Baroque ornaments - beginner

[EuroFolker]

Hello friends,

I have started learning some pieces from "The 1725 notebook". (Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach).

My starting point is "Introduction to Bach for Accordion" which I bought for Amazon Kindle.

The above Kindle title is brief, with only several pieces, and barebones in every way.

But it's specifically for accordion, so a starting point! The pieces are short and manageable.

I was wondering if someone here has any ornamentation advice to offer.

(Loads of general advice on YouTube but very little accordion specific that I could find).

When I put the pieces in the music notation software and play back (or listen to performances on YouTube) - they sound flat / lifeless without ornaments.

And apparently in the Baroque era it was the job of the performer to determine how best to "decorate" the basic notation.

My question - what are your "best recommendations" for Baroque ornamentation on the accordion?

Where to place them, how many is too many, how fast is too fast (or slow) when playing trills, et cetera.

If this conversation takes off, I can upload some of my ornamentation attempts in the MuseScore form.

Looking forward to your replies!

 

[Siegmund]

You are unlikely to find any two people who do it exactly the same way.

I can tell you that among violinists, pretty much the only two things everyone agrees on are "start trills from the higher note" and "when there is a repeat, ornament more heavily the second time through." Most of us are very clumsy at adding ornaments ourselves, and don't really know what we are doing.

Modern violinists still read Leopold Mozart's book (published 1755, but basically preserving the performance tradition of the 1730s when he learned his craft and started making a living as a violinist) which devotes three chapters and some 50 pages to ornamentation.
Modern flutists still read Joachim Quantz's book, written around the same time, making similar-but-not-the-same recommendations. Quantz makes an interesting distinction between music "in the French style" (ornaments mostly written out) and "in the Italian style" (ornaments mostly expected to be added by the player.) Tough cheese if the composer is German...

Both books can be found online. The originals are long since out of copyright, and so are some of the oldest translations, but not the newer and more readable translations.
I expect there are similar books for keyboard technique, but IMO accordion playing has more in common with string and woodwind playing than harpsichord playing, given its ability to sustain and vary volume.

 

[saundersbp]

I agree with every word in the posting above.

As a practical suggestion, I'd suggest listening to quality players (more likely to be found on other instruments than the accordion) and copying what they do. With ornaments, unless you are playing music from the Grand Siecle, I personally find it's a case of less is more i.e. ornament only when it adds a something expressive to the musical line, otherwise it can sound like a dogs dinner.

 

[EuroFolker]

I agree with every word in the posting above.

As a practical suggestion, I'd suggest listening to quality players (more likely to be found on other instruments than the accordion) and copying what they do. With ornaments, unless you are playing music from the Grand Siecle, I personally find it's a case of less is more i.e. ornament only when it adds a something expressive to the musical line, otherwise it can sound like a dogs dinner.

Yes, and only when / where in a music piece it makes sense to add ornaments, which I am currently trying to figure out.

In order to avoid being arrested by the baroque ornamentation police, I am trying to follow the ChatGPT advice on the subject - start the trills on the higher note, not vary the speed within the trill et cetera.

But doing it that way does not always sound pleasing to the ear, probably due to my (lack of) technique.

I also find that the ornaments tend to sound much better on the acoustic accordion than on the Roland. Maybe because the key travel on the acoustic accordion is shorter and feel is more tactile so I have better control.

 

[JerryPH]

How about doing the obvious... play it the way that sounds good TO YOU? As you learn, you can always add the embellishments later. All the above info sounds good to, but I am feeling a little paralysis from over analysis.

 

[EuroFolker]

How about doing the obvious... play it the way that sounds good TO YOU? As you learn, you can always add the embellishments later. All the above info sounds good to, but I am feeling a little paralysis from over analysis.

I wouldn't call it paralysis, just apprehensive of learning something wrong and then it's a lot of work to undo later It has happened before!

 

[JerryPH]

We're talking ornamentation, not rewriting the tune.

 

[debra]

Yes, and only when / where in a music piece it makes sense to add ornaments, which I am currently trying to figure out.

In order to avoid being arrested by the baroque ornamentation police, I am trying to follow the ChatGPT advice on the subject - start the trills on the higher note, not vary the speed within the trill et cetera.

But doing it that way does not always sound pleasing to the ear, probably due to my (lack of) technique.

I also find that the ornaments tend to sound much better on the acoustic accordion than on the Roland. Maybe because the key travel on the acoustic accordion is shorter and feel is more tactile so I have better control.

It was wise to tap into human intelligence here and not just rely on artificial stupidity.
For instance, when you start a trill the general advice is to start it on the higher note, but 1) if the note that precedes the trill already is that higher note then the trill is often not started with the higher note to avoid a not so nice repetition, and 2) often that higher note at the start of the trill is made a bit longer to emphasize it (so you get a bit of a slow starting trill).
And if you download the "Ernst Fritz Schmid" edition of Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" (free from imslp.org) you will find three pages of explanations on how to play the different ornaments that appear in the score. Mozart is a bit of a latecomer in the baroque scene so his score contains a lot of ornaments you then do not have to invent yourself, but you need to understand what each ornament means.
Another tip is that when you play a piece that contains repeats you should use different ornaments each time to create variation.
And finally, besides inventing ornaments to spice up the baroque music you should also add more variations at will, like extra "runs", fillers, etc., sometimes in the melody parts but always in the continuo part (which is something that's often forgotten when an accordion ensemble plays baroque music). Everywhere where there are gaps in the music (rests) you can consider this an opportunity to fill in the gap with a bit of improvisation.
I write a lot of arrangements of baroque music for accordion ensemble and insert my own ornaments, fillers, cadenzas, and continuo part. That's what makes an arrangement different from just a "transcription" for different instruments than those originally intended.

 

[EuroFolker]

Thank you kindly Paul, so much to learn from your reply. I'll work on everything you said then will follow up here.

P.S. Thank you for what you make available on MuseScore. I've "borrowed" from one of your multi-accordion arrangements to put together a practice piece, more on that in a separate topic.