Types of grace notes include:
|
The upper mordent is indicated by a short squiggle; the lower mordent is the same with a short vertical line through it:
As with the trill, the exact speed with which the mordent is performed will vary according to the tempo of the piece, but at moderate tempi the above might be executed as follows:
It should be noted that in the Baroque period, a Mordant (the German equivalent of mordent) was what later came to be called an inverted mordent and what is now often called a lower mordent. In the 19th century, however, the name mordent was generally applied to what is now called the upper mordent. This confusion over the meaning of the unadorned word mordent is what has led to the modern terms upper and lower mordent being used rather than mordent and inverted mordent.
Although mordents are now thought of as just a single alteration between notes, in the Baroque period it appears that a Mordant may sometimes have been executed with more than one alteration between the indicated note and the note below, making it a sort of inverted trill.
If the turn symbol is placed directly above a note, it is performed exactly as outlined above. If it is placed between two notes, however, the note before the symbol is played, then the turn, and then the following note. So the following turns:
might be executed like this:
The exact speed at which the notes of a turn are played can vary, as can its rhythm. The question of how a turn is best executed is largely one of context, convention and taste.
The acciaccatura is written as a note of smaller size, with a diagonal bar through the stem:
The exact interpreation of this will vary according to the tempo of the piece, but the following is possible:
Some pianists play both the acciaccatura and the main note simultaneously, releasing the grace note immediately.
The term "grace note" is sometimes used to mean specifically an acciaccatura. However, some people distinguish between the two by saying that an acciaccatura is played on the beat, while a true grace note is played slightly before the beat. Both are notated in the same way, and knowing when to play the note is largely a matter of style, although sometimes a grace note will be notated in the bar preceeding the note to which it is attached, showing it is to be played before the beat.
The appoggiatura is written as a note of smaller size, like the acciaccatura but without the bar:
This would be executed as follows:
Musicians' mnemonic: the appoggiatura is longer than the acciaccatura because it is podgy.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump