Performing Ornaments in English Harpsichord Music. Part II

Abstract

This article continues a series of publications on problems pertaining to performing ornaments on keyboard musical instruments in England of the 17th–18th centuries according to historical documents of that time. The authors consider the history of the publication of the ornamentation table with thirteen embellishments compiled by Charles Coleman and published in the treatises The Division-Violist by Christopher Simpson (1659) and A Brief Introduction to the Skill of Musick by John Playford (1660). Among other matters, various aspects in the Rules of Graces worded by Henry Purcell (A Choice Collection of Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinnet, 1696) are discussed. In particular, in the table published by Simpson, special attention is paid to a comprehensive review of the realization of such ornaments as “[The] Backfall shaked” and “[The] Shaked Beat”. In “Rules of Graces” contained in Purcell’s A Choice Collection, the authors turned to the ornaments called “[The] beat” and “a plain note & shake”, as well as to the following well-known instruction formulated by the famous musician: “observe that you allway’s shake from the note above and beat from ye note or half note below, according to the key you play in <…>”. In the course of the research, numerous errors and inaccuracies were discovered and noted in the scientific and reference-encyclopedic literature of the 20th century concerning the interpretation of ornaments in England in the second half of the 17th century and in the content of English musical treatises of that time.