grace note

Noun

grace note (plural grace notes)

1. A musical note, indicated on a score in smaller type with or without a slash through it, played to ornament the melody rather than as part of it. Its note value does not count as part of the total time value of the measure it appears in.
   • There is a manner of gracing the notes or accents in reading, as in singing, but which is always at pleasure. This grace note in music is called appoggiatura, that is, supporter, insinuator. As the quantities of these little notes in music are always taken out of the next note that follows, so it...1821, James Chapman, chapter II, in The Original Rhythmical Grammar of the English Language: Or, The Art of Reading and Speaking, on the Principles of the Music of Speech, Edinburgh: Printed for...
   • Grace notes, as their name shows, though not absolutely essential to melody, are employed as embellishments, and also prevent too great uniformity. There are several kinds; the small note, or Appoggiatura, the Trill, and the Turn. An Appoggiatura is a grace note placed above or below a principal...1851, [Friedrich] Schneider, “The Elements of Music”, in Schneider’s Practical Organ School, Containing All Necessary Instructions in Fingering, Management of Stops, Pedals, etc., […], Boston, Mass....

   Synonyms:

   grace

2. (figuratively) Something that decorates, embellishes, or ornaments; a finishing touch.
   • These concerns, often given mythic expression, explore the common human element in diverse experience: the poet [Rita Dove] touches the grace notes of famous and unknown lives, past and present.2006, Pat Righelato, “Grace Notes: Stepping off the Tin Roof into Blue”, in Understanding Rita Dove (Understanding Contemporary American Literature), Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina...
   • But what I know now is that even if the feelings do return, I can wait them out, and, indeed, pain that appears to be despairing and murderous may actually contain—if I listen very carefully—a grace note of hope or consolation from God.2013, Sarah Kovac, “One of These Things is Not Like the Others”, in In Capable Arms: Living a Life Embraced by Grace, Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, →ISBN, page 38