Klarinet Archive - Posting 001076.txt from 1999/09

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Lelia's note on "ornamentation"
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 11:09:09 -0400

This was a very thorough and knowledgeable set of comments on the
subject. And I would like very much to clarify the situation a
little more by focusing on the meaning and uses of the word
"ornamentation." I don't think that it is always being used
correctly.

In the strictest sense, performers do not ornament. The composer
ornaments and the performer has the difficult task of interpreting
what the composer wants him/her to do.

More specifically, the composer uses a symbol to indicate that
something is to happen to a note or series of notes. That symbol
is supposed to be an agreed upon term that allows him/her to use
an abbreviation for what s/he wants done.

The problem that arises is that the performers interpret that
symbol differently than the composer intended, either out of
ignorance of what was asked for, or else because of the passage
of time and all knowledge of what the composer wanted in the
first place was lost.

In principle, there is only one legal interpretation for an
ornament. In practice, it is very difficult to find that
legal interpretation and, furthermore, the same symbol is
used for generations and often takes on different meanings as
we go from generation to generation.

Take the symbol for an appogiatura. That symbol directs the
player to make a specific ornament beginning (though not necessarily
ending) at the point where it appears. The performer sees the
symbol and thinks, "the composer wants and appogiatura - I'll play
one." But then the thing that comes out is not at all what
the composer had in mind, or, worse, is the performer's
interpretation of what the composer had in mind. Should the
appogiatura be on the beat or before the beat? And if, before
the beat, how much before the beat? And on and on and on.

In any case, ornamentation is the provenance of the composer. The
performer is there simply to interpret what is written according
to the meaning of that symbol at the time it was used.

Now improvisation, on the other hand, is quite a different matter.
Composers do not improvise. That is the domain of the performer.
Thus we have two independent worlds here: the composer uses a
notation to describe what s/he wants done. Part of that notation
involves pitch, part involves rhythm, and part involves noodles
that involve both pitch and rhythm. The notation used to describe
the noodles are ornaments.

The performer sees what is written and changes the melodic, rhythmic,
or harmonic line, impetuously, without preparation, and hardly ever
the same way twice. What the performer is doing is improvising.

Ornamentation is, in theory, static and fixed. The problem is that
time goes by and different views of this or that ornament makes
ornamentation very fluid and changing. You know the story of
Wanda Landowska who said, "Let xxx play Bach her way, and I'll
play Bach Bach's way." The specific point here had to do with
interpretation of ornaments, not tempi, or phrasing, or articulation.
The hassle was all about how the ornament known as a "mordent" was
to be executed.

Sometimes ornaments were not even explicitly written.They existed
only as tradition. Such was the case of what were referred to as
"prosadic appogiature" in vocal music. And every singer knew
what to do when the circumstances of a repeated note over two
syllables occurred. If they did not do this thing, they were
accused of creating a "blunt ending." And there was nothing on
the page telling them what to do or how to recognize this thing
when it arose.

I mention all of this to point out that, sometimes, we use the
word "ornament" when we are really talking about "improvisation,"
and vice versa. Performers do not ornament. Instead, they
interpret composer-written ornaments. They think that they
are playing what the composer intended. Sometimes they do
and sometimes they don't.

=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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