One of the sources of the progressive emancipation of instrumental music around the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was diminution technique. This was based on the refashioning of an existing melodic model (usually taken from an existing vocal or dance work) through the use of shorter rhythmic values for the notes of the original melody. One may suspect that the diminutions initially represented a method of instrumental improvisation on a given theme. Yet as the German theorist Johannes Mattheson noted in the eighteenth century, instrumental music may be compared to the language of sounds; hence the sequencing and combining of notes should be precisely thought through. So diminution ought not to be just arbitrary rhythmic fragmentation with the use of any notes, but also a means of ornamentation, governed by particular aesthetic principles. One of the first treatises describing this technique is Diego Ortiz’s Trattado de Glosas, published in 1553. Besides describing ornamentation techniques for bowed string instruments, the author also gave his own examples of diminution, based on Renaissance compositions. In the principles of ornamentation proposed by Ortiz, we can discern sources of inspiration for later composers, such as Vincenzo Bonizzi and Bartolomé de Selma y Salaverde.
Simply… Philharmonic! Project 4:
Already in the early Middle Ages, music lovers took delight in the art of improvisation and ornamentation. So in wishing to impress London audiences as an organ virtuoso, George Frideric Handel added organ concertos to his oratorios. Almost to the end of his life, despite his deteriorating eyesight, he wowed listeners with his improvised solo performances. In the English capital, Handel’s entourage included another outstanding instrumentalist – the violinist Pietro Castrucci, whose compositions attest to his brilliant performance skills. In the Renaissance, as well, performers embellished familiar melodies of songs and dances in order to present them solely on instruments, without vocal accompaniment. Over time, the principles governing such ornamentation were written down in the form of treatises, to set them out not just for performers, but also for composers wishing to write instrumental works. There was also no lack of improvised ornamentation in vocal music. Singers at the court of Louis XIII performed airs de cour, popular at that time, in which they extemporised embellishments to melodies that in notation were ostensibly quite simple. After all, those songs were meant to delight the king himself.
Daniel Laskowski
