Échappé

What it means

The échappé — the word means “escaped” — is a non-chord tone that is reached by step from the main note and then left by a leap in the opposite direction. It thus first moves a little away and does not return but leaps over the starting point to the next chord tone. Characteristic is this combination of a step and a following leap in the opposite direction.

In the notation

The figure is recognizable by three notes: chord tone, neighbouring non-chord tone, then a leap — usually a third — in the opposite direction to the next chord tone. Typically the échappé stands on a weak part of the bar and is short. It carries no designation of its own in the score; it is determined in analysing, not marked in reading.

Musical use

Its effect is that of a small evasion: the line feints a movement and then takes a different path. The figure is met particularly often in cadential formulas, where the upper voice evades briefly upward before the final note before falling into the tonic — a turn that firmly belongs to the stock of the vocal music of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

The échappé is to be distinguished from the neighbouring formations, which happens exclusively through the manner of approach and departure: the passing note is approached by step and left by step in the same direction. The neighbour note is approached by step and returns by step to the starting note. The échappé is approached by step and left by a leap in the opposite direction. The so-called anticipation, by contrast, anticipates a note of the following chord.

Performance practice

Take the échappé lightly and briefly — it is an evasion, not a goal, and gains its effect precisely from remaining incidental. Take care not to emphasize the following leap, although it is conspicuous; the weight lies on the chord tone on which the figure ends. When working it up, it helps to play the passage once without the figure to hear the underlying line, and then to add it.