I totally agree with Peter that the German name shouldn't be taken literally. The art of interpreting musical ornaments is a complicated one, particularly with old music (since they were used according to the geographical and temporal tradition). In Bach, for instance, it is generally accepted that ornaments should be played on the beat (listen to Glenn Gould's interpretation of the *Goldberg Variations*), but in Beethoven they are played before the beat (such as the ornament of type "turn" used on some of his sonatas for piano). But here are some general ideas, according to my experience:
Old music: ornaments are played both before or on the beat. Depends on the composer, country, period, etc. Contemporary music: ornaments are almost exclusively played on the beat. And since the 50s, most composers tend to write a short preface explaining his own notation, where she or he in general makes all this clear. Now: grace note is the most general term. Any small note before a normal note is called grace. An appoggiatura is a grace note that is played on the beat and usually notated with a slur. An acciaccatura is a slashed grace note usually notated with a slur that is played on the beat. But when dealing with contemporary music, the terms appoggiatura and acciaccatura are not normally seen. We tend to prefer the general terms as grace and slashed grace. Also, as mentioned before, nowadays grace notes tend to have slashes and tend to be interpreted as "play as fast as possible on the beat". Look at this example of Boulez's Derive, where he even notate the grace notes on the beat, thus emphasizing his intentions: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UlpsV0NPVWE/T9Y2fYR7lCI/AAAAAAAAAIA/fBby9LBkhCg/s1600/Derive+part+02.png I personally notate ALL the grace notes on my music with a slash, be they eighth notes, be they sixteen-fourth notes. What I think it is a matter of "personal taste" is the decision of the duration of the grace notes, since they tend to all mean the same: "play as fast as possible". That said, I do tend to stick to a single general duration of grace notes on my compositions. I particularly like Boulez's solution above: when a single slahed grace is written, he uses a duration of an eighth note, so it is easy to read (it doesn't have a lot of flags confusing things around). When they are beamed, he uses thirty-second notes, which a) gives a clear distinction between grace notes and regular notes and b) passes the idea of playing them fast. That said, he could have notated it all with eighth notes and the result would be the same (although I believe a composer's score is sacred and should not ever be modified by anyone else unless there is a very very very good reason to). * * * Finally, about LilyPond functions, try this code to see what happens: \version "2.17.29" { \appoggiatura {a8} b2 \acciaccatura {a8} b2 \grace {a8} b2 \slashedGrace {a8} b2 } You will se that: \appoggiatura = simple grace, no slash. It has a slur. \acciaccatura = slashed grace with slur \grace = simple grace (no slur) \slashedGrace = slashes grace (no slur) And this whole discussion started exactly because LilyPond does not automatically add a slash for beamed graces, such as \slashedGrace{a8 c} On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 10:24 AM, Peter Bjuhr <peterbj...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On 10/24/2013 09:34 AM, Simon Bailey wrote: > > another question, in german these notes are often also called > "vorschlagnoten" [literally "before beat notes"] and are required to > be played before the beat they are associated with. are these notated > any differently? simply asking because i'm currently typesetting some > works by a young composer and he has performance notes stating these > grace notes should explicitly be performed before the beat. > > so to summarize lilypond's 3 options: > \apoggiatura: take written value away from note > \acciaccatura: as fast as possible, _on the beat_ > \grace: ?? > > > I don't think you should take the german name to literally. The > performance practise of grace notes has varied throughout music history. > You have to study the practise of the period and perhaps also the practise > of individual composers to know for sure how to interpret different scores. > So to state things explicitly in a performance note can be clarifying. > > Gould also mentions some other means to make the notation clearer > (regarding before or on the beat), e.g. using accents (p. 128-129). She > actually also gives an explanation of the slash in addition to Gilberto's > excellent review: "It is common practice to place a diagonal line through a > single beam." (p. 125) Maybe the idea here is, in analogy with the > distinction between the appoggiatura and the acciaccatura, that a single > beam (i.e. eighths/quavers ) is more in need of the slash!?? > > Personally I think using grace notes gives the performer a certain amount > of freedom, so I don't see the need for really sharp definitions. > > Peter >
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