Edward Dannreuther Musical Ornamentation

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. This materials for this little book on Musical Ornamentation are arranged in quasi-chronological order. Thus they serve for a general survey as well as for a special study of ornaments. Care has been taken to make each detail intelligible. But there are so many details, and the subject is so full of seeming contradiction, that the explanations and modifying comments of a competent master may be required, if anything practically worth having is to be derived from some of the information given.<br><br>Up to Beethoven, many important points in the execution of music were matters of tradition. Tempo, for instance; pitch, in vocal music a capella; gradations of piano and forte; the way to play accompaniments from a figured bass; Diminutions, Divisions, and the way to render certain embellishments in both vocal and instrumental music; all were left, more or less, to the discretion of the executants.<br><br>Questions of taste and style have ever been decided by an appeal to tradition and the example of approved singers and players; a sufficient appeal no doubt, so long as it is made by one generation of artists to the practice of their immediate forefathers, but rather vague and puzzling after the lapse of a century or so.<br><br>In the case of practical musicians there has always been a tendency to deviate from once accepted traditions; and even when they are theoretically followed, they are frequently found to be incomplete or perverted.<br><br>Hence the importance of a historical survey and a comparison of materials. If, by dint of studying the various kinds of ornaments and embellishments at first hand, we are fortunate enough to attain some measure of success in tracing the links from one phase of expression to another, much is gained. We may thus arrive at a better notion of technique in times past, may be brought into closer sympathy with the instincts of older composers for time and tone, and m