I’ve just come back from a whistle workshop led by someone well respected in ITM circles. At one point he showed us an ornament which he called a “turn” (I should point out here he also has a classical training as well as ITM) which I didn’t fully get down at the time but I didn’t want to slow up the class and now I can’t find anything on it. Basically, it was an ornament used to move between a longish note (let’s say D) and the note immediately below (C sharp) when it follows in a tune, mainly in slow airs. As I recall it involves going up a note before coming down again and I’d gotten the idea it was like a lengthened cut or a tailless roll. Can anyone help me on this please to understand what it was and how to play it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornament_(music)
scroll down a bit…also look at mordent (what’s right before turn)
Thanks Denny. I actually checked those out and don’t know that they describe what he was doing.
Was he maybe describing a cran?
No, it wasn’t a crann. I think in going from a long D to a C he simply inserted another E & D between them if I recall correctly. A classical music turn would appear to be more like a long roll. It’s interesting that abc notation does include notation for a turn but without saying what it is. I think it must be what I describe above, or else it would need to be E,D,C D in between which is too long and, as I say, more like a roll.
What yer man is describing is definitely not a turn. If you had to put a classical/baroque name to it, it would be a double (two note) acciacatura that steals time mostly from the preceding note. His calling the ornament something that it’s not (a turn) is just bad (or at least sloppy) pedagogy.
Hi MTGuru. What would a “turn” look like then in relations to connecting two descending notes, the first perhaps longer? And can you think of an ornament used in ITM music, mainly airs, to do the same thing, connect those two descending notes with a "twiddly " bit.
Given your original example (D falling to C#), a turn would normally go E D C# D C# or D E D C# D C# (depending on period/context etc.) but more evenly than a roll (ie not cutting and striking the main note with much shorter ones).