According to Thomas Mace, ornamentation is “the adorning of your play” and the “beautifying and painting of your fabric.”[1] To play a piece as it is written on the page, without ornamentation, would have probably been uncommon in the 16th and 17th century. Whilst ornamentation is a huge topic, with many topics and variations, today we are focusing on ornaments that modify individual notes, known as '‘graces’. Graces were used by Renaissance musicians to add interest, humour, or character to their playing. There were many to chose from, as Thomas Mace lists fifteen different graces “which we must commonly use upon the lute.”[2]
Of these fifteen ornaments, the ones most commonly used by modern HIP lutenists are described below. These graces are marked by their French symbols in Mace’s examples, but many of these graces were used by Dowland and the English lute composers. In most of the key English tablatures, such as the Board Lute Book, Pickeringe, and Holmes, the primary ornaments used were falls, trills, mordents and back-falls.
1. The Soft and Loud Play
Mace describes that “[the soft loud play] (which I (my self) only call a grace; because no master ever yet (as I can find) directed it, as a grace, but myself) is to play some of the lesson loud, and some part soft; which gives more grace and lustre to play, than any other grace whatsoever: Therefore I commend it as principal and chief ornamental grace (in its proper place).”[3]
2. The Shake
Open: an open string is plucked and ‘hammered’ once (or as many times as is required) by the index finger on the first or second fret. In this case the open string is the tonic note, and therefore must be the last note played.
Stopped: this is the same as the open shake. However, the first note plucked is a fretted note and is hammered with the second or third finger on a sequential fret.
3. Half Fall (or Single Fall)
The half fall is essentially a slur to the tonic note from a semitone below the tonic note. It is not shaked (therefore there are only two notes in the grace).
4. The Whole fall (or Double Fall)
Mace suggest that the whole fall was much out of use by the late 17th century but “it is good, and handsome, and may give delight.”[4] It is similar to the half fall but requires two (diatonic) notes to be played before reaching the ‘true’ note. For instance, to ornament the note ‘c’ (not the fret c) one would play ‘a’ and ‘b’ before landing on ‘c’.
5. The Backfall
The backfall is used often in modern recordings and involves playing a note either a tone or semitone above the true note and ‘pulling off’ onto the tonic note. This can be repeated to create a shaked backfall or left plain with only one pull-off.
6. The Beat
The beat is also commonly used by lutenists today. One plucks a starting note, pulls off to a lower note (either a tone or semitone depending on the key) and then hammers back on to the starting note. Mace stresses the importance of playing this last note loud enough to “be eminently heard [as] the very last [note]”, he goes on to say whatever your grace, you must in your fare-well express the true note perfectly, or else your pretended grace will prove a disgrace.”[5]
7. The Slur
Essentially, this is a hammer-on from one note to another.
8. The Slide
This is the opposite of the slur, or a pull-off from one note to another.
9. The Sting
The sting was an ornament that appears to have been popular in the 16th century. By the time Mace and The Burwell Lute Tutor are writing about ornaments “the sting is no more in use.”[6] But according to Mace, “for some sorts of humours, [it is] very excellent.”[7] To perform the sting one must producing a rather wide and obvious vibrato “to make the sound seem to swell with pretty unexpected humour.”[8]
Many of these same ornaments are discussed by The Burwell Lute Tutor, who cautions that “all these things must be done without losing the measure and with moderation, and not so often as it may be loathsome to the ear.”[9]
[1] Mace, "Musick's Monument," 102.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid., 110.
[4] Ibid., 105.
[5] Ibid., 109.
[6] Rogers and Burwell, The Burwell Lute Tutor, 36.
[7] Mace, "Musick's Monument." P. 109
[8] Ibid.
[9] Rogers and Burwell, The Burwell Lute Tutor, 36.