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Ornamentation

Last Updated (Wednesday, 14 May 2008 08:22)
Written by Roger Bobo
Tuesday, 18 December 2007 14:43

Articles - Pedagogical articles

Before the first round of the 2007 Japanese Wind and Percussion Competition in Tokyo that I mentioned in my last article, “Choices”, there was a discussion among the judges for the tuba competition whether the mordents in the Aria con Variazioni by Tom Stevens should go to the note above or the note below and whether the trills should start from the printed note or the note above. Although the notation suggested the mordents should move to the note below, the judges agreed that whatever direction the contestants choose would be acceptable and no one would be discounted for their choice.  

Ornamentation in music is touchy and sometimes controversial. There are several definitive books on correct ornamentation throughout the historical periods of music, and they don’t necessarily agree. There was a book published in the middle of the last century called The Interpretation of Music by British musicologist and baroque keyboard specialist, Thurston Dart. That was our principal reference. Today there is a huge number of similar books not only on Baroque ornamentation but also on ornamentation through all periods of music and from all parts of the world; Rococo ornamentation in France, Ornamentation of the Italian Renaissance, nineteenth-century German music and literally any combination of time, place and style that a performer might encounter.

For musicologists, this plethora of scholarly material is probably very interesting. But for the performer, the benefits of doing the time-consuming study necessary to be “right” is very dubious. In short, if we play what sounds correct and tasteful it will in all likelihood be the “right” thing and therefore acceptable.

But there is another aspect to ornamentation that tubists especially must consider. Twenty-five years ago, while giving a masterclass in Switzerland, I had an American student, a very good tubist, that played a superbly prepared Galliard sonata. He had read the appropriate materials on ornamentation during Galliard’s post-Händel period and applied all the correct ornamentations in his performance...and I emphasize the word “all.” It was perfect, it was correct and it was strikingly vulgar. Perhaps it would have worked for a recorder or a flute, maybe a clarinet and even possibly a bassoon, but it did not work for tuba. Ornamentation with the timbre and tessitura of the tuba must be used discreetly. The human listening mechanism is simply not able to discriminate what should be the subtleties of that maximum shower of ornamentation.


It is at the discretion of the performer what quality and quantity of ornamentation is optimum to enhance a performance, particularly a work from the Baroque period. But when it’s overdone the results risk becoming grotesque. It reminds me of some very attractive young girl experimenting with makeup...until she works it out in a tasteful way the results can be grotesque.

And once again it becomes a matter of personal choice. There is no right or wrong, what’s right are our personal choices. As we continue to grow, those personal tastes will most probably change but that is the nature of things. Thurston Dart tried to make rules strong and firm fifty years ago and therefore caused his conclusions to become obsolete in a changing world.

Tokyo, Japan