>> I wasn't looking for the one and only appropiate execution of commas.
> The one and only appropiate execution shouldn't exist in music, and > best if we end up with different solutions! For the welfare of United > Colours of B... aroque Music. >> I'm suspicious that what I was actually looking for, was some support >> for the execution of commas as simple trills. > Here is a salvation: > If the music was by or for the Bocquets, then Mersenne (1635/6) > solves the problem. In an English translation (Martinus Nijhoff /The > Hague 1957 /repr. 1964) on page 107 he says: > > IV. On the ornamentation. > > Now the one which is formed in this fashion: "," is called shake > ordinarily, and most people use no other character to express all the > different sorts [[JZ: sic!, meaning both upper and lower auxiliary, > with two or more notes?]]; that is why I have not wished to change > it, since it is familiar to everyone, so as not to use any novelty if > it is not useful. But there are still other ornamentations which they > call _accens plaintifs_, _martelemens_, _verves cassez_, and > _battemens_, as we shall see at the end of this treatise. [[JZ: now -- > >]] As for the first marked by this comma and used on the open > string, it is necessary to consider two things for executing it well, > that is, that the finger tip of the left hand, which ought to make > this ornamentation, be well upon the string on which it is to be made > and that the finger not be lifted from above the sad string, so that > one perceives only that it has been played by the right hand. [...] Notwithstanding that Nijhoff renders the name as "shake", the description rather comes down to vibrato, no? > But now, in the light of this, I'd have another problem -- what to do > with the next note (only melodic), also with the come after it. Shall > we play too a "simple trill" or appogiatura from above (which I never > liked in such situations) or perhaps from below, if Mersenne allowes > the coma "to express all the different sorts" of ornaments -- ? In general, I prefer to play appogiature from the direction I'm coming, except the prescriptive sign reads otherwise. > But if the source is late (say 1680) and the ornamental signs are > from Brossard rather (or understood his way) then I wouldn't be quite > sure about the "simple trill" from the main note. Now maybe DGautier, > Gallot or Mouton is a better prompter -- ? That's what I meant to say by "so there are some 30 years between this copy and its possible authors. 30 years of change in style and aesthetics..." > And what if a piece be called "La Belle Homicide" and found in the > Augsburg fantastic JBHagen Collection, what is actually the case with > "the Beautifull Criminal" -- ?! Not sure if I got you right... LBHom starts with an upbeat that almost completely sets the stage for what is to come. And what actually comes on the 1st beat of the 1 measure, is a play on 6th vs. 5th above the root. LBH is my favourite courante, but the beginning isn't exactly daring IMHO. > On the other side perhaps is Frederick Neumann (Ornamentation > in baroque and post baroque music: With Special Emphasis on J. S. > Bach, 1983) who's shown good number of very nice exceptions and in > fact, for some, definitely broke the magic rule. Thanks a lot for this hint! See, I'm not a prof like some others on this list. > But here you have a different sign, a cross, which can be an inverted > mordent or appogiatura from below -- I'd like the last one much > here! ...But first I'd have to look at Mersenne again ;-))) Lacking a copy of Mersenne, I looked at the CNRS explanatory table. They say it's a mordent, and I like that, too, especially with an appogiatura ^_^ -- Mathias To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
