Are there any hard and fast rules for whether to trill on or before the beat? I've been learning Scarlatti's Capriccio in D from the Keyboard Anthology bk 3. My teacher has said I can choose as it's a matter of personal taste. I'm doing the trills before the beat, but just wondered if there are any conventions for this? I seem to remember reading somewhere that it depends on the era the piece was written.

(For a supposedly grade 5 piece, I'm finding it more troublesome than some grade 6-7 pieces. I suppose different people are foxed by different things - and my achilles heel is sureley staccatos set against legatos! )

Regards,

Fred

I have always believed that trills usually began ON the beat, especially in baroque and classical. That's also what I think I hear on registrations and concerts.

I agree. I have always played them that way. In addition, it is Scarlatti. I think there would be more freedom in a romantic piece, but Scarlatti is pretty to the text. You should always ask your teacher, however, since usually they seem to know.

Hi Fred

Ornaments decorate the melody notes to which they are attached. Starting a trill before the beat means you are also decorating the previous beat.

I have yet to meet an occasion where this sounds good. Better usually to accept fewer notes in the trill.

Steve

The trill was a means of reinforcing a certain note on the harpsichord, being as there was no dynamic contrast and a very short-lived sound. Trilling before the note would be in the same vein as playing it early with a strong accent, which I don't think would ever make sense.... I'd either trill starting on the beat, or waiting a little first, depending on the context and the musical effect.

Definitely on the beat, not before.

Thanks everyone . Hm, it occurs to me that I had been playing them as multiple grace notes rather than trills, hence my confusion. But they are definitely written as trills. For example:

D quaver with tr written above and an (a). The (a) at the bottom of the page says demisemiquavers: EDED

I have no idea why my crazed mind interpreted them as before-the-beat - and I've been playing this for ages without noticing! |Now that I look at the music properly, I can't imagine how I ever started wrongly. Odd that my teacher didn't pick me up on it. She's normally very quick to stop me on these things...

I'm doing G8 and have a copy of Andras Schiff playing the Bach Allemande that I am playing. He plays the repeats (I don't!) and he mixes up the ornaments a lot! At one point there is a trill marked that he begins quite a long time before the actual beat. It sounds lovely! I've copied a few of his ideas in my own playing - I find the piece quite hard to make "sing" without excessive rubato or ... er... pedal!

Edward

OK, but if you do play around with the ornaments or embellish, save it for the repeats.

In my opinion, Schiff's playing of the partitas is overly-romantic. I don't have the same criticism of his playing of the well-tempered clavier, but certainly in the partitas one can start to feel positively sea-sick at times. I'd be wary of playing like this in an ABRSM exam: the examiners are no-doubt looking for appropriate-playing style.

The allemande can sing without rubato or pedal - voicing is everything. Look at the little fragments of tune that are being passed around: try bringing them out, articulating them distinctively etc.

Good luck .