The Short

416 EMBELLISHMENT, ORNAMENTATION, IMPROVISATION
especially opera, and most rapid in German chamber music, yet by the end of the century it seems probable that in all
these areas performers' practices, and their perceptions of what the notation implied, were still considerably closer to
those of the late eighteenth century than late twentieth-century performers' practices and perceptions are to theirs.
The present-day musician who wishes to understand the ways in which, with respect to embellishment, eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century performers might have responded to the notation of their day, or the sorts of expectations that
composers might have had about the interpretation of their notation, needs to be conscious of a number of important
distinctions. At one extreme was the addition of more or less elaborate fiorituras to the given musical text, substantially
modifying the melodic line or introducing new material at cadences: at the other was the application of various less
obtrusive embellishments, ranging from vibrato, portamento, and subtle modifications of rhythm to the interpolation
of arpeggiation, trills, turns, and appoggiaturas. The former type of embellishment was considered appropriate and
necessary in specific circumstances and genres of music, especially in vocal or instrumental display pieces: the latter
(though its precise nature was subject to changes of taste and fashion) was regarded as an essential aspect of musicianly
performance in all circumstances, without which the music would be lacking in communicative power. The distinction
that Spohr made so clearly in 1832 between a ‘correct’ style and a ‘fine’ style 799 was the distinction between music
rendered in a literally correct manner and music in which the performer subjected the text to a host of small
modifications for the sake of expression. There were also a number of specific situations in which the performer was
expected to see beyond the literal meaning of the composer's text. Sometimes, by generally understood convention, the
given notes were recognized as standing for different ones, or a particular type of execution was implied by the musical
context. Conventions of this sort applied especially to appoggiaturas and in recitative, but were also operative in
respect of variable dots, the arpeggiation of chords in keyboard playing, the application of slurs and dynamics, and a
whole series of consequences arising from metre and musical genres, which were discussed by German writers under
the heading of ‘heavy and light performance style’ (’schwerer und leichter Vortrag’). 800 The area in which these latter
considerations applied, however, shrank gradually in the course of the period as notation became more prescriptive.
During the second half of the eighteenth century and the first decade or so of the nineteenth century all these kinds of
embellishment were a prominent feature of musical life wherever solo performance was involved, but the type of
performance in which a large element of fairly elaborate improvised ornament
799 Violin School, 181.
800 See Ch. 16 below.