The phrase "a background note" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to refer to additional information or context that provides background on a topic or subject matter.
Example: "In the report, I included a background note to help readers understand the historical context of the issue."
Alternatives: "contextual information" or "background information".
A background note on a new piece of legislation, press notices, campaign ideas and so on.
When he talks about some of this, for all his relentless positive energy, I can't help detecting a background note of weariness.
And the question of the relationship between black and white, indigenous and colonizer, is nearly always present, whether as a background note or a central theme.
In a background note – released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last night – the UN group said its 2007 report wrongly stated that 55% of the Netherlands lies below sea level.
The scene strikes a background note of menace and coercion that sounds throughout the film, as the threesome's journey takes them through unexplained military checkpoints and past scenes of soldiers guarding handcuffed peasants.
A background note by the Australian parliamentary library notes a change in policy in the late 1990s resulted in a shift in the balance of permanent migrants from a majority coming through the family stream – that is, reuniting family members – to majority skilled migrants.
They don't usually make diagnoses based on a few casual observations without the benefit of any background notes; it isn't surprising they got it wrong.
On the day we were at The Connaught, there were seven Ferber jams on the menu; we tasted rhubarb (with an intriguing spicy background note); cherry-rhubarb-mint (tasting of bright, fresh mint leaves); limpid pink quince jelly; and the most intense blackcurrant you can imagine.
Against such an intimidating background, notes Catherine Higham, an investigator with the anti-death penalty charity, Reprieve, it is extremely hard to secure a fair trial.
The Beastie Boys licensed the recording of jazz flautist James Newton's 1978 track Choir for use on 1992's Pass the Mic but not the publishing rights, so a court had to decide in 2004 whether the six-second sample ("three notes separated by a half-step over a background C note" in the court's words) counted as a significant part of Newton's composition.
In a background briefing note for a meeting of the president's committee in September, attended by the Treasury chief secretary Greg Hands, the CBI says: "In public statements we've highlighted support for a higher skilled, higher wage economy but stressed that a national living wage does not reflect firms' ability to pay, calling it a 'big gamble'.
