I hope this is one item you are referring to!
Good luck!!
----Original Message-----
From: BRADLORAMA@a... <BRADLORAMA@a... <vocalist@l...
Cc:
Subject: Re: Re: Ornaments
Reply-To: vocalist@l...
Date: Friday, January 22, 1999 4:49 PM
<<Supposing your voice teacher tells you to go away and make up some
ornaments to decorate the repeated sections of a piece, or you decide you
would like to do this... where would you start? >>
Ornamentation differs from country to country, century to century. If you
are
working on a piece from the Italian Baroque period (which would include
Handel), look at the melody in the da capo section, and begin simply: if
the
melody line rises or falls in thirds or fifths, insert the passing tones
(maintaining rhythmic integrity); add appogiaturas on stressed words; at
cadences add a trill, or a scale up the octave; if it is a particularly
passionate piece, when approaching the end of the piece hold the
upper-octave
dominant through the last harmonic convolutions for a thrilling cadence.
There are wonderful resources which could help you determine the differences
between French, German, Italian and English Baroque ornamentation; one is by
a
Richard Neumann (forgive me if I have the name wrong, all my books are at my
studio). This topic comes up regularly: you could also check the Vocalist
archives for references.
Somehow, my gut instinct is to find a little fault with your teacher: s/he
should help educate you on this, rather than just have you go away and pull
ornamentation out of the air without any information. The most important
part
is to have fun ornamenting. Start simply, and as you feel more comfortable
with the style, and the harmonic structure of the song/aria, the sky is the
limit!
Bradley Greenwald
Minneapolis, MN
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