Help!

I've just been sent away to start looking at adding ornamentation to some of the list A peices I've been working on, mostly Handel and Purcell. All very exciting.... until I came to do it! Feels like someone has led me to the edge of something and I daren't go any further!

Where do you start? I've got to try and sort out some ornamentation for Lascia ch'io pianga for next week - and not just use what's in the book! I've listened to a couple of recordings I have: one is surprisingly undecorated, and the other much more so.... How much of it is a matter of taste and how much to keep it in the period of the piece? I'm assming it's quite important to get it right as the list A pieces carry more marks than the others.

I guess the other question is once you've started, how do you know when to stop! How many trills, passing notes, grace notes and turns are too many??!!

Any pointers very gratefully received.

Hi Emma

I'm sure you know that in "authentic" baroque music, there's no such thing as "too much ornamentation". But this "authenticity" is not compulsory. And the general regs. say that ornamentation is at the candidate's discretion. It really does come down to what you think is comfortable, and to what you can sing with conviction. Better to sing a long note plainly and cleanly than to try to trill and miss.

I'd suggest in planning what ornaments you'll use, start at the end of the work and go backwards - a nice cadenza flourish on the last long note before the final cadence would be a good place to start. And I'd try to make sure that there was more ornamentation towards the end of the work than at the start of the Da Capo - making this an increasing trend if possible. And it sounds crackers, but don't ornament so much that you don't have time to breathe!

In my Grade 8, O Del Mio Dolce Ardor, I actually left it pretty plain, and just put in a trill and a couple of grace notes right at the end. And got 28 for it.

Best of luck

Cheers

Katyjay