Baroque Ornamentations

In this chapter we will study the appoggiatura, the trill, the turn and the mordente. For this propose I have chosen the Allemanda from the the Suite in D Major by Francesco Corbetta. I have written my interpretation of the ornamentations in the smaller system bellow the "original".

Technical aspects.

The appoggiatura implies an auxiliary note, usually dissonant, always stresses, on the beat and slurred to its declining resolution on the main note. The auxiliary may be from above or from below: by step diatonically, at the tone or semitone according to the prevailing tonality (unless chromatically modified for expressive effect); or by leap. (*Robert Donnington, Style and Performance Handbook).

In execution some appoggiaturas vary in length; other are always rapid. (**C.P.E Bach, Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments)

The trill is a more or less rapid alternation of a main note with an upper auxiliary on degree (i.e. a tone or a semitone) above. (*)

Today they are used in both stepwise and leaping passages, immediately at the beginning of a movement, in succession, at cadences, an, in addition, on held tones, fermate, and caesurae without as well with an introductory appoggiatura. (**) 

If an instrumentalist or singer were to possess all the skill required by good taste in performance, and yet could not strike good shakes (trill), his total art would be incomplete (***J.J Quantz, On Playing the Flute)

The mordent is an alternation of a main note with an auxiliary note one degree below" the morrow opposite of the trill, and like the trill s derivate of free ornamentation.  The standard performance is not before but on the beat. (*) Applied also the rest of the ornamentations here exposed.

The mordent is especially good in a stepwise or leaping ascent. It seldom appears in descending leaps and never in descending seconds. It connects slurred notes in conjunct or disjunct motion, with and without an appoggiatura. (**)

For the music score please click here.