Improvisation in Sixteenth-Century Italy:

Lessons from Rhetoric and Jazz

John Bass

Copyright 2009 Claremont Graduate University



Saying that embellishment was a big deal for sixteenth-century musicians is hardly a bold
move; evidence abounds in treatises, music collections, and written accounts from the time.
1
It
has also been the subject of a fair amount of keen musicological scholarship over the years.
2
But
making sense out of what musicians of the time actually did in performanceand trying to
reproduce it todayhas proven to be more difficult, mainly because improvisers, by nature, do
not tend to record what they do. The modern prevailing view seems to be that ornamentation was
important, mainly because evidence suggests it was so widespread, but ultimately that it was a
sort of varnish: something that could add color or texture to the surface of the music but that
always left the original clearly discernable underneath. Certainly pieces back then, as today,
were performed without embellishments, but perhaps there is more to the ornamentation than
mere decorative sheen. As someone who has been trained to improvise on a fairly high level as a

1
In addition to the ornamentation manuals discussed below, some other sixteenth-century major sources containing
evidence of ornamentation include: the seven Spanish vihuela sources, Luys Miln, El Maestro (1536); Luys de
Narvez, Los Seis Libros del delphin de Msica (1538); Alfonso Mudarra, Tres Libros de Msic (1546); Enriquez de
Valderrbano, Silva de Serenas (1547); Diego Pisador, El libro de Msica de vihuela (1552); and Miguel de
Fuenllana, Orphenica Lyra (1554); also Sylvestro Ganassi, Opera Intitulata Fontegara (Venice, 1535); Adrian Petit
Coclico, Compendium musices (Nurenburg, 1552); Juan Bermudo, El libro llamado Declaracin de instrumentos
musicales (Osuna, 1555); Hermann Finck, Prattica musica (Wittenberg, 1556); Giovanni Camillo Maffei, Delle
lettere del Signor Gio. Camillo Maffei da Solofra, libri due, dove ra gli altri bellissimi pensieri di filosofia, edi
medicina. ve un discorso della voce e del modo dappraare di cantar di garganta. senza maestro. non piu veduto.
nstampato (Naples, 1562); Tomas de Santa Maria`s Arte de taer fantasa (Valladolid, 1565); Lodovico Zacconi,
Prattica di musica. (Venice, 1592); Girolamo Diruta, Il transilvano dialogo sopra il vero modo di sonar organi, et
istromenti da penna (Venice, 1593); Giovanni Luca Conforto, Breve et facile maniera dessercitarsi ad ogni
scolaro. (Rome, 1593).

2
While by no means a complete list of research on the topic, major works in the field include: Ernest T. Ferand, Die
Improvisation in der Musik (Zurich: Rhein-Verlag. 1938); Ferand. 'Improvised Vocal Counterpoint of the Late
Renaissance and Early Baroque. Annales musicologiques 4 (1956): 129-74; Imogene Horsley. 'Improvised
Embellishment in the PerIormance oI Renaissance Polyphonic Music. JAMS 4 (1951): 3-19; and Howard Mayer
Brown, Embellishing 16th-Century Music, Early Music Series 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976);
Timothy J. McGee. 'How one Learned to Ornament in Late Sixteenth-Century Italy. Performance Practice Review
13 (2008) <http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/u?/ppr,3017>
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jazz musician, I see something different when I look at these types of sources from the past.
Perhaps the point of sixteenth-century embellishment is not necessarily to remain true to the
original and adorn it unobtrusively, but rather to create a new thing through the ornamentation
a thing that only exists in that moment of performance.

Before I get too far, a note about terminology: I believe a major obstacle to our
understanding of extemporaneous activity from the past has been the words we use to describe
the processes, primarily ornamentation and embellishment, which are actually quite different
from the ones used at the time, such as glosas, diminutions, and passaggi. For the purposes of
clarity in this paper, I have chosen to use the terms ornamentation, embellishment, and
improvisation interchangeably. Although the connotations are a bit different, especially between
improvisation and the first two, I suggest that they are all parts of the whole of improvisatory
thought in the sixteenth century; a spontaneously ornamented or embellished performance is
essentially an improvised one.

In fact, differentiating ornamentation from improvisation is virtually impossible. Even
today with the advantage of sound recordings and mass media, drawing the line in a genre like
jazz with its strong improvisatory tradition is difficult. I think most would agree that jazz artists
improvise, but performers rely on preexisting material to some degree: common patterns or licks,
quotations from other jazz artists, fragments of different tunes, etc. Even the basic melodies of
tunes are normally embellished and often change between performancesyou will rarely hear
'Summertime on a iazz gig. Ior example. the way George Gershwin published it in Porgy and
Bess. So, what should we be calling improvisation? Discussing the issue, guitarist Mick
Goodrick says,

Even though a lot oI us are 'improvisers. we spend a large percentage oI time 'playing things
that we already know. We mix it up a bit. to be sure. but most oI it involves things that we`ve
worked with (to one extent or another) and things that we are (at least somewhat) familiar with.
'Pure improvising is diIIerent than 'playing. 'Pure improvising involves things that are
unknown; things that you`ve never played before; things that you are unfamiliar with. 'Pure
improvising is exhaustingly hard work. If it happens to you even a few times a year, you should
consider yourself fortunate.
3


I certainly agree that most of what we call improvisation is not what Goodrick terms pure
improvisation, but I do not believe that precludes us from talking about improvisatory procedures
in slightly impure extemporaneous situations.
4
In fact, the more rigidly we define the term, the
less room we will have for discussion of it, especially when talking about trends from the past.
To be sure, I do not mean to suggest that Goodrick`s notion oI pure improvisation can be Iound

3
Mick Goodrick, The Advancing Guitarist (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 1987), 108.

4
Goodrick`s book is actually devoted to this.

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in sources from the sixteenth century (how could they be?), but that what can be found are
improvisatory strategies and intellectual approaches that can help us understand the language and
possibly lead to new improvisatory moments.

In this paper, the window into sixteenth-century embellishment will be the Italian
ornamentation treatises of the last half of the century. The most famous of these authors today
was a Spaniard living in Naples, Diego Ortiz, but the others were northern Italians, namely
Girolamo Dalla Casa, Giovanni Bassano, Ricardo Rognoni, and Giovanni Battista Bovicelli.
5
A
few years ago the word ornamentographer was coined, somewhat casually, in a seminar I
attended to describe these authors, and it has taken root in my vocabulary as a way of suggesting
that their great contribution was to write ornaments down.
6
While we must be careful not to take
them too literally, their work still offers the most direct link we have to the practice of actual
sixteenth-century improvisers, and in particular their ornamentographs (pieces with written-out
ornamentation) are the closest things we have to recorded performances of sixteenth-century
improvisation.

These manuals share a layout, which, I believe, has also contributed to our modern idea
of how ornamentation existed back then.
7
All of these sources begin with a written portion
describing the practice, giving practical advice on performing and adding embellishment, and
providing warnings about the misuse of the material. This is followed by what is their most
dominant feature: massive lists of sample intervals, cadences, and passages. As an example, see
Figure 1, which is Irom Giovanni Bassano`s Ricercate, passaggi et cadentie (1585).
8
In the first
measure, Bassano presents an interval of a major second (from C to D in semibreves) followed

5
The manuals they wrote are: Diego Ortiz, Trattato de Glosas (Rome, 1553); Girolamo Dalla Casa, Il Vero Modo di
Diminuir con Tutte le Sorte di Stromenti (Venice, 1584); Giovanni Bassano, Ricercate, Passaggi, et Cadentie
(Venice, 1585) and Motetti, Madrigali et Canzonie Francese (Venice, 1591); Ricardo Rognonio, Passaggi per
potersi essercitare nel diminuire terminatamente con ogni sorte di instromenti, et anco diversi passaggi per la sem-
plice voce humana (Venice, 1592); and Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, Regole, passaggi di musica, madrigali et motetti
passeggiati (Venice, 1594).

6
The word Iirst appears in John Bass. 'Would Caccini Approve?: A closer look at Egerton 2971 and florid
monody. Early Music 36 (2008), 81-93.

7
This layout was likely borrowed from such rhetorical treatises as Cicero`s De inventione. Quintilian`s Institutio
oratoria. and Erasmus`s De duplici copia verborum ac rerum commentarii duo, which were likely a staple of the
general education oI the authors. This is Iurther explored in my dissertation. 'Rhetoric and Musical
Ornamentography: Tradition in Sixteenth-Century Improvisation (Ph.D. diss.. University oI Memphis. 2008) and a
paper entitled 'Rhetoric and Music Irom an Improvisational Point oI View. read at the 2009 annual meeting oI the
Renaissance Society of America in Los Angeles.

8
Giovanni Bassano, Ricercate, passaggi et cadentie (Venice 1585), foreword by Peter Thalheimer (Bologna:
Meroprint 2036, 1994).

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by four examples of ornamented ways to perform it. He then presents the same interval in
minims, giving four more ornamented examples, and afterward moves to the interval of D to E in
semibreves. Following this, he continues the process through various intervals and cadences. The
number of these out-of-context gestures varied between the ornamentographers: Dalla Casa gave
a large number of original cadences and only a few ornamented examples of each, while
Rognoni gave only six sample cadences, but provided between 25 and 33 ornamented examples
for each one. However, the general process resembles Bassano`s treatment.

Figure 1. Giovanni Bassano, Ricercate, Passaggi et Cadentie
9




Following these tables, sample pieces with ornamentation written in (ornamentographs)
are presented to show how to use these patterns in the context of a performance. As time goes by,
these become a more prominent feature of the manuals as the authors feel a greater need to show
how the practice occurs within the context of an actual performance. On the surface, the process
here seems to be simple: ornaments and figures are chosen from the lists and inserted into
perIormance at appropriate times. and this was the crux oI Howard Mayer Brown`s argument in
Embellishing 16th-Century Music in 1976.
10
This is true to a degree, but by stepping back and
looking at the embellished performance as a thing unto itself, and not just a collection of licks
from the tables, something new emerges. More on this in a bit.

I believe these treatises are training manuals meant to help a student acquire the
necessary musical language to function in improvisatory situations, and their approach is not
terribly different from that of modern jazz pedagogy. The strategy of giving lists of ornaments
and cadences strikes me as being very similar to that oI Jerry Coker`s Patterns for Jazz books
(this observation is actually what started me down this path in the Iirst place). Coker`s books

9
Giovanni Bassano, Ricercate, passaggi et cadentie (Venice 1585), foreword by Peter Thalheimer (Bologna:
Meroprint 2036, 1994).

10
Brown even constructs an embellished melody of his own using this process. He uses ornaments from Sylvestro
Ganassi`s tables to adorn Arcadelt`s O felici occhi miei. Embellishing 16th-Century Music, 12-16.

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provide sample patterns to be used over certain chords or progressions (see Figures 2 and 3 on
the following two pages) and are basically a storehouse of licks from the jazz tradition.
11
They
are meant to be training tools, though, to teach the jazz language to the student to be used in an
original way, and not to simply construct a solo by plugging in patterns in appropriate places
(although this might be an intermediate step). It is a pedagogical strategyone of manybut if
these books were the only surviving evidence of jazz, I think that our conception of what the
music is might be different, and that it might be more in line with what most of us consider
ornamentation than improvisation.




11
Jerry Coker, Patterns for Jazz (Lebanon, IN: Studio P/R, 1970).

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Figure 2. Patterns for Jazz by Jerry Coker
12




12
Jerry Coker, Patterns for Jazz (Lebanon, IN: Studio P/R, 1970), 29.
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Figure 3. Patterns for Jazz by Jerry Coker
13





13
Ibid., 89.
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The ornamentographs in the sixteenth-century manuals remind me of transcriptions of
jazz solos, and perhaps we can apply modern pedagogical strategies to these as well. Books of
solo transcriptions are a mainstay of modern jazz education; a quick search of Amazon.com
reveals 462 books featuring solos by classic and modern jazz artists.
14
Perhaps the most famous
of these books is the Charlie Parker Omnibook, which is a publication featuring his solos on
most of his recorded performances.
15
Like the Coker book, this is a training tool. The idea is that
a student should play through Parker`s solos to get an idea of the language and get the patterns
under his or her fingers in the hopes of using some of them in original solos.
16
These are not,
however, meant to be played on the bandstandthis would be a good way to get booted from a
gig.

If we accept that we are dealing with a largely improvisatory tradition when looking at
these sixteenth-century sources, then I think it might be helpful to refocus our views of them
through the lens of an improviser. Improvising musicians have to take a different approach to
making music than composers or performers playing from the page; having to create in the
moment of performance necessitates what a performer can or cannot think about. Personally, I
know that I only have time to focus on big issues when I am improvising: contour, speed, color,
intensity, etc. I cannot get bogged down trying to insert specific patterns or scales into my
playing at predetermined timestrying to force the issue usually results in a disjointed, stiff
performance and does not allow me to react appropriately to the changing music. This is not to
say that learned gestures do not materialize in performance but that they only do so once they
have been internalized through years of practice.

The most common complaint I hear from students learning to improvise (and one of mine
too when I was in school) is that they will spend hours working on patterns, scales, or specific
licks that they would like to use while playing, but these gestures never seem to come out on the
bandstand while improvising (it is maddening, really). My answer to them is the same one that
my teachers had for me: be patient, it will come (not that it is comforting after a particularly
unconvincing and uninteresting solo). That does not mean that one should not continue to work
on such things in practice. On the contrary, it means these musical patterns and ideas will not
materialize until they have been practiced and absorbed to the point that they become part of
one`s musical vocabulary. It is both a practical and a rather mysterious development.

Improvising in the sixteenth century was clearly not the same as improvising today in
jazzthe languages are different as well as the social implications of the musicbut I do

14
Amazon.com accessed July 18, 2009.

15
Charlie Parker Charlie Parker Omnibook, ed. Jamey Aebersold (New York: Criterion, 1978).

16
In Iact. aIter playing through several oI Parker`s solos. one will notice that he too uses many oI the same licks or
patterns across solos.

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believe there are basic tendencies of improvising musicians that can be seen in the two traditions
(as well as other improvising traditions around the world) and that by comparing similarities, we
might be able to understand better what was happening back then. What follows are some
observations I have made about things I have seen in the ornamentography manuals and
comparisons to similar occurrences in jazz, as well as other observations about the rhetorical
effects created by ornamentation. They are case studies, if you will, and not meant to encompass
the entirety of either tradition. Also, my analyses of these pieces are largely descriptive, rather
than looking at specific patterns on a measure-by-measure basis, in order to try to ascertain
overall approaches toward the performance and to focus on things improvisers would have time
to think about in the moment.

Miles Davis and John Coltrane
A particularly useful and well-known example from the world of jazz comes from the late
1950s when Miles Davis and John Coltrane engaged in several recording sessions together. I
often use their solos with my jazz students to show the vastly different approaches that impro-
visers can take toward a modelthis, I think, is more valuable than the actual musical patterns
each playsand I think the lesson can serve this study as well.

Example 1 (next page) shows the solos by Davis and Coltrane on Davis` tune 'So What
recorded on the 1959 album Kind of Blue.
17
The most obvious difference between the two is the
basic speed with which each movesColtrane plays faster than Davisbut the structure of each
is also a contrast. Davis` trademark is that he picks key moments to play certain notes, thus
dividing his improvisation into distinct sections. The G and E at the beginning of the second
chorus (measures 32-33), for example, emphasize the ninth and eleventh of the underlying
harmony, rather than the root, third, fifth, and seventh, which had been his primary note choices
up to this point. He is also very deliberate about where he changes rhythmic patterns (measure 49
is a good example), and these different patterns often signal new improvisational areas.
Additionally, he re-uses material (measures 41-48 are similar to the opening measures) to give
his entire solo a sense of unity, almost as if it were composed ahead of time.

17
Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, Columbia Records, CS8163.

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Example 1. Solos by Miles Davis and John Coltrane over "So What" from the album
Kind of Blue.
18
Parts shown in concert key.


18
These are adapted from transcriptions by Rob Duboff, Mark Vinci, Mark Davis, and Josh Davis, found in Kind of
Blue: Transcriptions of the classic Miles Davis album (Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 2007), 23-28.

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Example 1 (continued)





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Coltrane`s organization oI material. on the other hand. is more Iocused and happens in
smaller increments. It is also more purely organic in that it consists of creating a pattern through
improvisation and then using that pattern as a vehicle for expansion, mostly through sequence
and variation. The first sixteen measures of his solo offer a tidy example of this. The figure in
measures 1-2 (D-F-G) is the basic idea here and is repeated with minor variation over the first
eight measures. Beginning in measure 9, Coltrane truncates the rhythm of the opening figure and
extends its range, and this, in turn, becomes the source material for the development of measures
9-16. In fact, the opening idea is the raw material for the entire solo: notice how the beginnings
of most major sections (in measures 25, 33, 41-42, and 49) allude to the opening idea. It is as if
Coltrane`s approach is to see how much mileage he can get out oI a small Iragment oI material,
interspersing it with longer florid sections.

As in Davis` solo. there is a developmental quality at work here, but the two feel very
different. To my ear. the interest in Davis` solo comes Irom hearing the new melodic and
rhythmic areas that he takes the listener to (perhaps the same sensation as listening to a great
composition). whereas the appeal oI Coltrane`s solo is based on his individual virtuosity on the
instrument along with his wittiness at musing on a theme. I do not, of course, mean that either
solo is greater than the other; Davis and Coltrane were both supreme improvisers at the height of
their powers when this record was made. They were just two humans who came to the same task
with different approaches, and whatever the differences may have been between sixteenth-
century improvisation and mid-twentieth-century jazz, it should be self-evident that the
ornamentographers were the same way.

From a practical standpoint, the reasons for these differences make sense. When going
more slowly, an improviser has more time to think of an overall structure and to use musical
material in a larger scheme. In fact, it is necessary to do this in order to create interest among lis-
teners. When moving more quickly a different approach must be taken, as there is less time to
think of larger structures, and organization tends to happen on a smaller scale with idea
progressing to idea on a measure-by-measure basis or faster. The listener does not need to hear
the same structural cohesiveness in a more florid performance partly because the technical skill
of an extravagant performance inherently creates a sense of interest (the virtuoso phenomenon),
and partly because there is so much more music coming at the listener that it is easier to grasp
organization in smaller units rather than trying to make sense of hundreds of notes over the
course of a longer performance. One is not preferable to the other, however, and, as we will see,
the ornamentographers are very careful to present their material not as the way to improvise, but
as the way that one can improvise.




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Diego Ortiz
For a sixteenth-century example. let us look at two oI Diego Ortiz`s La Spagna recer-
cadas found in his Trattado de glosas (Rome, 1553).
19
Although they are not proper ornamento-
graphs since they do not ornament an existing part (Ortiz writes new material over a common
tenor), they give insight into how structure might have been created in freer extemporaneous
situations. Since Ortiz gives only the tenor of La Spagna in breves of equal duration, it is up to
the new melodic line to create contour and shape over the ground. He does not give any specific
comments differentiating the recercadas. saying only that he gives numerous examples '.in
order to satisIy the diIIerent tastes. every one to take what seems best to him.
20
On the surface,
the differences appear purely pedagogical, as there are slower moving examples progressing to
florid ones, seemingly meant for players of various (or developing) skill levels. Upon closer
study, however, there are some interesting structural differences. Comparing these to the solos in
Example 1, we can see a similar relationship between speed and organization: slower-moving
examples tend to develop more on a larger scale with distinct melodic areas that develop from
phrase to phrase ( la Davis), and faster moving ones develop more out of melodic variation on a
smaller scale, organically springing out of the material just heard ( la Coltrane). Example 2
shows Ortiz`s La Spagna recercadas 1 and 4, which represent the slowest and fastest moving of
the bunch.
21



19
Diego Ortiz, Trattado de Glosas (Rome, 1553), ed. Annette Otterstedt, trans. Hans Reiners (Basel: Brenreiter,
2003), 77, 80-81.

20
Ibid., 76: '.por satisIazer a diIerentes Iustos. caduano tome. lo que meior le pareciere.

21
I am assuming that the cantus firmus moves at the same speed for all of the recercadas.
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Example 2. Diego Ortiz`s recercadas primera and quarta over La Spagna.







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Example 1 (continued)







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Recercada 1 has a rather distinct three-part structure, divided into measures 1-16,
measures 17-26, and measures 26ff.. The main structural component in the first section is a
dotted half note followed by three quarter notes (starting on either F or B-flat), which occurs five
times within the first sixteen measures. The second section, measures 17-26, generally moves
quicker with quarter notes as the primarily rhythm, and it climaxes in measure 23, with a leap of
an octave (to the high G), followed by a octave-and-a-fifth fall by step that eventually cadences
on the low C in measure 26. The final section, from measure 26 to the end, develops
sequentially, but in generally slower moving notes than the middle section, and it reuses material
from earlier: measures 26-28 use a sequence from measures 21-22 and the structural idea from
the first section (a dotted half note and three quarter notes) returns in measures 31-33. Overall,
there is an arching form to the ornamentation here, in which the speed gets faster, climaxes
around measure 23, and eases up over the remainder of the piece. Just as interesting is the reuse
of material, which helps give the entire example a sense of continuity.
22


By contrast, the fourth recercada is more florid and might appear, on the surface, to be a
more advanced piece. It would indeed require somewhat greater technical proficiency on the
instrument, but in terms of its overall design, it is arguably simpler. The organization here relies
heavily on sequence, which becomes apparent from the beginning as the rhythmic structure of
the first measure is repeated three times through measure four. Measure 5 contains a bit of florid
cadential material before the next sequence is started in measure 6. This new figure is nearly
identical to the first and is used until measure 11, where Ortiz truncates the idea to create a new
pattern that he, in turn, uses until measure 14.
23
At this point he creates a new sequence using the
opening rhythms with new intervals, which he continues until measure 19. Beginning in measure
21 is a figure that Ortiz uses in every measure through the end of the piece. Clearly, the focus in
this recercada is on melodic sequence and getting the most mileage out of a single idea.

Ortiz gives four other La Spagna recercadas in his manual and they show similar traits
relating to speed and the organization of material. As a general rule, if there can be such a thing,
the slower the material moves, the more it is divided into clear sections that create global
structures over the course of the piece. As things start to speed up, this approach gradually gives
way to more organic development, using smaller bits of material in sequence to create structure.
As Ortiz said in the quote given earlier, no one approach is better than the others and it is left up
to the taste of the reader to decide which to take in performance. It seems safe to say, though,
that the slower-moving examples are not simply training pieces leading up to the more florid
ones.



22
Recall a similar phenomenon in Davis`s solo in Example 1.

23
This is similar to what Coltrane did in the first 16 measures of his solo, shown in Example 1.

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Trends in Venice
Ortiz`s manual is rather early in the line oI ornamentography publications. and it is not
until the 1580s that we see others. After 1584, however, five manuals are published within a
decade of one another. All of these were published in Venice, but their authors lived in either
Venice (Dalla Casa and Bassano) or Milan (Rognoni and Bovicelli), and I believe that the
different musical activity in each place played a major role in the stylistic differences we see in
their manuals.

Venice in the 1580s and 1590s was a hotbed of instrumental music, both in and out of the
church.
24
In particular. St. Mark`s Basilica became renowned Ior its instrumental consorts and
composers such as Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli famously took advantage of these ensembles in
their compositions.
25
Two of the ornamentographers, Girolamo Dalla Casa and Giovanni Bas-
sano, were active professionals at the time and each held the position of capo de concerti at St.
Mark`s and perIormed as members of the consorts there. Their manuals show how the tradition
of improvised ornamentation existed within the context of these large ensembles, as well as other
performing situations, and this paper will use two examples by Dalla Casa as representatives of
the Venetian style.
26


Traditionally, Dalla Casa has been painted in a rather unfavorable way in comparison to
Ortiz or later ornamentographers, mainly because his examples tend to alternate violently
between original material and floridity. This led Howard Mayer Brown to say. 'clearly Dalla
Casa`s chieI goal was not the invention oI sophisticated variation but rather the more primitive
desire to show off his manual dexterity; he asks merely that the listener marvel at the agile throat

24
There was, of course, much more going on in Venice than instrumental music, and among other things, it was a
hub of Italian music publishing. For a general discussion about musical activity in Venice before 1600, see Ellen
Rosand. 'Venice. 15801680. in Music and Society: The Early Baroque Era: from the Late 16th Century to the
1660s. ed. Curtis Price (Englewood CliIIs. NJ: Prentice Hall. 1993). 75102; and Elanor Selfridge-Field, Song and
Season: Science, Culture, and Theatrical Time in Early Modern Venice (Stanford University Press, 2007).

25
Showing this inIluence. Bassano included an embellished version oI Andrea Gabrieli`s pieces. Caro dolce ben
mio, in his Motetti, madrigali, et canzoni francese di diversi eccellenti autori (Venice, 1591); Bassano`s original has
been lost since World War II and it exists only as a handwritten copy by Fredrich Chrysander, which is housed in
Hamburg at the Universittsbibliothek. Brown lists it as 1591
2
in Instrumental Music Published Before 1600
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1965). For more on the Giovanni Gabrieli connection with Bassano, see Eleanor
Selfridge-Field. 'Bassano and the Orchestra oI St. Mark`s. Early Music 4 (1976), 152-158.

26
Girolamo Dalla Casa, Il vero modo di diminuir con tutte le sorti di stromenti (Venice 1584), ed. Giuseppe Vecchi
(Bologna: Forni Editore, 1983), and Giovanni Bassano, Ricercate, passaggi et Cadentie per potersi esercitar nel
diminuir terminatamente con ogni sorte dinstrumento (Venice 1585), foreword by Peter Thalheimer (Bologna:
Meroprint 2036. 1994). Bassano`s ornamentation exhibits many oI the same characteristics and has been omitted Ior
brevity. See Bass, Rhetoric and Musical Ornamentography Ior transcriptions and discussions oI Bassano`s pieces.

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or fingers oI the perIormer.
27
I would suggest that this idea might be a bit misleading, however,
and the style of his ornamentation may point more to a performing situation than purposeful
extravagance.
28


As you can see in example 3 (next page), an excerpt of his ornamented version of the
superius voice Irom Clemens non Papa`s Frisque et gaillard, there is a rather exaggerated
starting and stopping quality to the line. But Dalla Casa did not intend for these to be stand-alone
pieces; rather they were meant to show how a player playing a soprano part in consort (as he
oIten did at St. Mark`s) might go about embellishing a part in performance.
29
The unadorned
sections likely represent the space needed for other members of the consort to ornament their
parts, and fortunately, Dalla Casa does not leave the reader to wonder how such a performance
might have taken shape. At the end of Il vero modo he presents Cipriano de Rore`s madrigal Alla
dolce ombra in partbook format with embellishment written in all parts, and Example 4 is an
excerpt from the prima parte in score format.
30
Glancing through this example, one will notice
that the soprano is not necessarily more elaborate than the other voices nor does it ornament a far
greater percentage of the original notes, which would seem to work against the notion that
showmanshipespecially that of a single performerwas the primary motivating factor.





27
Brown, Embellishing 16th-Century Music, 36.

28
To be fair to Brown, whose shoulders I stand upon in this paper, he lived in a time before performers such as
Bruce Dickey and Jordi Savall were performing pieces from this repertory with such sprezzatura to make them
really work.

29
Brown also notes this in Embellishing 16th-Century Music, 36.

30
Dalla Casa, Il vero modo, book II, 38-49.
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Example 2. Excerpt Irom Dalla Casa`s ornamented superius oI Frisque et gaillard, along
with the original.

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Example 3. Excerpt oI Dalla Casa`s ornamented version oI Alla dolce ombra, prima
parte.





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Looking at an example like Alla dolce ombra might help us rationalize Dalla Casa`s
superficially uninspired-looking method of ornamentation. Because of the performing
circumstances oI the consort. Dalla Casa`s ornamentation cannot approach the level oI individual
floridity or sophisticated melodic development of Ortiz, whose pieces were mostly intended for
solo viol with accompaniment. The sophistication here comes from the complex interaction
between members of the group and their ability to create an improvisational collage on the fly.
The situation, to make another jazz comparison, reminds me of the practice of collective
improvisation characteristic of early New Orleans-style jazz. The typical group from the time
would be divided into a front line consisting of cornet, clarinet, and trombone, and a back line
made up of tuba, banjo, and drums. Arrangement of music for these groups involved members of
the front line improvising simultaneously over a given tune, and a systemoften unspoken
was ultimately worked out that allowed each player freedom, but kept them from clashing: the
cornetist would play the melody with minor embellishments, the clarinetist would play higher
and faster than the cornetist, and the trombonist would either play the bass line of the piece, or
would improvise in a lower register and slower than the other instruments. This allowed for a
great deal of flexibility and provided musicians with a quick way of arranging tunes for their
groups.
31
Example 5 (next page) shows a transcription of the first eight measures (following a
two-measure introduction. which I have not given) oI 'Krooked Blues. recorded by King
Oliver`s Creole Jazz Band in 1923. which exempliIies a section oI collective improvisation.
32


31
See Gunther Schuller, Early Jazz (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 63-88, and Samuel Charters,
Trumpet Around the Corner: The Story of New Orleans Jazz (Oxford, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2008).

32
'Krooked Blues (by Beniamin Spikes. John Spikes. and Bill Johnson) recorded by King Oliver`s Creole Jazz
Band on 3 October 1923, Gennett 5274-A. A bit of commentary is necessary for this example. First, this is a
somewhat skeletal transcription, as there is more going on than is on the page. Both King Oliver and Louis
Armstrong played cornet on the recording and while they played the same melody, they interpreted it differently,
making for a heterophonic texture. which I have not transcribed Ior clarity`s sake. Also. Stump Evans plays C-
melody saxophone on the cut, but his part is barely audible at times, so I have chosen to leave it out. Also, it is very
possible that little of this example was actually improvised for the recording session. Because recording was such a
different experience from playing live (and you only had one shot), groups often played rehearsed versions of their
pieces on sessions. This is evident from listening to the alternate takes of tunes from this particular session (which
can be found on the CD King Olivers Creole Jazz Band. The Complete Set, Challenge Records, CHA79007, 1996).
Even individual solos were often carefully prepared and rehearsed; the most famous example of this is King Oliver`s
muted solo on 'Dippermouth Blues. which was recorded on 6 April 1923. See Richard CrawIord. Americas
Musical Life (New York: W.W. Norton, 2001), 630-631 for more on this solo. We know, however, that they did
collectively improvise, and even if this is a simulated performance, it can serve as an example of the process for this
study.


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Example 4. Transcription oI 'Krooked Blues (by Beniamin Spikes. John Spikes. and
Bill Johnson) recorded by King Oliver`s Creole Jazz Band on 3 October 1923, Gennett
5274-A. All Parts shown in concert key.

Perhaps such unspoken arrangements were present in the late Renaissance as well. By
looking at Dalla Casa`s Alla dolce ombra, there are some tendencies we can take note of that
might help us when trying to reproduce this idea of consort improvisation. First, the order of
embellishment among the voices, with minor exception, seems to follow the order of their
polyphonic entrancesthis at least can help us get started. Also, the musical material seems to
spring from what the musicians themselves do and a series of reactions that follow; a figure will
inspire another that gets passed among the voices, and as it does, it changes into a new figure and
the process is repeated (see Example 4, pg. 20). Taken as single parts out of context, as in Exam-
ple 3, they do appear to be rather simplistic and disjointed, but within the context of a larger
piece the embellishment proves to be cunning and effective.

It is not only the pieces clearly intended for use in ensemble playing that show evidence
oI this consort mentality. Example 6 shows the Iirst 18 measures oI Cipriano de Rore`s Anchor
che col partire and two ornamented versions by Dalla Casa, the first a texted superius part inten-
ded to be sung with either a consort of instrumentalists or a solo lute, and the second intended for
a solo viol in the bastarda style.
33


33
Unlike Ortiz, who includes similar pieces, Dalla Casa does use the term bastarda in his manual. There is some
disagreement concerning what the term bastarda actually means: it is either an instrument or an improvisatory style
of the viol in general. For more, see Jason Paras, The Music for Viola Bastarda (Bloomington: University of Illinois
Press. 1986). and Paolo PandoIo. 'The Viola Bastarda and the Art oI Improvising. in The Italian Viola da Gamba
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Example 6. Measures 1-18 oI Dalla Casa`s ornamented superius and viola bastarda
versions on Anchor che col partire, along with the original superius part.


Proceedings on the International Symposium of the Italian Viola da Gamba [Magnano, Italy, 2000], ed. Susan
Orlando (Solignac: Edition Ensemble Measureoque di Limoges, 2002), 115-125.

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The texted example may resemble Dalla Casa`s superius Irom Frisque et gaillard in that
it alternates between sections of original material and embellishment, but the rationale is a bit
different here. Rather than alteration out of necessity (i.e. leaving space for others to ornament),
the embellishments in Anchor che col partire are more closely linked with the madrigal`s poetry.
In fact, if we look at how Dalla Casa colored the text, the ornamentation becomes explicitly
rhetorical. Without delving too deep into metaphors about death and sexuality, the poem is a
rather intense double entendre focusing on the pleasure, in both the innocent and the naughty
sense, of leaving and returning,
34
and it is precisely these words ('partire. etc. in measures 2-3
and 7. and 'ritorno in measures 14-17) that get the most extravagant treatment by Dalla
Casa. This works in conjunction with the rhetoric of the text, especially in highlighting each
double entendre, and perhaps adds a layer of persuasiveness to the madrigal.
35


The bastarda version is on the whole more florid, but by lining it up with the superius
part (as I have done in the example), we can see some interesting structural characteristics take
shapeespecially that it seems to show consideration for the presumably absent superius line.
To me, this reinforces the idea that Dalla Casa thought primarily as a consort improviser, even
when away from that performing situation. In Example 6, notice how the embellishment seems
to fill in the gaps where the soprano voice is resting or is less active: for example measures 3-4,
7, 11-12, and 15. Even though the soprano voice is not given in Dalla Casa`s example. he seems
to be cognizant of it and adds the most elaborate ornamentation in spots where it would either be
resting or moving slowly. This might also be a clue to how pieces like this were organized, since
internal development tends to be rather loose (based on all voices of the original) and organized
from the bottom voice up, and it even hints at the possibility of a fascinating performing situation
in which a singer would sing the superius line with ornamentation and the viol would accompany
in this bastarda style.

Milan in the 1590s
The final two ornamentography manuals of the sixteenth century were also published in
Venice, but their authors, Ricardo Rognoni and Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, lived and worked in
Milan where the musical climate was a bit different. As in Venice, instrumental music was

34
The metaphor relating death to sex is common in Italian madrigals of the sixteenth century (and goes back even
Iurther). For an analysis oI how the metaphor works speciIically in this madrigal. see Lewis Lockwood. 'Text and
Music in Rore`s Madrigal Anchor che col partire. in Musical Humanism and its Legacy: Essays in Honor of
Claude V. Palisca, Festchrift 11, ed. Nancy Kovaleff Baker and Measuremeasurea Russano Hanning (Stuyvesant,
NY: Pendragon Press, 1992), 243-253. For more on the sexual subtexts in the madrigals of this time, see Laura
Macy. 'Speaking oI Sex: Metaphor and PerIormance in the Italian Madrigal. The Journal of Musicology 14
(1996),1-34.

35
Bassano shows a similar approach in his versions of Anchor che col partire. See Bass. 'Rhetoric and Musical
Ornamentography for a more thorough discussion along with transcriptions, 243-255.

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prominent, but the emphasis was more on individual performers than large consorts.
36
Milan was
also one of the first regions that saw a push toward the Baroque form of the solo sonata and
several of the first generation of sonata writers, most famously Giovanni Paolo Cima (c1570-
1630) and Biagio Marini (1584-1663), called Milan home. With this emphasis placed on soloists,
a decidedly more flamboyant brand of ornamentation emerged, and in many ways their
ornamentographs are the most advanced of the entire tradition, being both technically demanding
and cunningly constructed.

As a contrast to Dalla Casa`s examples. the same 18 measures oI Ricardo Rognoni`s
texted superius version of Anchor che col partire, from his Passaggi per potersi (Venice, 1592),
are shown in Example 7.
37
There is a noticeably different approach here and gone is the
alternation between original and Ilorid material. Clearly. the point oI Rognoni`s ornamentograph
is to show a single embellished line to be performed with accompaniment, rather than one that is
meant to be a part of a larger improvisational performance among several musicians.



36
For a general discussion of music in Milan, see Robert Kendrick, The Sounds of Milan, 1585-1650 (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2002), and Christine Suzanne Getz, Music in the Collective Spirit of Sixteenth-Century
Milan (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005).

37
Ricardo Rognoni, Passaggi per potersi essercitare nel diminuire (Venice, 1592), ed. Giuseppe Vecchi, preface by
Bruce Dickey (Bologna: Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002).
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Example 7. Measures 1-18 oI Ricardo Rognoni`s texted superius parts on Anchor che col
partire along with the original part.


It becomes immediately clear that Rognoni`s improvisatory language is more constantly
Ilorid than that oI Dalla Casa`s. and the ornamentation and original are woven into a much more
seamless fabric, although rhetorical considerations still seem to be the driving force. Over the
first 10 measures there is an ebb and flow to the ornamentation, with the most ornate material
occurring in measure 2 (on 'partire. or leaving). in measures 5-6 (on 'senta morire. high-
lighting 'death). and in measure 8 (on the second syllable oI 'vorrei). Beginning in measure 10
is a trend of increasing ornamentation that continues until measure 18. Here too, several smaller
bursts of floridity work to highlight specific rhetorical moments: the activity increases over 'de
la vita (liIe) eases over 'ch`acquisto. and again gets more complicated over 'ritorno (return)
in measure 17, which contains the most florid episode yet. Like Dalla Casa, Rognoni has stayed
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remarkably close to the original pitch structure thus far, leaving it only when inserting the custo-
mary gruppi at cadential points, but the major difference is that in the sections of less activity,
Rognoni dos not return to strict presentations of original material. Measure 15-16 ('ch`aquisto)
is a good example: he uses a dotted quarter note and eighth note rather than the original half
note, which lowers the speed compared to the previous measure and hints at the original
material, but still keeps the overall level of floridity up.

One thing that becomes clear from looking at these versions of Anchor che col partire is
that sixteenth-century improvisers seem to be concerned with the rhetorical effect of
extemporaneously added material. This idea, which transcends individual or regional differences
in style, holds the tradition together and reinforces the notion that musical embellishment was an
intellectual exercise. To see how this occurs in a treatise designed specifically for singing, we
turn to our final examples by Bovicelli.

Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, a singer also active in Milan, published the final proper
manual of ornamentography in the sixteenth century, but outside of this treatise, little is known
about his life or career. It stands to reason, though, that he was a singer of considerable merit
based on accounts from the time by Damiano Scarabelli, vice-maestro di capella at the Milan
Cathedral,
38
and by the complexity of the embellishment in his treatise. This manual, Regole,
passaggi di musica, madrigali et motetti passeggiati (Venice, 1594), is especially important in
the tradition of improvised vocal ornamentation because it is the only one of the century focused
explicitly on singing.
39
Other authors stated that vocalists as well as instrumentalists could use
their manualsthey even included texted examplesbut all of them were professional
instrumentalists and their vocal ornamentographs feel less weighty than the ones intended for
instrumental performance. Bovicelli, however, was a professional singer and clearly meant for
his examples to be sung. In fact, his ornamentographs are so adventurous and take such liberty
with the original material that they have led some scholars to question their musical value;
Alfred Einstein. Ior instance. called them 'monstrous and Brown said that they showed that
'.surely bad taste is not the exclusive property oI the current century.
40


38
This statement appears in Scarabelli`s Liber primus Motectorum (Venice, 1592), see Imogene Horsley.
'Bovicelli. GiovanniBattista. In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/
subscriber/article/grove/music/03748 (accessed July 24, 2009).

39
Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, Regole, passaggi di musica, madrigali, e motetti passeggiati (Venice, 1594), ed.
Nanie Bridgman, Documenta Musicologica 12 (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1957). Also Giovanni Battista Bovicelli,
Regole, passaggi di musica, madrigali et motetti passeggiati (Venice, 1594), in Late Renaissance Singing, ed. and
trans. Edward Foreman (Minneapolis: Pro Musica Press, 2001), 119-212.

40
Alfred Einstein, The Italian Madrigal (Princeton: Princeton Universtiy Press, 1949), II: 840-1, and Brown,
Embellishing 16th-Century Music, 73. As stated earlier, Einstein and Brown lived before a time when performers
had really taken to this repertory, and it is possible that they would have softened their stances on Bovicelli`s
ornamentographs if they had the opportunity to hear such performances, rather than only being able to look at the
music on the page.
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Bovicelli`s work is unique because the maiority oI the pieces he chose Ior models were
sacred pieces, perhaps reflecting his professional life as a cathedral singer. In fact of the eleven
ornamentographs, six are motets (Ave verum corpus by Palestrina, Angelus ad pastores by Rore,
Vadam, et circumibo civitatem [prima and secunda parte] by Toms Luis de Victoria, Domine
speravi and Assumpsit Jesus by Claudio Merulo), three are falsobordones (a Magnificat by
Giulio Cesare Gabussi, a Magnificat, even verses, by Ruggiero Giovanelli, and a Dixit Dominus
by Bovicelli himself), and two are madrigals (Io son ferito ahi lasso by Palestrina, and Anchor
che col partire by Rore). What is even more interesting is that two of the motets are contrafacta
of madrigals by the same composer: Io son ferito ahi lasso and Ave verum corpus by Palestrina
have nearly identical superius parts (a few measures are different, but the overwhelming majority
of material is the same),
41
as do Anchor che col partire and Angelus ad pastores by Rore.
42
This
gives us a unique opportunity to examine Bovicelli`s thinking to see iI diIIerent texts changed his
approach toward embellishment.

Since it has served this study so welland as an homage to its popularity in the sixteenth
centuryexample 8 (next page) shows the first 18 measures of the superius lines of Anchor che
col partire and Angelus ad pastores embellished by Bovicelli, along with the original superius
part from Anchor che col partire. Looking at Anchor che col partire first, the ornamentation
exhibits many of the same characteristics as the versions shown earlier in this paper. Notice that
the most elaborate figures are tied to the most colorful words (reinforcing the double entendres
oI the text): 'morire in measure 6; 'partire in measure 7; 'de la vita in measures 14-15; and
'ritorno in measures 17-18.



41
Ave verum corpus, in fact, may have been given its sacred text by Bovicelli or someone in the Milan cathedral, as
there is no other evidence of the existence of this piece. It is listed in the Grove as a doubtIul or unconIirmed`
motet: Lewis Lockwood, et al. "Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da," Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/20749 (accessed September 23, 2009). A
fragment of a different melody on the same text appeared in the old Palestrina edition of his collected works:
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Vol. xxxi, ed. F.X. Haberl and others (Leipzig, 1907), iii.

42
Angelus ad Pastores is not known outside of the Regole, passaggi di musica and is not listed under Rore`s works
in Grove: Jessie Ann Owens. "Rore, Cipriano de," Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/23815 (accessed September 23, 2009).
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Example 8. Bovicelli`s ornamented superius oI Anchor che col partire and Angelus ad
pastores along with the original superius of Anchor che col partire.







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Example 8. (continued)


Bovicelli`s treatment oI Angelus ad pastores is a bit different, and the placement of the
embellishment shows that the words had a great deal of pull on Bovicelli as he added new
material to the piece. In contrast to Anchor che col partire, notice how the opening three
measures oI the piece ('Angelus ad pastores) are unadorned except Ior a small Iigure on the
penultimate note. Rather than moving to new text for the next phrase as the madrigal does
(measures 4-6). the motet repeats the end oI the previous line. 'ad pastores. Bovicelli used this
repetition as an opportunity to superimpose new material that begins simply in measure 4 and
progresses to a more complex figure in measure 5 that extends the range of the original melody
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before moving closer to it in measure 6. The next phrase in measures 7-10 is similar in that the
motet repeats the words 'anuncio vobis to Iill the same space oI one line oI text in the madrigal
('Partir vorrei ogn` hor ogni momento). This repetition oI text is used as an improvisatory
vehicle here as well, as the initial statement is presented unadorned (measures 7-8), and the
second is embellished (measures 9-10).

The next three musical phrases (measures 10-11, 12-13, and 14-18) all use the same text,
'gaudium magnum. and although measure 18 is maior cadential point Ior both the madrigal and
motet, Bovicelli approaches this point differently in each example. In Anchor che col partire,
measures 10-11 and 12-13 are repeated phrases and Bovicelli treats them like many other
ornamentographers, embellishing the second phrase more than the first. This is followed by the
final phrase in the first sentence (measures 14-18), which is given as the most extravagant
musical passage yet moving to the cadence. In Angelus ad pastores, however, there are three
phrases in a row with the same text, and Bovicelli uses a different approach to increase the level
of improvisatory activity. What he does is to use embellishment to color 'magnum in all three
phrases. Notice that 'gaudium is presented virtually unadorned in measures 10. 12. and 14.
whereas 'magnum is given increasingly extravagant figures in measures 11, 12-13, and 14-18.
In fact, measures 14-18 are more florid than anything found in Anchor che col partire, probably
because here Bovicelli is simply ornamenting one word rather than an entire line of text; it also
highlights the diIIerent rhetorical structure oI the motet (emphasizing 'great). The only real
break in this final florid section is on beat 3 of measure 15, which is probably meant to facilitate
a breath, especially since the word is restated on the following beat. Interestingly, Bovicelli
actually warnedquite vividlyagainst this in his treatise. saying. '.it is a very great Iault not
to ever finish the word, and always repeat the two or three first syllables, as in, for example,
saying, Benedi, Benedictus, similarly to those who have damaged their teeth and many times
masticate the same food before swallowing it.
43
Worrying about the placement of the words is
something that singers had to do in a way that instrumentalists did not. and Bovicelli`s concern
for the integrity of the text is important and, I believe, strengthens the notion that improvisers
were concerned with the rhetorical effect of their ornamentation on a piece of musicat least in
sung performances.

Conclusion
Taking a step back, I believe that the things we see in these manuals can be quite valuable
toward our understanding of improvisatory activity in the sixteenth century. In particular, if we
look at the ornamentographs as things unto themselves and not simply adornments of original

43
Bovicelli, Regole, passaggi di musica, 9 (Foreman translation in Late Renaissance Singing, 132): '.grandissimo
vitio di coloro, I quali non sanno mai finire la parola, e sempre vanno replicando le due tre prime sillabe, come per
essempio. dicendo. Benedi. Benedictus. assomigliandosi a coloro. c`hanno guasti I denti. che piu volte vanno
masticando o stello cibo prima. che l`inghiottiscano.

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pieces, we can see some trends that might help us approach improvising today. One of the most
refreshing realizations is that the training modern improvisers receive might be similar to what
sixteenth-century musicians underwent. Moreover modern approaches toward constructing
improvisations might be applied to older forms as well. The relationship between speed and
organization seen in Ortiz`s manual. I think. is particularly helpIul: it gives a potential improviser
something to concentrate on in the moment rather than trying to recall specific patterns from the
manuals and insert them at appropriate timesor even more dubiously writing them out ahead of
time. To be clear, we should certainly practice and learn the patterns in the tables, but in the
moment of performance, we should think about broader things and let the patterns materialize in
natural ways.

Likewise. Dalla Casa`s examples show Iirst oI all that improvisation was not only a solo
skill (as most of the other ornamentographers would seem to imply) but something done by all
the members of an ensemble, and beyond that they give an idea of how this rather different
practical proposition was carried out. There are some basic tendencies we can follow, i.e. let the
embellishment follow the order of entrances and have the musical material sequence among
voices, but the exciting thing is how reactionary it seems to be. In such situations with well-
trained performers, one can imagine what might come about when players are allowed to follow
their ears and instincts.

A trend seen across the manualsrepresented in this paper with examples of Anchor che
col partire by Dalla Casa, Rognoni, and Bovicelliand one I think that is perhaps the most
useful to us today, is the idea that ornamentation follows the rhetoric of the text and works to
reinforce its underlying meaning, even in purely instrumental situations. This is something we
can run with today: after becoming acquainted with the improvisatory language of the century,
we can approach a performance through the text and allow extemporaneous gestures to color the
words in new ways, maybe even strengthening its rhetorical persuasiveness.

We must remember, though, that these documents are not really improvisations; rather
they are carefully constructedand more or less idealizedrepresentations of how
extemporaneous performances might have taken shape. As a result, they must be viewed with
some level of skepticism. Also, one of the larger problems is that many improvisatory nuances
do not come across in notation, which leaves us with only part of the picture: written-down
Bovicelli and written-down Coltrane alike cannot properly capture all of the intricacies of an
actual improvised performance.

Ultimately, the ornamentographers were not special because they were improvisers; they
were special because they decided to try to write down what they did. Despite whatever
problems we can find in their treatises, their work gives us models we can follow today to train
ourselves to view ornamentation through their eyes. Of course we will never be able to fully
recreate their improvisatory world, but by immersing ourselves in what they left behind and
viewing it from the point of view of improvisers, perhaps we can use our musical instincts to
build new performances with the tools they have supplied.
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Performance Practice Review, Vol. 14 [2009], No. 1, Art. 1
http://scholarship.claremont.edu/ppr/vol14/iss1/1