07-19-2026 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree steverino Posts 401 Joined on 05-23-2009 Post #: 21 Post ID: 29790 Reply to: 29759 Cornetto  Rowuk,  Thanks for mentioning the cornetto. Actually it's a rather odd "brass" instrument since the body was made out of wood.  There is a fine YT performance of 2 of Ludwig Senfl's songs performed by  I Fideli Consort with the high part played on the cornetto. This is one instrument that I would love to see come back to life as the harpsichord did. I understand though that it is a very difficult instrument to play well since it lacks keys and chromatic notes require cross fingerings. But well played it has a lovely unique sound.

07-19-2026 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree rowuk Germany Posts 516 Joined on 07-05-2012 Post #: 22 Post ID: 29791 Reply to: 29790 It is not as hard as some say Actually, the cornetto itself is not that hard to play. The difficulties come from "false expectations". Anything in life that we want to do in a virtuosic way requires the proper foundation. Coming from modern trumpet, clarinet, flute playing however, gives us a distorted sense of intonation for the old music as well as a distorted sense of dynamics. Once we learn to free ourselves of these limitations of our minds, the rest is just dedication. It took me about 2 years to get my brain ready, and then about 6 months of dedicated practice to become fairly proficient. I say fairly, because there is alot more than getting nice tone and the fingerings down. The cornetto was an improvising instrument and the composers did not write out complicated parts, they expected the artist to freely improvise on top of the composed form. In this respect, it is a lot like jazz. The music is basically boring until the artist learns to add the spice. This is a HUGE deal that transcedes most classical training. There are specialized universities where you can learn this stuff and I wish that more classically trained musicians would spend some time there to further grow. Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

07-19-2026 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree steverino Posts 401 Joined on 05-23-2009 Post #: 23 Post ID: 29792 Reply to: 29791 2.5 years flies by I'm glad that it was just an easy peasy 30 months for you. In any event I do wish the cornetto would be re-established as a regular instrument.  A few scores have survived of violinists' ornamented performances from the Baroque era and they are indeed quite a different experience from the basic score the composer left. Back in the day it was expected that the musicians would add to a piece and thus the composers tended to leave off such details. The only Baroque composer I'm familiar with that was obsessive about ornamentation scoring was the keyboard player JH d'Anglebert who had something like 20 different ornaments that he wrote into his pieces. Eduard Melkus the violinist was one of the earliest to learn how to do period ornamentation to Corelli's sonatas back in the 60s and 70s and the difference is striking. Improvisation lasted into the 19th C but gradually stopped because of the Romantic attitudinizing on the composer's mission made the scores sacrosanct. Also composers followed d'Anglebert in writing out every ornamentation and elaboration into the score.

07-19-2026 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree Paul S San Diego, California, USA Posts 2,883 Joined on 10-12-2006 Post #: 24 Post ID: 29793 Reply to: 29792 Mozart? More news to me that the score was not fully worked until the 19th century. What about something like Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A, K622, for example. My (late) friend was ready to talk about this piece at the merest hint of an opportunity, but if he ever mentioned improv, I missed it. Or were we just talking about "Baroque" music as it pushed into the 19 century? Did Mozart also gradually increase his notation over the course of his career? I thought Mozart "had everything worked out in his head" before he wrote it down? Thanks for sharing all this musician stuff! Best regards Paul S