Questions tagged [ornaments]
Ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody (or harmony), but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line.
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Strange "less than" accent or ornament in Sullivan's "The Mikado" score
In the old Kalmus handwritten conductor's score for The Mikado, a few notes in the overture had a unfamiliar notation. For example, here's Measure 50 from the oboe part (other instruments have ...
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Why are accented passing tones not figured but suspensions are?
If 4-3 happens as a suspension and it is figured then why not also figure an accented passing tone 4-3?
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Is there a word for when you scoop to the same note?
I'm a vocalist who's done different kinds of ensembles over the years, and I often have this instinct to scoop to (rearticulate? emphasize?) a repeated note if the other voices change to make a ...
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Shift trill symbol horizontally in Lilypond
I'm rewriting (with Lilypond) an old copy of Händel's Allemande HWV 437 and I can not recreate the orignial position of the trill symbol. In the original the ornament begins with the note 'b', yet ...
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I don't know how to deal with the trills in Bach's Fugue in D Minor
(Included from comment: the fugue is from well-tempered clavier, vol. 1 BWV 851)
All research I do gives me a different answer. One example said to use the auxiliary note first - more in keeping with ...
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Bach Invention 2 Bar 13 overlapping keys for both hands while playing mordent
I know there are related previous discussions (I had asked one here, which , interestingly, was also a Bar "13"), but they concerned one individual key overlap. In this case, left hand plays ...
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Grace notes with slash
What exactly does the slash mean as opposed to the other?
And if you have a group of grace notes together, do you just slash the first one?
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Trill notation with a wavy line
There are 2 trill notations: 'tr' and 'tr' followed by a wavy line.
What exactly is the difference and when is one used over the other?
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Timing of grace notes in Chopin's Waltz in a minor
Consider the following:
(Chopin At the Piano - Verlag)
Should the grace notes be played before the beat or on the beat? I am reading a book on music theory, and it says:
(The AB Guide to Music ...
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How did Glenn Gould know, in 1955, the proper ornamentation for Bach's "Goldberg Variations"?
This question has its origin in Why does the Open Goldberg score have a G rather than A in bar 9 of variation 25?. See that Q&A for background information.
At what time, and on what basis, was ...
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Beethoven Sonata Op. 49 No. 2 Bar 12 trill
I just started learning this piece on my own. I played the trill (red circle) as A G F# G (So with the context it's G AGF#G A. Is it correct? When I listen to the videos played by professionals on ...
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What kind of non-chord tone dissonance is this?
What is the correct term for this type of non-chord tone? I really like the sound of it and since I see it a lot I was wondering if an "official" name exists for it. It is not a suspension ...
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What are the ornaments in the western music and their corresponding ornaments in Indian music?
I am learning to play the different ornaments in western music (Trill, Tremolo, Turn, Appoggiatura, Acciaccatura, Glissando, Slide). I also want to know which are the corresponding ornaments in Indian ...
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Baroque ornamentation is not consistent across editions of the same piece
Here are two versions of the Quodlibet from Bach's Goldberg Variations. As you can see in the attachments, the ornaments and the recommendations as to how to play them are exactly opposite. One shows ...
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ornamentation in keyboard music of William Byrd
I'm working through some tunes by Byrd, and am wondering about the ornamentation, the two diagonal slashes through the note stem.
As far as I can tell, we don't actually know what the composers of ...
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Obscure markings in BWV 814 I. Allemande, Bach, Henle edition
I am looking at Bach's French Suite #3, BWV 814, Allemande, and the ornamentation typesetting is confusing me.
I am familiar with mordant vs. trill, and the standard description of ornaments for Bach. ...
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Different versions of mordents in Bach Invention No. 1 In C Major, BWV 772
I was playing Bach Invention 1 when my sister told me that I was playing it wrong.
When I learnt this piece like 10 years ago, my sheet looked like this.
But my sister showed me her music sheet from ...
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How did Victorian Christmas carolers sing Christmas carols?
Do we have any idea of how Victorian Christmas carolers actually sang Christmas carols? What chords did they use, did they use ornaments etc, were there special ways that they ended the Christmas ...
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Did Nicolas Gombert compose a clean change of note or slides as endings in his motets?
A member of the Facebook group Barbershop Harmony said that in live performances of Gombert motets, the Bass will randomly drop an octave on the last chord, within one syllable, whilst the other ...
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Acciaccatura vs Appoggiatura in Beethoven
While studying the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Sonata Op.90, I found these appoggiaturas in bars 28-29.
This is the Henle edition (which I find to be one of the most reliable editions for Beethoven); ...
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Why do notes not add up to the bar in this example by Couperin?
Consider following excerpt from the beginning of Couperin's Leçon des ténèbres pour le mercredi saint:
I noticed that the note values don't always add up in a bar.
Cases (indicated in the figure):
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Questions about mordents and trills (piano)
The difference between the symbols of a mordent and a trill is just a tiny vertical bar. Sometimes it could be misread when the print is blurred or too small. Is there a general rule, from the context,...
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Term for One person performing a whole Arrangement with nothing else accompanying (As a Cover)
Like how "Unplugged Version" means the Original Song has been performed with 0 usage of technology-stuff (other than Microphone) [No editing, Acoustic Instruments only, No Faders, No ...
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What is a line prall?
I am composing a melody for piano in Musescore, and after experimenting on a particular note with various ornaments (i.e. trills, mordents, etc.) I decided to use a 'line prall'. It sounded good, so I ...
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How can I make my D gracenotes shorter and crisper?
On the Great Highland Bagpipes, the D gracenote can be difficult to play as short and crisp as the G gracenote, especially in contexts such as the tachem. Aside from just consciously trying to play ...
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What does tying an acciaccatura to the principal note with a slur imply?
Note that this is not a duplicate of this question, which asks for a grace note tied to the same principal note. This is more generally about tying grace notes (specifically acciaccaturas) to any ...
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Is this an appoggiatura?
Would you call the A going to G in the second group of 16th notes here an appoggiatura? It seems to fit the definition because it is approached by a leap. However, what makes me feel unsure is that ...
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What is this type of ornament, and how should it be played?
An appoggiatura is a grace note type ornament, that precedes main note it slurred to. When it is played, it takes some time from the main note.
An appoggiatura looks like this : and should be ...
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Is it correct to call this figure a "turn figure" in Haydn's Surprise Symphony?
In the IB Music Revision Guide, the author says that a cadence in the second movement of Haydn's Surprise Symphony (end of the first statement of the theme) is "decorated with a turn figure" (see ...
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note cancelling or what is it called?
i came across a sign on my notation where a note is being played that is G after that there is a note in between e that is open but we first play it and then hammer on it... what is it called ?
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Strange Ornamental Symbol on Bach Piece
This is from the marvelous andante from Bach’s organ trio sonata BWV 528. What does this symbol mean on the stave of the second keyboard? I am assuming it is ornamental. Is it just a strange version ...
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Why is there so much dispute about how ornaments are supposed to be played in classical music?
It seems like almost every piece with an ornament has some argument as to how it is supposed to be played. For example, in my Alfred's edition of Fantaisie-impromptu, the footnote claims that the ...
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Weird acciaccatura (?) notation in Chopin's polonaise
I am not sure how to interpret the particular notation in Chopin's Op.53 Polonaise:
Here, we have a single (smaller font) Eb (just before the trill). I should interpret it as a grace note, but then ...
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Identifying piano notation symbol in Chopin Mazurka
I'm trying to identify what this symbol is (circled in pencil) in the sheet music for Mazurka no.4 op.17 by Chopin. It looks like two connected diamond shapes, and I can't find an explanation of it ...
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How to use Meend in Bansuri Playing
I am following tutorial to play Om Jai Jagdish Hare.
The gentleman says we can use Meend in Bansuri. He explains it is a soft way to go from one note to the next.
How would I do it.
The video ...
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Would an accidental in a mordant still be effective for the whole measure?
This is from Bach's Chromatic Fantasie and Fugue:
This would obviously be played D, C#, D. Let's say that there was a C on the same octave later in that measure. Would the C be sharp?
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Need help understanding the double sharp turn in Chopin's prelude in e minor [duplicate]
I need help understanding why the notes in this turn are B-A#-Gx-A#.
I don't understand how the double sharp affects the turn. I would assume that instead of A# being the "base note" (for lack of a ...
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What's the meaning of this extra rest? [duplicate]
This is the first bar of F. W. Mecham Op 92 - American Patrol
Semiquaver triplet + quaver + quaver rest + quarter rest
1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/4 = 2/4 + 1/8
...
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Ornaments in ABRSM theory, start on the note or the note above?
I know that depending on the era you can either start on the note or note above in some ornamentation such as a turn or mordent.
For Abrsm grade 8 theory do you start on the note or the note above so ...
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When would Bach start an ornament- just before the beat, or right on it? [duplicate]
In his table (see below) , all examples seem to start ON the beat, not before it.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Bach-ornamentguide.jpg
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Are grace notes ever notated with notes of exact duration?
I’m learning a new piece of music that has a couple of Grace notes in it which has led me to wonder if it had a unique use or were there other ways of writing the piece using, for example, a one ...
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Baroque mordent with leading "slur"?
I'm currently studying Bach's Harpsichord Concerto BWV 1052 on the piano and arrived at the second movement. In there, I noticed a mordent that I'm not all too sure how to play. Here's a picture, it's ...
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Two different approaches to the mordent in one piece in baroque? [duplicate]
I've got a question regarding the mordent over the two different notes with different realization in Bach's Partita No.4 Aria (as in the image). The first one starts from a note above while the second ...
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What does the plus (+) ornament mean?
I am learning a baroque piece on the recorder. Some notes have an unusual ornamentation symbol. How is a note with a plus sign over it played? It was suggested to play it as a mordent. Is that correct?...
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Unplayable turn in Beethoven sonata
Beethoven's piano sonata Op. 2 No. 3, first movement,
bars 179-180 (Henle edition).
The turn decorating each eighth note can be played literally.
Except for the one on bar 179's A sharp, because ...
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How to perform these ornaments?
How do you play the "opppsite" acciaccatura?
And what does it mean by Glissafter?
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Weird 16th notes (I think) in score, not sure how to count them / not sure of their value
I found this weird grouping of notes in a song I'm trying to learn and I want to understand why they are played the way they are. I can listen to the song and replicate it but I don't understand why ...
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Appoggiaturas not spelled out
Why are many simple appoggiaturas not spelled out?
E.g., a quarter with an 8th note appoggiatura which would give the same as two 8th notes.
One could notate many passages using appoggiaturas but ...
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Horizontal bar in trill fingering
I'm looking at the Henle edition of Bach's WTC, specifically at d-moll Fugue (BWV 851), and in the second measure I see a trill:
(This is András Schiff's fingering).
What is that horizontal bar over ...
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