Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Should the ornament be played on the beat or before it?

Title.

Thanks in advance!

It depends on the stylistic conventions of the time when it was written. In baroque music, the ornament is on the beat. In later music, it may be on the beat -accented appoggiatura, or before the beat - appoggiatura, for example.

The reality is that people just play them the way they want to, and then are criticized both for playing it on the beat or not playing it on the beat.

There are also delayed ornaments that start well after the beat in baroque music.

It really depends. There are some general rules but there are exceptions to all rules so that you will not really get a complete answer. Best to ask your teacher (in specific instances, not as a general question) and listen to recordings to develop an intuition for what sounds best when.

Hi prout. I was refering to a baroque period piece (menuet bwn114) and that really helps me to see there's not a rule set in stone. I appreciate your time.




Thanks, but I'm self taught now. That's why I posted it here, where I can receive advice from hundreds of other players in minutes

This is actually a good piece for discussing ornaments. If you have mordents showing in meas. 3, 5, 11, and 13, they would be played on the beat. But their presence hints that mordents could be added, on the repeat for example, on the first or second beats of bars 6, 7,13 and 14.

The appoggiatura on bar 8 should be played as a quarter note. Playing it as an 1/8 creates an accent.

Bar 21 could have a four note trill on the first beat.

Bar 23, could have a turn on the 3rd beat.

Bar 30 could have a tie from the last beat of bar 29 to the first beat with a three note trill played just before the second beat.

This is just the beginning of the ornamentation you could add. Normally you would play the first time with minimal ornamentation and the repeats with lots of ornamentation, and not necessarily the same stuff each time you play it. It depends on your mood, the quality of the instrument, and your audience.