Learn to Play Recorder

Lesson 48: Baroque Ornamentation Practice — Port de Voix, Coulé, Mordent, Turn

  • Add a port de voix (rising appoggiatura) and a coulé (falling appoggiatura) at the moments the melodic line invites.
  • Place a mordent or a turn at a cadence without disrupting the underlying pulse.

For the Baroque player, the ornaments are not decoration. They are the punctuation of the line.

Four small ornaments cover most Baroque needs: the port de voix (a leading-tone appoggiatura from below), the coulé (a falling appoggiatura from above), the mordent (a brief dip to the lower neighbour and back), and the turn (a four-note circling figure). Each has a defined shape and a defined home. Learn them in isolation; then put them back where they belong.

Port de voix — leaning up from below

A small note from the step below, lightly tongued, resolves onto the written note on the beat. Use it whenever a melody steps up onto a strong beat — especially the leading tone resolving to the tonic.

Light tongue on the small note; full weight on the resolution.

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Coulé — sliding down from above

The coulé is the descending mirror of the port de voix: an upper neighbour leans down into the written note. It softens a descending phrase, suggesting a sigh.

Stay light; the resolution carries the weight.

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Mordent — a brief dip below

The mordent is three notes in the time of one: written note, lower neighbour, written note. Use it at the start of a sustained note, not on every passing eighth.

Dip rapidly at the attack, then sustain the A.

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Turn — circling the note

The turn is four notes: upper neighbour, written note, lower neighbour, written note. It lives at the end of a sustained note (as a release into the next), not at the attack.

Hold the half note, then turn into the next note.

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Play: a plain Telemann phrase, ornamented

Play this phrase twice: first as written, then adding ornaments wherever the line invites them. The marked-in version below is one possible reading.

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Port de voix into the C in bar 1; mordent on the D in bar 2; turn around the A in bar 4.

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Now play these

Telemann: Six Sonatas, TWV 40:103 (complete)
Mark up your own ornaments in the slow movements.
Handel: Sonata in C major, HWV 365 (Larghetto)
Add one port de voix and one mordent per phrase.
Loeillet: Sonata in D minor, Op. 1 No. 1
Cadences want turns; rising lines want ports de voix.

When you can mark up an unornamented Baroque slow movement, choose two ornaments per phrase, and play your ornamented version three times in a row without the underlying pulse drifting, move on to Lesson 49.