A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Nota Cambita
NOTA CAMBITA (Ital. Nota Cambiata, Germ. Wechselnote, Eng. Changing Note.) I. A Note of Irregular Transition: in other words, a Passing-Note, on the strong part of the measure; as opposed to the Note of Regular Transition, or true Passing-Note, which, though equally foreign to the harmony, produces a less discordant effect, because it invariably occurs upon the weak part of the measure.
In the following example from Cherubini, the D is a Changing, and the second G a Passing-Note.
The use of Changing-Notes is only permitted, in strict Counterpoint, as a means of escape from some grave difficulty; and, of course, only in the Second, Third and Fifth Orders. [See Counterpoint; Part-Writing.]
II. Fux applies the term, Nota cambita,[1] to a peculiar Licence, by virtue of which the Polyphonic Composers, instead of resolving a Passing Discord, at once, suffered it to descend a Third, and then to rise a Second to its Resolution. Cherubini condemns this Licence, as one which should 'neither be admitted, nor tolerated, in strict Counterpoint.' Fux accounts for it by the omission of an imaginary Quaver. The norm of the passage is, he says, as at (a), in the following example. By leaving out the first Quaver, it is made to appear as at (b); by leaving out the second, as at (c).
[ W. S. R. ]
- ↑ 'Nota cambita, ab Italis cambiata nuncupata.' (Gradus ad Parnassum, ed. 1725, p. 63.)