Work
sundry good
for string quartet
Films, Audio & Samples
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About
What became of the ornament? Once a means of sustaining pitches quickly lost on early instruments (and also perhaps a sonic portrayal of the swirling details found in contemporary fine arts and architecture), the ornament transformed from the trills and turns of the Baroque and Classical into the right-hand cadenzas of Chopin and his ilk - great swarms of those little notes that make otherwise navigable works nightmarish for the average pianist. What happened to the ornament after the Romantics? Perhaps it was replaced by other means of prolongation and embellishment. Perhaps, in a sense, the more weapons-grade music of the present is pure ornament.
On the use of ornaments in the music of his day, Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) is said to have commented on musicians’ “sundry good and merry pranks with little runs and leaps”.
Commissioned note
Commissioned by STROMA with funding from Creative New Zealand
Contents note
Single movement
Performance history
18 Jun 2014: The Mirror of Time 3 | Stroma (Auckland)
26 Jun 2014: The Mirror of Time 3 | Stroma (Wellington)