Iacobus Leodiensis [Iacobus de Montibus, Iacobus de Oudenaerde]

(iv) Later italianate embellishments.

In the early 18th century, French composers like François Couperin, and some German masters like J.S. Bach, included their desired ornamentation in the text of the music, either with symbols for single-note graces (Fr. agréments; It. abellimenti), or with actual florid notation for passages. Their specificity, unusual in its day, was, however, to continue to the present, eventually eclipsing the more prevalent 18th-century trend, favoured especially by Italian composers and those working in their styles, of leaving embellishment to the performer. It was generally felt that, with less specific notation, the music served as something of a blueprint, and could be constantly refreshed and kept current by the idiomatic addition of improvised graces. While the greatest practitioners of this lavish, expressive improvisatory vocabulary were the solo violinists and singers, all soloists, vocal and instrumental, were expected to enter into this kind of creative collaboration with the composer. Although the practice is frequently seen as Italian, by the middle of the 18th century as impressive a contribution in this area was being made by French and Germanic musicians, especially violinists. Quantz, recognizing the basic difference between what he saw as French and Italian aesthetic (Versuch, 1752; chap.10, no.115), referred to the frequently notated single-note ornaments as ‘wesentliche Manieren’ (necessary ornaments) and the more elaborate personal improvised graces as ‘willkürliche Veränderungen’. Burney remarked later of Italian practice that ‘an adagio in a song or solo is generally little more than an outline left to the performer’s abilities to colour’. The best-known examples of improvisation in Italian adagios appear in Estienne Roger’s edition of Corelli’s Sonatas for violin and violone or harpsichord op.5 (Amsterdam, 1710), which the publisher prefaced by a declaration that the adagios were graced by Corelli himself: ‘Composez par Mr A. Corelli comme il les joue’; ex.10 presents the opening bars of the third sonata. Further, in Roger’s 1716 reprint the injunction has changed to ‘comme M. Corelli veut qu’on les joue’. These are significant samples to be emulated by the performer in his or her own manner, in addition to their value as documents of Corelli’s playing; Corelli, like any other 17th- or 18th-century musician, would have varied his graces at every performance.



In his Compendium musicae signatoriae et modulatoriae vocalis (1689; chap.5, §19) W.C. Printz described some Italian ornaments – figure corte, messanze and salti (ex.11) – that are somewhat less florid than those encountered in adagios. Even Montéclair, who was against passages (see §(iii) above), admitted this type, which he called diminutions. The best way to see how they can be improvised is to strip the figure corte from a written-out piece, for which the aria ‘Singet dem Herrn’ from Buxtehude’s cantata of the same title (buxwv98) has been selected (ex.12). Bach’s cantatas are replete with examples of written-out figure corte. These are interesting because genuine Italian sources of the late 17th century are scarce. They reflect the earlier division type, related to some of the patterns from which Corelli’s ornamental style is ultimately derived, especially in anonymous 18th-century decorations for Corelli’s fast movements; Corelli’s graces for the adagios are largely elaborations of the gruppi, tremolos and other figuration typical in 17th-century ornamentation. It is therefore puzzling that Roger North should have referred contemptuously to Roger’s newly published Corelli graces as ‘so much vermin’, when they appear to be no more alien than familiar Italian patterns grouped under a single bowstroke. Beginning with the Corelli sonatas, the notation of florid ornamentation, however rhythmically approximate, appeared regularly in published and manuscript sources, examples of a composer’s or performer’s style or milieu. For Corelli’s op.5 sonatas alone there are over 20 known sources of preserved improvisation, each adding new forms of passage-work idiomatic to the period and provenance of the example. The density of notated embellishment increases noticeably throughout the century, even encompassing the chromatic inflections of the galant and Classical styles. The most ornate late example of a decorated movement for violin and bass may be seen in the fold-out of J.-B. Cartier’s 1798 compendium of 18th-century violin literature, L’art du violon, where a Tartini ‘Adagio’ is varied in 17 increasingly complex ways (see illustration). Throughout it one can still perceive the original text, however, and identify much of the figuration with its 17th-century roots. Other examples in the solo violin literature of the period include William Babell’s XII Solos … with Proper Graces (London, c1725), Franz Benda’s 33 sonatas for violin and continuo (D-Bsb Mus.ms.1315/15), Geminiani’s Sonatas for violin and bass (London, 1716, 2/1739 ‘carefully corrected and with the addition, for the sake of greater ease, of the embellishments for the adagios’), Telemann’s Sonates corellisantes (Hamburg, 1735) and Sonate metodiche (Hamburg, 1728) and Vivaldi’s Sonata in Arv29 (plain in Malipiero edition; second movement ornamented in D-Dlb, Pisendel collection).





Improvisation, §II, 3: Western art music: Baroque period

(v) Varied reprises.

Until now, the discussion has centred on examples of improvised ornamentation in slow movements where improvised graces are substituted for a simpler notated text. In fast movements, virtually all in binary form, the varied reprise of each section was considered essential. Quantz wrote about it as follows (op. cit., from the translation Easy and Fundamental Instructions, c1790):

It is a principal Rule with regard to Variations that they must have a just reference to the plain Air, the variation is made upon … the first Note of the Variation must for the most part be the same with the original or plain Note … or any other Note may be chosen instead of it from the Harmony of the Bass, provided the Principal or plain Note be heard immediately after it …

Brisk and lively Variations must not be introduced in an Air that is soft, tender and mournful, unless the Performer knows how to render them more suitable and agreeable in the manner of executing them.
Variations are only to be introduced after the simple Air has been heard first, otherwise it will be impossible for the Hearer to distinguish the latter from the former; nor does an Air, compos’d in a pleasing and graceful Stile, require any such additions, unless one was sure to improve still more upon it, they being used for no other end, than to render an Air in the cantabile Stile more melodious, and Divisions in general more brilliant.
Those that consist in a continual series of swift Notes or quick Passages, though ever so much admired by some, in general are not so pleasing as those of the more simple kind, the latter being more capable of touching the Heart, a Point that certainly is most to be aim’d at, and indeed at the same time the most difficult Part in Music; for which reason a young Beginner is advis’d to be cautious and moderate in the use of Embellishments and Graces.

However, it is quite clear that in many performances both playings were freely embellished. Extant Corelli material other than the Roger edition of 1710 contains heavily decorated examples of fast movements, some with more than one ornamental option. And the fact that the practice of embellishing both first statement and repeat is discouraged, in the name of good taste, by writers of the period proves how widespread the practice must have been.

Practical consideration occasionally led a composer to write out varied reprises, as C.P.E. Bach did in his Sechs Sonaten für Clavier mit veränderten Reprisen (1760). He wrote in the foreword (translation, 1961, from Ferand, Die Improvisation in Beispielen, 1956):

Variation upon repetition is indispensable today. It is expected of every performer. The public demands that practically every idea be repeatedly altered, sometimes without investigating whether the structure of the piece or the skill of the performer permits such alteration. It is this embellishing alone, especially if it is coupled with a long and sometimes bizarrely ornamented cadenza, that often squeezes the bravos out of most listeners. How lamentably are these two adornments of performance misused. One no longer has the patience to play the written notes the first time; the too long absence of bravos is unbearable. Often these untimely variations, contrary to the setting, contrary to the Affect, and contrary to the relationship between the ideas, are a disagreeable matter for many composers. Granted, however, that a performer has all the qualities necessary to vary a piece in the proper way; is he always ready to do so? Are not new difficulties raised thereby in unfamiliar pieces? However, aside from these difficulties and from misuse, good variations always retain their value … In writing these sonatas I have had in mind mainly beginners and such amateurs as … no longer have enough time and patience to practise especially assiduously. I have wanted to give them … the satisfaction of being heard playing variations without having either to invent them themselves or to have others write them down and then themselves learn them by heart with much effort. I am happy to be the first, so far as I know, to work in this manner for the use and the pleasure of his patrons and friends.

Ex.13 shows the beginning of no.1, with the embellished reprise below (the right-hand part is shown; there are only minor differences in the left).

The varied reprise is mandatory in da capo arias. P.F. Tosi gave good advice to singers on this matter in his Opinioni de’ cantori antichi e moderni (1723), here cited in J.E. Galliard’s translation of 1742 (chap.7, §4):

In the first [part] they require nothing but the simplest Ornaments, of a good Taste and few, that the Composition may remain simple, plain, and pure; in the second they expect, that to this purity some artful Graces be added, by which the Judicious may hear, that the Ability of the Singer is greater; and, in repeating the Air, he that does not vary it for the better, is no great Master.

Because the principle of embellishment in arias did not change radically during the 18th century, except perhaps in the ‘reform’ operas of Gluck, the rules given by J.A. Hiller in his Anweisung zum musikalisch-zierlichen Gesange (1780; see §4(ii) below) are equally applicable to Baroque music. He stated that an aria must first be performed as the composer wrote it, though the singer could add one or two small graces. The varied da capo must appear easy and pleasant, but should actually be difficult in order to give the singer an opportunity to demonstrate his skill. In slow arias it is best to introduce legato ornaments, in allegro, staccato ones. Passaggi and similar ornaments should never be sung twice in the same way, and generally speaking the same graces should not be used too close to one another or too often in succession.

Improvisation, §II, 3: Western art music: Baroque period