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Textbooks and analytical traditions differ in how they label embellishing tones.
Double neighbors are sometimes called "changing tones" or "cambiatas." Incomplete neighbors
are sometimes called "appoggiaturas" (leap then step) or "escape tones" (step then leap). In some
traditions, any embellishing tone-other than a chordal skip or suspension-that falls on an
accented beat is called an appoggiatura. This term, from the Italian appoggiare ("to lean"),
accurately describes our tendency to stress or lean on the dissonant pitch in performance.
Appoggiaturas may be notated by the composer or added by the performer for expressive
purposes. They are particularly common in Baroque recitatives.
In measure 6 of Purcell's Music for a While, the singer might change the downbeat B4,
on the syllable "-while," to two eighths: C-B. This accented embellishment is not a member of
the underlying E-G#-B triad, but it adds expressive emphasis to the syllable. This book
distinguishes between the various types of accented dissonances, rather than grouping them all
together as appoggiaturas. Accented dissonances may be labeled P, N, or IN, depending on how
they are approached and left.
[Purcell, "Music for a While" m. 6 from Anthology, p. 182]
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