Diversity Of Paraphrase Of Ornamentation In The Keyboard Works Of Bach

Ornamentation is an important section for piano performance. It is one of basic conditions for piano players to find a suitable way of playing the ornament concerned. There are plentiful and grazioso ornamentations in Bach's keyboard works. Since Baroque metaphase is near 300 years ago and ambiguous symbols were used in Bach's keyboard works, the meaning of ornamentation symbols have raised many speculations and theories about their proper interpretation, even caused debate in the music community for a long time. In this paper, we study on the diversity of paraphrase of ornamentation in some Bach's keyboard works. Several typical cases were classified their features. We pointed out ornamentation in Bach's music is not some stiff and restrictive things since musical notation is the representation of a dynamic process. To understand and interpret the notation properly, it is necessary to comprehend the background knowledge such as society, history, esthetics, version, development of piano performance, and playing style. Therefore, it is very limited value to discuss Bach's ornament signs away from articulation and figural considerations. The author has made an effort to provide some helpful and feasible theoretical bases. It is suggested that musicianship is necessary to objectively and thoroughly understand Bach's ornamentation in the appropriate music and culture styles.