Ornamentation Question

[George K]

I'm noodling around with the Bach Bb Partita #1.

In the first measure, there's a trill on the 2nd Bb.

I assume that

1. I start ON the beat
2. Start the trill on C
3. Next note is a Bb
4. Back up to C
5. Down to Bb
6. Down to A

Did I get that right?

This guy plays C, then Bb then C. It's almost as though he's using the C as a grace note. Play it at half speed and you'll see what I mean.

Link to video

[Axtremus]

That YouTube plays it like a turn rather than a modern.

My take: your ways looks pretty good to me (I would likely do that myself), but more generally I would say play whichever way manageable by and sounds good to you. It’s Bach, it’s baroque, they improvised and played things many ways and took many liberties with ornamentations back then. If the baroque musicians could take liberties with ornamentations, so can you.

[George K]

@Axtremus said in Ornamentation Question:

That YouTube plays it like a turn rather than a modern.

In the score it's not a mordent, it's a trill.

My take: your ways looks pretty good to me (I would likely do that myself), but more generally I would say play whichever way manageable by and sounds good to you. It’s Bach, it’s baroque, they improvised and played things many ways and took many liberties with ornamentations back then. If the baroque musicians could take liberties with ornamentations, so can you.

Agreed. As long as I don't use any pedal, right?