Klarinet Archive - Posting 000204.txt from 2004/01

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] A book on ornamentation
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 19:58:19 -0500

From time to time someone asks if there are any good books on
ornamentation in the time of Mozart (something whose relationship to
improvisation needs to be clarified, which I have done on several
occasions in the past).

Well there is an interesting new book entitled "Treatise on Vocal
Performance and Ornamentation," by John Adam Hiller. This book was
published in Germany in 1780 and is an important manual on vocal
technique an dperformance in the 18th century.

While you might think that such a book is not useful for clarinet
players, that perception is flawed. What everyone was trying to do when
they ornamented, was copy ornmentation as done by singers. So this book
is very much related to ornamentation for everybody in the 18th century,
and the fact that it was published at almost the very moment that Mozart
arrived in Vienna, shows that it attempts to capture the topic as Mozart
was required to do at roughly the same time.

Published by Cambridge University Press, 40 W. 20th St., NY 10011-4211,
price $65. Call 800-872-7423. Sorry but I have no address info outside
the U.S.

--
Dan Leeson
leeson0@-----.net

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