Have you ever gotten a parking ticket?
Have you tried finding creative ways to convince a parking attendant not to issue you a ticket?
Congratulations, you did it, you are a natural ornamenter already!
Sometimes it works, and you go home satisfied with your amazing skill at not getting a ticket, you start bla bla -ing to your partner on how amazing you did to convince the parking attendant and finally you got away with just a warning!
Sometimes it doesn't work, and you arrive home, devastated, with a parking ticket in your hand!
And then it starts all over again, you have to find a creative way of telling your partner why you got a parking ticket, how it was not your fault, how unfair it was that right at that specific moment that you went to the shop to buy that precious cake your partner wanted for dinner you were so unlucky that the parking attendant was doing the round and got you!
In other words! We are always ornamenting, we are always creating, we are always finding ways to express situations in different ways.
1. Overview of ornamentation in baroque music.
What is ornamentation?
Is a tool used in baroque music to enhance the melody, harmony, and affect (the emotional impact of the music). I find it fascinating how a piece of music changes depending on the ornamentation used by the performer; it also has a big impact on my own personal understanding and enjoyment of music.
Creativity, personal expression, spontaneity, connection with composer, self, audience, expressive impact, enhancement of music, the era of the "Performer/Composer".
Zacconi ‘Finally, I must say that masters who teach these accenti and beauties should be warned to control the scholar so that they do not apply them too often, as if they would be done always. Because just as too much sugar spoils a fine, delicate meal, similarly so much sweetness and beauty placed together produces boredom and disgust. And for this reason we add so many dissonances to the Music, just because they redouble the sweetness of the consonances.’
(Lodovico Zacconi (1555–1627), Italian composer and a musical theorist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque.)
Examples of early Italian treatises:
17th C Italian treatises: Ortiz, Bassano, Ganassi, Dalla Casa, Bovicelli, Brunelli, Rognoni, Zacconi, etc.
Diego Ortiz (c. 1510 – c. 1576):
One of the earliest treatises we can find for bowed instruments is: Diego Ortiz Trattado de Glosas 1553 They teach you how to fill in intervals, ornament a cadence, groups of notes... Movable type notation
(Explain movable type) - WATCH:
3:39
When discussing ornamentation in the Baroque period, 3 basic styles influenced composers across all countries.
The 3 important places to start are:
Early 17c Italian ornaments (often called diminutions or passagio)
Later 17c or early 18c Italian ornamentation (like you would see in Corelli)
French Ornamentation (started with Lully, like you will see in Couperin)
Examples Basic Italian Ornaments
Diminutions (passagio):
We divide the written notes into shorter notes, preserving the measure.
Messa di Voce
It is a < and >. Begin the note gently and softly, letting it swell little by little to the loudest forte, and then relax with the same artistry from loud to soft.
Julie demonstrate / we all play
Trillo (goat trill, the earliest trills)
On one note only: begin with the value of the note, then articulate every note, accelerating to the end.
On the violin, sometimes we add an upper note. That is why the early trills are main note trills.
Francesco Rognoni (second half of the 16th century- 1626) - Selva de Varii Passaggi
From Andrew Lawrence King: But it is useful – I would say, essential – to keep the distinction between these two types of Ornamentation constantly in mind. Divisions fulfilled one of the three aims of Rhetoric by delighting the ear – delectare. But they risked spoiling the communication of the text – the aim of docere. And they were regarded as emotionally unpersuasive – ruining the aim of movere gli affeti (moving the emotions). Significantly, Caronte is ‘delighted’ by Orpheus’ passaggi, but is not moved to pity. Graces (effetti, vocal special effects) were used sparingly, so as not to compromise transmission of the text. And effetti were so closely linked to emotions (affetti) that the two words came to be used almost interchangeably: effetti produce affetti. Only when we understand this difference between pasaggi and effetti can we make appropriate choices of when to apply each type.
Giovanni Bassano (c. 1561 – 1617)
Sing/play some ornaments together, teach how to use them in a scale, transpose to other keys, memorize, etc.
Dario Castello Sonata Prima
Identifying ornaments in a written piece
He is one of the first composers who wrote down his ornaments in his music.
Show bones, keep structure, show ornaments and play original
Julie plays harmony: A, F, D, E, A ----> Cris ornaments randomly on top Julie plays harmony again, then Cris plays Castello Julie ornaments on bass line and Cris plays Castello
When something is written down, how do we make it sound like an ornament?
Lightness, rubato/uneven rhythm, spontaneous feel, follow the bones!
Corelli G minor Sonata, No. 5 Mvt. 1, ornamented version
Bach G minor solo violin sonata, Adagio
3. 17th C French Ornamentation
“French baroque style” always starts with Lully - codified French music “new style” trills from upper note, rule of the down bow, music based on rhythms of French language, dance music. French ornaments tend to stay centered around the notes, are more codified (they love charts!)
ORNAMENT CHARTS
Note: In French, trills start with the upper note! Appoggiatura
F. Couperin (1668 -1733)
Pince Port de Voix
J. P. Rameau (1683-1764)
Trills
Hotteterre (1674-1763), flute player ornaments
Coulement (tierce coule) Accent Tour de Chant
Putting it into practice -Jean-Baptiste Lully, Suite from Armide
Which French ornaments can we add?
Italian vs French Ornaments
ORNAMENTATION AND AFFECT QUOTES:
What is Good Taste in Baroque style and Ornamentation: "Many think that true good taste cannot possibly be brought about by means of any rule or artifice; they believe that good taste is a particular gift of nature, awarded only to those who have a good ear, and since most of them flatter themselves that they have such qualities, it follows that those who sing or play think of nothing other than continually introducing passages or short notes or other embellishments, thus believing that he will be considered a good performer, without understanding that playing with good taste does not mean searching for the melody with continuous passages, but express the composer's intentions with decision and delicacy. This expression represents what everyone should strive to acquire, and anyone who is not too enamored of his opinions and does not obstinately resist the force of evidence can reach it. However, do not think that I intend to deny the powerful effects of good ears, because I have had the opportunity to see on several occasions how great its possibilities are; I simply assert that certain rules of art are necessary for a moderate genius, that on the other hand, they can improve and perfect an already good one." - treatise of Geminiani of 1749 The Art of playing on the Violin
From Geminiani's treatise: He goes into a lot of detail about this ornament of the beat (//) “Of the the Beat (lower note trill/long pincé) This is proper to express several passions; as for Example, if it be perform’d with Strength, and continued long, it expresses Fury, Anger, Resolution, etc. If it be play’d, less strong and shorter, it expresses Mirth, Satisfaction, etc. But if you play it quite soft, and swell the Note, it may then denote horror, Fear, Grief, Lamentation, etc. By making it short and swelling the Note gently, it may express Affection and Pleasure.” – Francesco Geminiani, The Art of Playing on the Violin, (1751).
“Finally, in practising every care must be taken to find and render the affect which the composer wished to have brought out; and as sadness often alternates with joy, each must be carefully depicted according to its kind. In a word, all must be so played that the player himself be moved thereby. “— Leopold Mozart. ‘Versuch’. Chapter XII: Of Reading Music correctly, and in particular, of Good Execution. (1756)