Saturday, July 10, 2004

My Harmony book currently has me working on Classical ornaments. It
discusses, in practically mathematical terms, how exactly an ornament is
supposed to be played, and the exercises consist of showing me an ornament
and having me write it out in full, or showing me a big mess of black note
and having me write it with ornament symbols.

For some reason I find this terribly interesting. In my formal music
education I was always taught how to play ornaments on a case-by-case basis,
and I never realized they had such a precise meaning. Plus there's a lot of
subdividing involved, as you try to fit a sextuplet of thirty-second notes*
into an existing measure. It's amazing how mentally relaxing subdividing
can be after eight hours of translation!

*If I'd only been taught music using British terminology, I could have said
"a sextuplet of demisemiquavers" here. Curse RCM for denying me the
opportunity to use the word demisemiquaver in my daily life!

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