mikehalloran]

This definition works as well as any.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steps_and_skips

Being curious, I looked it up in the New Grove... Skip isn’t listed separately. It is mentioned once as being larger than a step in that definition. I figure that, in 20 volumes, if it was that important a term, I think the editors should have included it.

Truth be told, I never worried about the terms used in describing appoggiatura. As a singer, I can’t ever recall a conversation that included them. We look at a score, say Mozart, and it was along the lines of, “when you see this, it is sung like that”. Different with Schubert or Bach etc. I prepared a number of roles with different performance coaches and I’m pretty sure that skip, leap, escape tone etc. never came up. Step and interval are the only ones I remember.

Hmmmm.... the New Grove ... In the 15 years since we moved to this house, this is the first time I’ve cracked open any of those volumes. When we bought them pre-publication in 1979, $800 was all the money in the world. The Wiki says it was published in 1980. Ha! It didn’t ship till 1982 or ‘83. When it did, the price was $1,300 or so and we felt pretty good about that. Now it just collects dust. Turns out you can now have access to everything online for $195 annually. Who could have predicted that?

[stubbsonic]

That being said, other than for analysis and music theory test, it isn’t really useful to know.

Understood. This is quite literally for a music theory test-- that my students may end up taking.

I know it's not important in the real world. In a way, it is almost a hinderance.

Yes, you can hear a nice melody, and try to analyze what made it so nice. And you can see NTCs (non-chord tones) and say, "Ah, nice use of an escape tone." It is perhaps at worst a harmless naming/recognition of a particular shape.

OTOH, you can just open the same creative spigot that artists have drawn on for eons, and let the notes fall where they may.

Mike, one of the persistent questions in my teaching is "Is this still relevant?" (or "Was it ever?") Often the most annoying "traditional" terminology is around rhythm. But that for another thread.