Ornaments Post

Music Ornaments

Facts:

• Ornaments are "frills" or embellishments made on notes 
• An ornament is basically a historic shorthand method of indicating how a single note can be made more interesting. 
• Ornaments first started to be used at the beginning of the 17th century, but the methods used to notate them varied quite a lot, and in some cases they were not indicated at all, but just assumed. 
• Their use became much less common towards the end of the 18th century, and the notation for those that were used became reasonably standardised. 
• Those which are seen in modern editions of works of this period include (in no particular order): 

1. Trill - a rapid shake between an added note and the main note
2. Mordent - a single movement from the main note then down or up then back to the main note
3. Grace note or acciaccatura (pronouced ackie-ack-a-tyoo-ra) - a quick movement from an unaccented added note to the main note
4. Appoggiatura (pronouced appodgie-a-tyoo-ra) - a slower movement from an accented added note to the main note .
5. Arpeggio - a spread chord, so playing the notes of a chord rapidly after each other, usually starting at the bottom 
6. Turn - a quick movement around a note, usually up, down and up again (the note, the note above, the note, the note below, and the note)