Introduction ::  Arnold Dolmetsch, with his book Interpretation of Music of the Seventeenth and Eighteen Centuries
published in 1915, was one of the first to understand how a performer
was expected to add ornamentation to the performance of what today we
call "early music". Ornamentation was integral to performance and to
miss it out made as much sense as leaving out any of the written notes.
Indeed, a study of original sources indicates to what degree performers
were expected to 'expand upon' what was written, either through careful
preparation or 'on the spur of the moment'.
In Musical Borrowings, we read that:
embellishment
in 16th-century Italian intabulations ranged from the more sparing use
of ornaments by mid-century lutenists to a much heavier and consistent
use of ornamentation in the 1580s and 1590s. A comparison of several
intabulations from the mid-century reveals a similar procedure of
applying embellishments to obscure points of imitation and repeated
sections of the vocal model. The lack of concern for bringing out the
structure of the model and the freedom with which ornaments were
applied shows how mid-century lutenists prized variety more than
structural clarity. In the intabulations of Francesco da Milano and
Francesco Spinacino, original vocal models are transformed into
idiomatic pieces through a more motivic use of graces and through
recomposition of certain passages. While the practice of free
embellishment through idiomatic figuration continued throughout the
16th-century as a special technique of virtuoso soloists, the
systematic exploitation of stereotyped graces led to diverse figuration
patterns and a rich network of motives used in intabulations as well as
variation sets in the second half of the century.
|
Almost two hundred years later, in his "Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen" (Berlin, 1753), C.P.E. Bach writes: It
is not likely that anybody could question the necessity of ornaments.
They are found everywhere in music, and are not only useful, but
indispensable. They connect the notes; they give them life. They
emphasise them, and besides giving accent and meaning they render them
grateful; they illustrate the sentiments, be they sad or merry, and
take an important part in the general effect. They give to the player
an opportunity to show off his technical skill and powers of
expression. A mediocre composition can be made attractive by their aid,
and the best melody without them may seem obscure and meaningless. |
Starting with Chambonnières' print of 1670, almost all French composers
included tables of ornaments in their printed editions, to illustrate
'the manner of playing.' D'Anglebert included a very thorough table of
ornaments, perhaps the most complete of all. His symbols and types of
ornaments provide both melodic embellishments and elaborate chordal
figurations. D'Anglebert's system, like all French ornament systems, is
combinatorial: a small number of simple gestures can be combined in a
multitude of ways to produce a very rich set of ornamental figures.
Since D'Anglebert uses exactly the same set of ornaments in one of his
figured-bass examples, his entire oeuvre is a rich source of ideas for
accompaniment in the French style. His table served as the basis for
many such later tables. St-Lambert makes frequent reference to it in
his influential Les principes du clavecin of 1702; and J.S. Bach, C.P.E.'s father, used it as the basis for the ornament table he provided for Wilhelm Friedemann's Clavier-Büchlein in 1720 and which is applicable to much of his own music. 
Reference:
Music Manuscript Notation in Bach
C. P. E. Bach wrote his father's obituary: While
a student in Lüneburg, my father had the opportunity to listen to a
band kept by the Duke of Celle, consisting for the most part of
Frenchmen; thus he acquired a thorough grounding in the French taste,
which in those regions was something quite new... |
The infatuation in German courts with the French style provoked Christian Thomasius, in his Von Nachahmung der Französen (1687), to observe that: French clothes, French food, French furniture, French customs, French sins, French illnesses are generally in vogue. |
So
today, using an 'historically informed' approach, one's application of
the correct style of ornamentation to a particular piece of music
requires an appreciation of the subtleties involved when considering
what was appropriate at the time the work was composed and performed
including where a German composer might want to create something
'French', or a Frenchman something 'Italian'.
It is a commonplace that no culture is self-contained. Contacts,
exchanges and conflicts between elements and bearers of foreign
interests, other forms of expression, and different customs are all
essential to the development of cultural identity - to the formulation
of the specific presence (style, as we would say today) that makes
every achievement of a particular culture unique and immediately
recognisable and identifiable as its own creation, as an expression of
its own spirit. Let us recall that culture is a living intellectual and
spiritual achievement. It is never static in time but dynamic,
constantly enriched by the contribution of foreign factors capable of
inspiring in it new orientations, though without
altering its fundamental - one might even say unique - character.
[Heroes
of the frontiers in European Literature, History and Ethnography: The
contribution of ACRINET, European Acritic Heritage Network by Hélène Ahrweiler, President of the University of Europe]
|
The problem, for today's performer, is that ornamentation is one of
those notational elements that varies from period to period and from
country to country; indeed, it varied with the taste of the person
writing about it.
Many writers emphasise the importance of 'good taste' but what did it mean to them. In his essay entitled Taste in the History of Aesthetics from the Renaissance to 1770, Giorgio Tonelli writes:
But
who is endowed with 'good' taste? A minority of people, of course; for
some authors, only a few connoisseurs living in nonbarbaric ages. The
basic condition for belonging to this minority may be that of having a
good education and polished manners; here it is assumed, as most
authors do, that taste may be educated by exercise or by study
|
So following our understanding of
the rules of 'good taste' and having studied evidence from the period,
we might attempt adding ornamentation to the musical line. Bur we soon
discover that, while some composers would have expected this of the
performer, others, and François Couperin must be counted among them,
expected the performer to observe closely what had been written. I
am always astonished, after the pains I have taken to indicate the
appropriate ornaments for my pieces, to hear people who have learnt
them without heeding my instructions. Such negligence is unpardonable,
the more so as it is no arbitrary matter to put in any ornament one
wishes. I therefore declare that my pieces must be performed just as I
have marked them, and that they will never make much of an impression
on people of real discernment if all that I have indicated is not
obeyed to the letter, without adding or taking way anything. François Couperin - preface to Book II of Pièces de Clavecin |
In 1813, Rossini was given the libretto of Aureliano in Palmira
to set for La Scala, and he was required, against all the custom of the
time, to set the role of Arsace for the castrato singer Velluti. It was
an experience Rossini came to regret, since Velluti, exercising the
traditional freedom of his predecessors, insisted on providing his own
ornaments and embellishments to the composer's score. Rossini was
furious, and he never again allowed a singer to improvise on his work:
what ornamentation was needed he wrote into the score himself. It
wasn't that he was against the use of ornamentation - he frequently
devised them for his favorite singers, and not just for his own operas
but quite often for those of other composers too! Where his own operas
were concerned, though, he was determined to keep control.
Even in the twentieth century, when composers notate their
intentions even more clearly and a Ravel can say: "I want no
interpretation, it is enough to play what is written", composers may be
present at the rehearsals and expect performers to have something of
their own to say. Indeed as a member of an audience, do we not attend a
concert as much to listen to the performer's interpretation as to hear
the notes the composer wrote.
One of the world's master cellists, Brazilian-born Aldo Parisot, in an interview with Tim Janof, gives us an insight into the relationship between the composer and the performer.
When
a composer creates a masterpiece, my job is not to recreate it; it's to
try to create another masterpiece even greater than what the composer
wrote. I experienced this many times when working with contemporary
composers. For example, in 1959 I was asked to play the Hindemith
Concerto in Carnegie Hall with Hindemith conducting the New York
Philharmonic. I knew how dogmatic Hindemith could be so I made sure
that I followed his score to the letter, including his metronome
indications. When I was ready my manager told me that Hindemith wanted
to hear me play his concerto well before the concert. So I went to
Hindemith's hotel room in New York and knocked on the door. When he
opened the door I could tell by his expression that he remembered our
fight back at Yale. Then he invited me in and said, "Parisot, play my
concerto." I then played the whole concerto, facing him while he
conducted. When we finished, he kept his head down, still looking at
the score. I waited a bit too long, and finally asked, "Mr. Hindemith,
what did you think?" He said, "Parisot, you play my concerto very well.
You even respect the fingerings and bowings of my brother, who was a
cellist. But I'd like to ask you one question. Is that the way you feel
my music?"
I replied, "Not at all! I was just trying to obey what you wrote."
He said, "Okay, we still have ten days. Why don't you come back in a
few days and play it the way you really want to?" I couldn't believe my
ears! Fortunately, I had the habit of learning a piece in three or four
different ways, so I didn't panic. A few days later I returned and this
time I turned away from him, letting him follow me this time, and I
played the concerto how I really wanted to. I put in a rubato here and
there, took a little more time in other places, and when I finished, he
said, "Bravo, Parisot!"
So what I'm saying is that the written notes are just the beginning,
because it's impossible to transmit one's artistic vision and feelings
to another human being through notes on a page, or even
person-to-person. |
Ornamentation, then, has to be treated as part of a wider field called interpretation
which will include matters such as tempo, rhythm, instrumentation and,
of course, style. It might involve some understanding of the role of
music and musicians in society when the music was originally written,
as well as considering evidence that may have survived about original
performances, including the expectations of the composer, performer and
audience at that particular period and in that place, as far as we can
understand them.
Zygmunt Stojowski, in his article The Evolution of Style and Interpretation In Piano Literature, writes:
Each composer is born into a given time and place, into a period of
history with its social, economic and political conditions that affect
him and his output; with a set of tools evolved and sanctioned by
tradition to which his own needs may add new ones. Human personality is
bound to reflect the "genius loci," a native soil and given
environment. There is, accordingly, a particular mental attitude to
grasp, a milieu to know, a technique to master. The historical sense
steps in, and the presence of a fourth element in the cooperative
effort of our three parties, make itself felt: our instrument viewed in
evolutionary perspective.
|
In the matters immediately relevant to this lesson, one must
understand what part ornamentation plays in enhancing rhythm, harmony
and melody. Ornamentation is more like the fruit in a fruit cake than
the icing on top of it. Take off the icing and you still have a fruit
cake - remove the fruit, and you have not. Thanks
to books by Dolmetsch, Donington (The Interpretation of Early Music;
pub. Faber - rev. version 1974) and others, as well as the labours of
good editors, we have modern editions in which the original
ornamentation is clearly marked and fully explained and additions are
indicated as suggestions. Our problem can often be reduced to reading
the symbols on the score and applying them correctly during the
performance. For this reason, we try to keep this discussion of
ornamentation at a basic level. For those interested in a deeper
understanding we recommend the reader turns to the fascinating books by
Arnold Dolmetsch and by Dolmetsch's student, Robert Donington, or to
the many other excellent surveys of this field. References:
Baroque Ornamentation by Ronald RosemanOrnamentation in Giuseppe Tartini’s Traité des Agréments by Connie SundayEarly Baroque Violin Practice (1520-1650) by Connie SundayBaroque Ornamentation: An Introduction by Rebecca Schalk NagelOrnamentation in the Bassoon Music of Vivaldi and Mozart by David J. Ross Baroque Vocal Ornamentation - The Elaborate Pearls of the VoiceImprovised Ornamentation in Solo Instrumental Literature of the German Late Baroque by Eugenia Earle The Music of the Sean-Nós by Tomás Ó Canainn The Sound of Medieval Song: Ornamentation and Vocal Style According to the Treatises by Timothy J. McGee Ornamentation in Spanish Music of the 17th Century by Dr. Esther Morales Cañadas Baroque OrnamentsItalian Baroque Ornamentation - a pdf format file Apollo Brass Guide to Renaissance Ornamentation compiled and edited by Brian Kay Bach's ornamentation table by Aileen McCallum Ornamentation in South Indian Music and the Violin by Gordon N. Swift Bach's Unaccompanied String Music: A New (Old) Approach to Stylistic and Idiomatic Transcription for the Guitar by Stanley Yates Poetry and MusicMusic of the Baroque Era - with reference to baroque opera Ornamentation in Persian Classical MusicOrnamentation in Indian Classical MusicEarly European MusicOrnamentation in KabukiLearning to Play Irish Flute - including books on ornamentation Spur of the Moment - from ConcertoNet.com Ornamention and American Indian Courting Flute Capering to the lascivious lute: the delights of Authenticity by Peter Hoar
Grace Notes :: 
 | | In
the seventeenth century the word 'grace' was applied to a number of
'ornaments' including the appoggiatura (from an Italian word meaning
'to lean') and the acciaccatura (from an Italian verb acciaccare
meaning 'to crush'). The acciaccatura is very short (literally
'crushed'), is played on the beat together with, or imperceptably
before, the principal note before being released. It is generally
written as a small quaver (eighth note) with a stroke through its flag
and lies in front of the principal note. This notation is symbolic -
the grace note is not counted in the time value count for the bar. |
As a form of appoggiatura, the 'grace note' is played either
just before the beat resolving speedily to the principal note which is
itself on the beat, or is played on the beat but resolves speedily to
the principal note which is accented. This is an example of a very
short appoggiatura. In all three cases the 'grace note' is short. We give the three examples below. Some
authors include a number of other note patterns under the heading of
grace notes; for instance, a sequence of two or more notes played very
quickly as a link from one principal note to the next. Apart from the
requirement to play them as quickly as possible, there was no 'hard and
fast' rule as to whether these 'passing' grace note sequences were to
be played on or before the beat. Sometimes composers make their
intentions clear with written instructions or supplementary marks (this
is particularly true once we start looking at music of the twentieth
century) but the performer should be aware that in any area 'taste' is
as good a guide as 'evidence'. Georg Muffat, a German who had
been one of Lully's musicians, insisted on the "importance of using
with good judgment of the nice manners and proper grace notes which
make the harmony brilliant as so many precious stones ... (and) that
from them depends a peculiar sweetness, vigour and beauty." After which
he tells about the current mistakes, which are the omission, the
impropriety, the excess and the unskillfulness, adding, "for which one
ought to be so assiduous in the making of these precious ornaments of
music." Mozart would often write an acciaccatura when he wanted a normal, as opposed to, a very short appoggiatura. Before
the nineteenth century, there was tremendous freedom in how these
matters could be notated or, in practice, how the performer might
realise them. Many composers supplemented editions of their music with
a 'table of ornaments' but this might only be applicable to that
particular edition. In eighteenth century France, the composers were
invariably brilliant performers and the pieces were expected to display
this. The decoration that a performer applied freely in performance
could be very difficult to notate accurately on the page. A note
about notating ornaments: if the auxiliary notes in an ornament include
accidentals, for instance a C sharp in the key of G major, this is
shown by writing an accidental, in this case a sharp sign, above or
below the ornament sign. In the case of an F natural in the key of G
major, the sign would be a natural.
Appoggiaturas :: 
 | | The
appoggiatura was widely used in 'early music'. We have met the very
short form when discussing grace notes above and in this section we
want to concentrate on the rule, set out by C.P.E. Bach, which covers
the majority of occasions when it is required |
| the appoggiatura is written symbolically as a small note (see above); |
| that appoggiatura is ignored when summing the time values in the bar; |
| the appoggiatura lies to the left of, and is shown slurred to the principal note; |
| the appoggiatura is always played on the beat - the principal note follows; |
| the duration of the appoggiatura is determined by the note value of the principal note; |
| for an undotted principal note, the appoggiatura takes half its value - the principal takes the remainder; |
| for a dotted principal note, the appoggiatura takes two thirds its value - the principal takes the remainder; |
| the appoggiatura often formalises the practice of 'freely filling-in thirds' in melodic lines; |
| the partition rule for appoggiaturas may occasionally change as rhythmic or harmonic considerations indicate; |
| the appoggiatura may ascend (move from the note below the principal note) or descend (move from the note above the principal note) depending on the ornamental sign. |
We give below two examples of the standard appoggiatura. It
is common to see a small slur linking the appoggiatura symbol to the
principal note that follows it. Whether or not one actually slurs the
two notes in performance is determined by the style you want. In other
words, the slur is symbolic and not mandatory. In his treatise Versuch einer Anweisung, die Flöte traversière zu spielen (1751), Quantz wrote: Short
appoggiaturas .. must be touched very briefly and softly, as though, so
to speak, only in passing .. those must not be held, especially in a
slow tempo; otherwise they will sound as if they are expressed with
regular notes .. This, however, would be contrary not only to the
intention of the composer, but to the French style of playing, to which
these appoggiaturas owe their origin. The little notes belong in the
time of the notes preceding them, and hence must not, as in the second
example, fall in the time of those that follow them. |
Edward
Randolph Reilly (10 Sep. 1929 - 28 Feb. 2004), the American translator
of the English version of Quantz's treatise, concludes that Quantz's
statement regarding the French style of playing to which these
appoggiaturas owe their origin: ...
strongly suggests that pre-beat placement in this rhythmic figure was
not uncommon, at least in the school of eighteenth-century flute
performance: Judging from Quantz's insistence that the performance of
passing appoggiaturas in the time of the preceding note is part of the
French style of playing, he probably heard them performed in that
manner, at least by flute players, during his visits to Paris in 1726
and 1727. Furthermore, recall Bach's own admission that his on-beat
rule was frequently ignored by performers of his day when he declares,
"This observation (i.e., on-beat placement) grows in importance the
more it is neglected". |
The appoggiatura takes on the role of a musical 'sigh' when we come to the music of Mozart. This is examined further in Mozart's musical language in The Marriage of Figaro. In some nineteenth century music, the appoggiatura symbol is used when an acciaccatura is what is meant.
Nachslag :: 
 | | There is one exception to the rule that the appoggiatura is always placed on the beat, and that is the passing appoggiatura or Nachslag.
When a passage descending by thirds contains appoggiatura signs (hooks
or small notes), the appoggiaturas may be used to fill in the interval
of the third. According to the context, the appoggiatura may be placed
to produce a run of notes of equal time value, see example (1) below,
or kept close to the principal note (that is played quickly), see example (2) below. |
Although C.P.E. Bach did not favour the Nachslag, other writers, including Quantz, disagreed with him and explained them to their readers in some detail.
Turns :: 
 | | The
general shape of the turn is a sequence of four notes, the note above,
the note itself, the note below, then the note itself again |
The two examples below are a good guide to how the turn is normally
played. The rhythmic shape of the sequence, whether all the notes have
the same time value or some are extended or shortened, and its overall
duration depends on the context in which ornament is being used.  In
his 'Versuch', C.P.E. Bach spends twelve pages and gives seventy
examples not included in those twelve pages, discussing the the turn.
Suffice it to say, this is a 'free' ornament; the shape of the note
sequence is followed, but all else is up to the performer and the
occasion. The turn may be inverted as in the preparation of an
ascending trill when the note sequence becomes the note below, the note
itself, the note above, then the note itself again.
Bach sometimes wrote his turn signs vertically | |  | | and this symbol is found in some editions of his work. |
Trills :: 
 | | Fewer ornaments give performers more problems than trills. Maybe this is because there are many different kinds of trill, each right for a particular situation |
A trill may have anything up to three parts: a preparation (sometime called a prefix), a shake and a termination.
| the preparation may be a long or short appoggiatura which is always played on the beat; |
|
 | | if the preparation
consists of two notes ascending stepwise to the written note, or the
trill is marked with either of the signs shown to the left, the first
of the two notes in placed on the beat, the two notes and those of the
trill have the same time value, and the trill is called an ascending trill; |
|
|
 | | if the preparation
consists of two notes descending stepwise to the written note, or the
trill is marked with either of the signs shown to the left, the first
of the two notes in placed on the beat, the two notes and those of the
trill have the same time value, and the trill is called a descending trill; |
|
| in early music, the appoggiatura is always the note above the written note (in which case it as called the auxiliary note); |
| in modern music, the appoggiatura is generally the written note (called the principal note); |
| a short appoggiatura is as long as the individual notes in the shake; |
| a long appoggiatura is one half of an undotted principal, two thirds of a dotted principal; |
| the appoggiatura is slurred to the shake which follows; |
| the preparation may be a normal or inverted turn played at the same note speed as those of the shake, for example, in a descending or ascending trill; |
| the shake begins on the note above the written note and finishes on the written note; |
| the notes of a shake should be as short as is comfortable for the player; |
| if the termination is a turn, it is slurred to the shake; |
| if the termination is a single note, it is separated from the shake; |
| cadential trills, those at the end of sections, normally have long appoggiaturas. |
The trill may be reduced to a shake alone or it may have no termination. We give some examples below.  Very rarely, the appoggiatura of a trill is actually written into the melodic line as a separate note (as, for example, in the Pralltriller
- see section below). This becomes clear when one examines the harmonic
progression in the accompanying parts. If the harmony indicates that
the previous note, although the same pitch as the appoggiatura, is not
the appoggiatura of the trill following, then the player has to repeat
the note when playing the appoggiatura to avoid starting the trill on
the wrong note. We give such an example below in which the second line
is what is written, the top line is what is understood by what is
written and the third line is what is actually played
The instrumental trill, which is what we have discussed above,
should not be confused with the vocal trill which, even during the
period we are considering here, was an altogether more ornate
'creature'. Neil Howlett is his excellent article The Trill (from which we have quoted) tells us that:
"within thirty years of the first opera in 1600, the study and practice
of the trill, both as a vocal ornament and a measure of expertise, had
reached its apogee in the achievement of Baldassare Ferri (1610-1680).
He would have completed his studies as a castrato singer by 1630, and
his legacy to us is the performance of a two octave chromatic scale in
trills both up and down and in one breath: a technical tour de force
which has undoubtedly neither been surpassed nor equalled since.
Regular study of the trill renders the voice supple and the throat
strong; it makes possible many different vocal ornaments; evens the
voice from top to bottom and by so doing facilitates all other agility;
it enables the singer to encompass repertoire from 1650–1900, for which
the trill is an essential requirement."
|
The vocal trill is derived from the trillo which before
about 1680 indicated another vocal ornament: accelerating pulsations of
breath on a single note. When this decoration became old fashioned and
fell into disuse, it seems that the term was reapplied to increasing
reverberations of two adjacent notes instead. The English word for the
trill in the 17th and 18th century was the very descriptive ‘shake’.
For the singer, his or her crowning glory was the ribattuta, a
steadily accelerating shake between two notes either a semitone or a
tone apart performed using the method called a laryngeal shake.
When did the convention change to starting the trill on the
lower note? Here is a recent summary about this written by Clive Brown:
[Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2004, acc. 11/29/04]
The
elaborate systems of ornament signs developed by 18th-century keyboard
players was not widely adopted, even in keyboard music, during the
Classical period. For other instruments composers rarely employed
anything but tr, the mordent sign and various forms of turn sign....The sign tr
usually indicated a trill with a number of repetitions of the upper
auxiliary, while the mordent sign indicated only one or two repetitions
(depending whether it began with the auxiliary); however, each of these
signs was sometimes used with the meaning usually applicable to the
other. The various forms of turn sign cannot reliably be related to
particular melodic and rhythmic patterns; sometimes they too could be
synonymous with tr, and in manuscript sources the distinction between [various examples given] is often unclear.
During the 19th century, as composers became concerned to take greater
control of their music, they increasingly wrote out ornaments in full.
The progression is neatly illustrated by Wagner's turns: up until
Lohengrin he used signs, but in Tristan and his later operas he always
incorporated the turns into the notation. Inverted mordents were often
indicated either by small notes or in normal notation, and even trills
were sometimes fully notated, for instance by Dvorak (op. 106) and
Tchaikovsky (opp. 64 and 74). Considerable controversy has been
generated by the question of how trills in music from the period 1750
to 1900 should begin. Scholarship has clearly shown that, although the
upper-note start was never quite as self-evident as advocates such as
C.P.E. Bach implied, it was undoubtedly the dominant practice in the
mid-18th century.
When and where a general preference for a main-note start began
to emerge remains uncertain. Moser identified the strongest support for
the upper-note start as being in north Germany; he asserted, however,
that in Mannheim, the trill was to begin from above only if
specifically notated, and that C.P.E. Bach's authority was countered by
'the powerful influences which stemmed from the Viennese masters of
instrumental music' (Violinschule,
iii, 19-20). What evidence Moser may have possessed for this statement,
other than received tradition by way of Joachim, remains unclear.
Certainly, a considerable number of the trills on the musical clocks
from the 1790s containing Haydn's Flötenuhrstücke begin on the
main note, but there is no consistency and no connection with Haydn's
notation. Arguments for and against Mozart's preference have been
advanced, and the matter has been exhaustively examined by Neumann. For
Beethoven, too, the evidence is largely circumstantial.
In 1828, however, Hummel published his unambiguous opinion that
a main-note start should be the norm, and Spohr followed suit a few
years later. Baillot offered four different beginnings without
recommending the primacy of any. Some 19th-century composers took
trouble to indicate the beginnings of trills, particularly to show a
start from below, and their manner of doing this was used by Franklin
Taylor in 1879 as evidence for their normal practice. It seems probable
that among major 19th-century composers Weber, Chopin and Mendelssohn
generally favoured an upper-note start. In this as in other aspects of
performance, however, dogmatism and rigidity are undoubtedly out of
place.
|
Note The term 'trill' is also applied in phonetics. It is
a consonant produced with one articulator held close to another so that
a flow of air sets up a regular vibration. E.g. the 'rr' of Spanish
burro, meaning 'donkey', is a lingual trill, with vibration of
the tip of the tongue, or specifically a dental trill, articulated in
the dental position of articulation. Uvular trills, with
vibration of the uvula against the back of the tongue, are possible,
though not usual, for example the 'r' in French. In such cases the
pitch of the sound is constant, unlike the trill in music.
References:
Trills
- This advice on trilling is WRONG - trilling from the written note is
only generally correct in music written after the late-1700s The Story of a Trill
The Trill by Neil Howlett
Pralltriller :: 
 | | Also called the 'half trill', the Pralltriller
is discussed by C.P.E. Bach, by J.F. Agricola (one of J.S. Bach's
students), and by F.W. Marpurg, in his book on clavier playing. It may
occur only after a descending second. The note that is ornamented with
the trill must be preceded by the note one diatonic step higher. The pralltriller
is played like an extremely rapid trill. It contains only four notes,
the first of which is tied to the preceding note. C.P.E. Bach says that
it "joins the preceding note to the decorated one, and therefore never
appears over detached notes." From the mid 18th-century, the Schneller, the inverted mordent, gradually replaced the Pralltriller |
Mordents :: 
 | | The name mordent is derived from the Latin verb mordere meaning 'to bite'.
|
The symbol for the shake is sometimes confused with the symbol
for the mordent, the latter first appearing in Chambonnières' "1st Book
of Pieces" (1670). It should be pointed out that although some
commentators suggest the ornament is basically a French invention,
ornamentation identical to the mordent is referred to earlier by
Playford, Thomas Mace and Christopher Simpson in England and by
Nicolaus Ammerbach, in his "Orgel - oder Instrument - Tablatur" (1571). In
music written before the nineteenth century the mordent (written as a
shake sign crossed by a vertical line) is a sequence of three notes
(the written note, the note below and returning to the written note).
This is sometimes called a 'lower' mordent to distinguish it from the
nineteenth century ornament (written as a shake sign) called the
'upper' mordent or Schneller, also a sequence of three notes
(the written note, the note above and back to the written note). These
are both illustrated below.
The term 'inverted mordent' is one that causes much confusion.
Depending on the period when the term is being used it can mean either
of the two mordent forms we have illustrated above. The 'lower' mordent
is the original mordent form and so the term 'inverted' should really
be used to describe the 'upper mordent'. Unfortunately, from the
nineteenth century, when the 'upper mordent' had become the more common
form, the term 'inverted mordent' was more commonly used to describe
the older, original form.
 | | The
long or double mordent was an extended mordent, a sequence of five
notes, the written note, the note below, the written note, the note
below and returning to the written note. |
Vibrato ::  We
have chosen to include vibrato in this section because, in modern day
performances of 'early music', vibrato seems to cause performers so
many problems. It is clear from instruction books from the period that
there were mechanical 'vibrato-like' ornaments such as flattement, battement and bebung.
Stops on some early organs included a 'vibrato effect' indicating that
the 'effect' could be extended, maybe even lasting throughout a whole
movement. 'Vibrato' is the slight and quick wavering of pitch about a
mean, which we use almost without thinking, whether playing or singing,
to add lustre to our tone. If the pitch change is small and its
frequency great enough, the ear no longer perceives a series of
different notes, but only a change in timbre or tone-colour. There are,
according to Robert Donington, good acoustic as well as historical
reasons for including vibrato in proper moderation. Recent
researches put the time-span after which it is possible for our own
faculties to perceive a new aural event as such, and not merely as an
undifferentiated continuation, at about one-twentieth to one-eighteenth
of a second. Any absolutely unvarying persistence of the same aural
signal beyond this time-span rapidly fatigues that band of fibres in
the basilar membrane of the ear which is involved in detecting it:
there is then a subjective decline both in the volume and in the
colorfulness of the sound perceived. It seems to go a little dead on
us; and this is the acoustic consideration which makes vibrato a
natural rather than an artificial recourse on melodic instruments. The
vibrato just mitigates that deadening persistence. |
Dr. Valerie Flook writing in The Recorder Magazine (Winter 2002) comments: Production
of a constant air flow at the mouth is probably an impossibility. In my
experience (a physicist teaching physiology) subjects attempting to
breathe out at a constant rate (usually by following a trace defining
the flow as a visible signal) even after training, produce something
which oscillates slightly. I am sure expert wind players can do better
than the average respiratory physiologist but in fact the respiratory
system is almost designed to oscillate. Controlled expiration is
achieved by controlling the activity of antagonistic respiratory
muscles and these are continuously "hunting". The relative roles of the
antagonistic muscles change as lung volume changes. In addition, a
muscle mass contracts not by all the motor units being active at once
but by a number of units contracting. A muscle fibre is either
contracted or it is not; graduated muscle activity is by contraction of
appropriate numbers of fibres. Contracted fibres "tire", use up
metabolic substrates and other fibres take over; so even within a small
part of a muscle there is continuously changing activity. Given this
complexity it would be surprising if a constant flow, to within the
equivalent of 1 cent (1% of a semitone) could be achieved. |
We
use vibrato almost without thought and it is taught as an important
aspect of modern instrumental and vocal technique. The principal reason
that vibrato is perceptible as a constant in the vocal tone of modern
singing is because of the greater air pressure used. When there is a
change in air pressure or in the size of the air stream, the larynx
will automatically respond differently. Using a lower pressure
(compared to modern operatic singing) avoids the need to control
vibrato through mechanical suppression in the vocal tract.
Seventeenth-century singing -- whether French or Italian -- is not
achieved by taking a modern production and "straightening" the sound.
If you try to suppress vibrato without changing the air pressure, you
will have to use some kind of constriction in the vocal tract. Such
constriction can lead to unnecessary tension and fatigue. This can
understandably alarm voice teachers when their students start
"straightening" their sounds for singing early music. Using a laryngeal
set-up that is unconstricted, with a breath pressure that will allow
for vibrato to be used at the singer's discretion, is a common
denominator between Italian and French singing in the seventeenth
century; what differs is the variable versus steady state air stream.
Vibrato would have been consciously added by the singer when desired
and was not a natural by-product of the voice production. There
are two different ways of producing vibrato, one produced with breath
pressure and the other produced in the throat. Both types of vibrato
mechanism were used during the seventeenth century. The different
mechanisms produce a difference in sound for these two types of vibrato
but the difference is somewhat subtle. The French would most likely
have used a throat-produced vibrato, a mechanism very similar to their
trill technique, in order not to disturb their steady air stream. The
Italians most likely used a breath-produced vibrato as their norm,
since they were using a variable air stream already, with throat
vibrato reserved perhaps for more special effects. No
seventeenth-century source addresses this issue, although Johann Adam
Hiller in the late 18th century regarded throat vibrato as the more
difficult of the two types of vibrato. This suggests that the
18th-century Italo-Germanic School used throat vibrato less often than
breath vibrato. In the 1960s, and despite a lot of contrary
evidence, many influential early music specialists believed that
vibrato was never used except as an occasional ornament. The period
when this approach might be adopted has been extended, over the last
decade or so, to include what we call the 'mid-romantic', the music of
Brahms and early Mahler, for instance. Some have pointed to Fritz
Kreizler as the populariser of a wider more continuous string vibrato
in part because of his association with Viennese 'cafe-music' but Roger
Norrington suggests that German orchestras eschewed the use of vibrato
until the early 1930s, although admitting that soloists, whether
instrumentalist or singer, used vibrato in the 18th and 19th century. This
rejection of the use of vibrato in modern performances of 'early music'
has led to a lot of dry, rather dull performances that find an audience
that 'feels' it is 'early' because it is not what they believe to be
'modern', that is, to include the use of 'vibrato'. The fatal
circularity in this argument should be obvious. In the minds of some,
'early music' is an 'antidote' to the more poisonous aspects of modern
performance which include the early music performing tradition
established by Dolmetsch, Donington and their pupils in and after the
late 1800s but 'en passant' a performing tradition stretching back to
when this music was still wet on the page. Several modern
commentators have questioned the basis of what we call 'early musical
performance' and you are recommended to read the work of those who have
carefully re-examined the premise that underpins the modern practices
in 'early music'. In addition, we have provided a number of interesting
links to web site where vibrato is discussed and which show that even
today there is no unanimity. References:
Text and Act by Richard Taruskin The Sound Orchestras Make by Roger Norrington (Early Music, Oxford University Press, February 2004)Use of Vibrato in Baroque Vocal Music
The Vibrato Thing by David Montgomery
Observations on the Technique of Italian Singing from the 16th Century to the Present Day
Vibrato and Tremulo on the RecorderVibrato in Classical String TechniqueVibrato: some historical notes for string playersPSO clarinetist votes 'no' on vibrato for classical works Interesting comments about vibrato in musical performanceWhy you shouldn't use vibratoAn Introduction to Singing Technique and a Short History of the Countertenor by Daniel Taylor - includes a discussion of vibrato Can Blacks Play Klezmer? Authenticity in American Ethnic Musical Expression - problems with authenticity
Arpeggiation ::  In
a previous lesson we discussed broken and spread chords. Accompanists,
whether performing on keyboard, plucked stringed or certain bowed
stringed instruments, would take the formal chord structure and
extemporise series of arpeggios - played in a 'harp-like manner'. This
technique later became common in music written for the piano for which
a special symbol was introduced. The chord to be arpeggiated might lie
on one stave or across both staves and occasionally the arpeggiation
should be played from the top of the chord to the bass, in which case a
downward pointing arrow would be placed beside the special symbol, a
vertical wavy line.
Divisions ::  The musical form, Theme and Variations, has its origins in a musical form known as 'Divisions' or in Spanish Diferencias,
which can be translated as "differences". Some of earliest examples
come from the 16th century, e.g. by Luis de Narváez. A simple theme
would be extended through formal ornamentation and free extemporisation
becoming melodically more convoluted and extended. In earlier times,
these variations would be written down only in teaching methods.
Divisioning was in music of the fifteenth and sixteenth century what we
hear in modern jazz - variation for the purpose of developing or
displaying technical or musical prowess. Reference:
Ornamentation and Divisions

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