The trill (or shake, as it was known from the 16th
until the 19th century) is a musical ornament
consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent
notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be
identified with the context of the trill. It is
sometimes referred to by the German triller, the
Italian trillo, the French trille or the Spanish trino.
A cadential trill is a trill associated with a
cadence.
In the baroque period, a number of signs indicating
specific patterns with ...(+)
The trill (or shake, as it was known from the 16th
until the 19th century) is a musical ornament
consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent
notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be
identified with the context of the trill. It is
sometimes referred to by the German triller, the
Italian trillo, the French trille or the Spanish trino.
A cadential trill is a trill associated with a
cadence.
In the baroque period, a number of signs indicating
specific patterns with which a trill should be begun or
ended were used. In the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm
Friedemann Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach lists a number
of these signs together with the correct way to
interpret them. Unless one of these specific signs is
indicated, the details of how to play the trill are up
to the performer. In general, however, trills in this
period are executed beginning on the auxiliary note,
before the written note, often producing the effect of
a harmonic suspension which resolves to the principal
note. But, if the note preceding the ornamented note is
itself one scale degree above the principal note, then
the dissonant note has already been stated, and the
trill typically starts on the principal note.
Several trill symbols and techniques common in the
Baroque and early Classical period have fallen entirely
out of use, including for instance the brief
Pralltriller, represented by a very brief wavy line,
referred to by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in his Essay
on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments
(Versuch) (1753?1762).
Beyond the baroque period, specific signs for
ornamentation are very rare. Continuing through the
time of Mozart, the default expectations for the
interpretation of trills continued to be similar to
those of the baroque. In music after the time of
Mozart, the trill usually begins on the principal
note.
All of these are only rules of thumb, and, together
with the overall rate of the trill and whether that
rate is constant or variable, can only be determined by
considering the context in which the trill appears, and
is usually to a large degree a matter of opinion with
no single "right" way of executing the ornament.
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