Ornament (music)

In music, ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes. These are typically added notes that are not essential to the main melody or harmony. Instead, they serve to decorate a musical line. They provide interest and variety to a piece. They also allow a performer to add expressiveness to a song.

Some ornaments are performed as fast notes around a central note. Others can be virtuosic and flamboyant, such as a large trill.

There are many distinct types of ornaments used by musicians. A trill, or "shake," is a rapid alternation between an indicated note and the one above it. It can be diatonic, using notes from a scale, or it can be chromatic. A mordent is a rapid alternation between an indicated note and the note above or below it. A turn is a short figure consisting of four notes: the note above, the note itself, the note below, and the note itself again.

This is marked by a sideways S-shape symbol. Other types include the appoggiatura, which is an added note that is melodically important. It suspends the principal note by a portion of its time-value.

Other ornaments involve sliding or crushing sounds. A glissando is a slide from one note to another. A wavy line connects the two notes in notation. All the intervening notes are heard very briefly. A schleifer, or slide, instructs a performer to begin one or two steps below a note and slide upward.

The acciaccatura comes from the Italian verb "acciaccare," which means "to crush." In the 18th century, this was an ornament applied to chord tones. It was struck simultaneously with the chord and then immediately released. In the 19th century, it became a shorter variant of the long appoggiatura.

Musicians use specific notation to indicate these decorations. A grace note is often written in a smaller type. It may have a slash through it to show it does not count toward the total time of the bar. A trill might be indicated by a wavy line or a plus sign.

The rules for these symbols often change based on the country or the era. For example, in the Baroque period, a mordant was often what we now call a lower mordent. In the 19th century, the term "mordent" usually referred to the upper mordent. This shows how nomenclature can shift over time.

History shows that ornamentation has long been a part of musical performance. In Spain, melodies decorated upon repetition were called "diferencias." This practice can be traced back to 1538. This was the year Luis de Narváez published a collection of music for the vihuela. During the Renaissance and early Baroque periods, musicians often improvised their ornaments. A singer performing a da capo aria might sing a simple melody first. They would then decorate it with flourishes during the second performance.

In the Baroque period, from 1600 to 1750, ornamentation was often extensive. The French Baroque style used a specific type of ornamentation called "agrément." Performers were expected to improvise trills, mordents, and appoggiaturas. A harpsichord player, for example, would improvise stylistically appropriate ornaments. Even the way a trill starts can vary by period. In the late 18th century, performers typically started a trill on the upper note. However, Heinrich Christoph Koch observed that the starting note did not make a large audible difference.

Ornamentation connects the written score to the live performance. One specific ornament is the Nachschlag, which means "after-beat." It refers to the two notes that sometimes terminate a trill. These notes can form a turn when combined with the last two notes of a shake. This can be performed as a "shaken" version or a "smooth" version.

These details allow music to move beyond the page. They turn a fixed set of notes into a living, breathing expression of art.