Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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434 SHAKE SHAKE
The sign of the shake is in modern music tr.
(generally followed by a waved line if
over a long note), and in older music tr. /iv , vw,
and occasionally +, placed over or under the
note ;
and it is rendered in two different ways,
beginning with either the principal or the
upper note, as in example 2 :
2. Written. Performed. Or thus.
his Singing School (published 1601), describes
the trillo as taught by him to his pupils, and
says that it consists of the rapid repetition of a
single note, and that in learning to execute it
the singer must begin with a crotchet and strike
each note afresh upon the vowel a {ribattere
ciascuna nota con la gala, sopra la vocale a).
Curiously enough he also mentions another
grace which he calls Gruppo, which closely
resembles the modem shake.
These two modes of performance differ considerably
in effect, because the accent, which
is always perceptible, however slight it may
be, is given in the one ease to the principal
and in the other to the subsidiary note, and it
is therefore important to ascertain which of the
two methods should be adopted in any given
case. The question has been discussed with
much fervour by various writers, and the
conclusions arrived at have usually taken the
form of a fixed adherence to one or other of
the two modes, even in apparently unsuitable
cases. Most of the earlier masters, including
Emanuel Bach, Marpurg, Tiirk, etc., held that
all trills should begin with the upper note,
while Hummel, Ozerny, Moscheles, and modem
teachers generally (with some exceptions) have
preferred to begin on the principal note.
This
diversity of opinion indicates two different
views of the very nature and meaning of the
shake ; according to the latter, it is a trembling
or pulsation—the reiteration of the principal
note, though subject to continual momentary
interruptions from the subsidiary note, gives a
certain undulating effect not unlike that of the
tremulant of the organ ; according to the former,
the shake is derived from the still older
appoggiatura, and consists of a series of appoggiaturas
with their resolutions—is in fact a
kind of elaborated appoggiatura,—and as such
requires the accent to fall upon the upper or
subsidiary note. This view is enforced by most
of the earlier authorities ; thus Marpurg says,
'
the triU derives its origin from an appoggiatura
(Vorsehlag von oben) and is in fact a series of
descending appoggiaturas executed with the
greatest rapidity.' And Emanuel Bach, speaking
of the employment of the shake in ancient
(German) music, says 'formerly the trill was
usually only introduced after an appoggiatura,'
and he gives the following example :
Nevertheless, the theory which derives the
shake from a trembling or pulsation, and therefore
places the accent on the principal note, in
which manner most shakes in modern music are
executed, has the advantage of considerable, if
not the highest antiquity.^ For Caceini, in
1 The exact date of tlie introduction of tlie trill is not known, but
Trillo.
Grv/ppo.
^^^^Sg^i^jjiiUjlS
And Playford, in his Tntrodiiction to the Skill
of Musich (1655) quotes an anonymous treatise
on the ' Italian manner of singing, ' in which
precisely the same two graces are described.^
Commenting on the shake Playford says, ' I
have heard of some that have attained it after
this manner, in singing a plain-song of six notes
up and six down; they have in the midst of every
note beat or shaked with their finger upon their
throat, which by often practice came to do the
same notes exactly without.' It seems then
clear that the original intention of a shake was
and so the modem
to produce a trembling effect,
custom of beginning with the principal note
may be held justified.
In performing the works of the great masters
from the time of Bach to Beethoven then, it
should be understood that, according to the rule
laid down by contemporary teachers, the shake
begins with the upper or subsidiary note, but it
would not be safe to conclude that this rule is
to be invariably followed. In some cases we
find the opposite effect definitely indicated by
a small note placed before the principal note
of the shake, and on the same line or space,
thus
6. Mozart (ascribed to), ' TJne fifevre,' Var. 3.
tr.
and even when there is no small note it is no
doubt correct to perform all shakes which are
situated like those of the above example in the
same manner, that is, beginning with the
principal note. So therefore a shake at the
commencement of a phrase or after a rest (Ex.
6), or after a downward leap (Ex. 7), or when
preceded by a note one degree below it (Ex. 8)
should begin on the principal note.
It is also customary to begin with the principal
ConBorti, a celebrated singer (1590), ie said to have been the first
who could sing a trill (Schilling, Lexikon der TonJeu/rut).
2 The author of this treatise is said by Playlord to have beep a
pupil of the celebrated Scipione della Falla, who was also Cacdni's
master.
tr.