Shake (music)
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The trill (or shake, as it was known from the 16th until the early 20th century) is a
musical ornament In music, ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes—typically, added notes—that are not essential to carry the overall line of the melody (or harmony), but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line (or harmony), provide added ...
consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent
notes Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versi ...
, usually a
semitone A semitone, also called a minor second, half step, or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between ...
or
tone Tone may refer to: Visual arts and color-related * Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory * Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color * Toning (coin), color change in coins * ...
apart, which can be identified with the context of the trillTaylor, Eric. ''The AB Guide to Music Theory: Part I'', p. 92. (compare
mordent In music, a mordent is an ornament indicating that the note is to be played with ''a single'' rapid alternation with the note above or below. Like trills, they can be chromatically modified by a small flat, sharp or natural accidental. The ...
and
tremolo In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are multiple types of tremolo: a rapid repetition of a note, an alternation between two different notes, or a variation in volume. Tremolos may be either ''measured'' ...
). It is sometimes referred to by the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
Triller, the
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
trillo, the French trille or the
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
trino. A cadential trill is a trill associated with each
cadence In Classical music, Western musical theory, a cadence () is the end of a Phrase (music), phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution (music), resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don ...
. A groppo or gruppo is a specific type of cadential trill which alternates with the auxiliary note directly above it and ends with a musical turn as additional ornamentation. A trill provides
rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...
ic interest,
melodic A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm, while more figuratively, the term c ...
interest, and—through dissonance
harmonic In physics, acoustics, and telecommunications, a harmonic is a sinusoidal wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the ''fundamental frequency'' of a periodic signal. The fundamental frequency is also called the ''1st har ...
interest. Sometimes it is expected that the trill will end with a
turn To turn is to rotate, either continuously like a wheel turns on its axle, or in a finite motion changing an object's orientation. Turn may also refer to: Sports and games * Turn (game), a segment of a game * Turn (poker), the fourth of five co ...
(by sounding the note below rather than the note above the principal note, immediately before the last sounding of the principal note), or some other variation. Such variations are often marked with a few appoggiaturas following the note bearing the trill indication.


Notation

In most modern
musical notation Musical notation is any system used to visually represent music. Systems of notation generally represent the elements of a piece of music that are considered important for its performance in the context of a given musical tradition. The proce ...
, a trill is generally indicated with the letters (or sometimes simply ) above the trilled note. This has sometimes been followed by a wavy line, and sometimes, in the
baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
and early classical periods, the wavy line was used on its own. In those times the symbol was known as a chevron. The following two notations are equivalent: : Both the "" and the wavy line are necessary for clarity when the trill is expected to be applied to more than one note (or to tied notes). Also, when attached to a single notehead in one part that corresponds to smaller note values in another part, it leaves no room for doubt if both the letter and line are used. The usual way of executing a trill, known as a diatonic trill, is to rapidly alternate between the written note and the one directly above it in the given scale (unless the trill symbol is modified by an accidental, understood to apply to the added note above; this is a chromatic trill). : This is an alternative trill: : These examples are approximations of how trills may be executed. In many cases, the rate of the trill does not remain constant as indicated here, but starts slower and increases. Whether it is played this way or not is largely a matter of taste. The number of alternations between the notes played in a trill can vary according to the length of the notated note. At slower
tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...
s, a written note lasts longer, meaning more notes can be played in the trill applied to it; but at fast tempo and with a short note, a trill may be reduced to nothing more than the indicated note, the note above it, and the indicated note again, in which case it resembles an upper mordent. Trills may also be started on the note above the notated note (the ''auxiliary note''). Additionally, a trill is often ended by playing the note ''below'' the notated one, followed by the note itself.


In specific styles


In baroque music

Hugo Riemann Karl Wilhelm Julius Hugo Riemann (18 July 1849 – 10 July 1919) was a German musicologist and composer who was among the founders of modern musicology. The leading European music scholar of his time, he was active and influential as both a mus ...
described the trill as "the chief and most frequent" of all musical embellishments. In the
baroque period The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (in ...
, a number of signs indicating specific patterns with which a trill should be begun or ended were used. In the ''
Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach ''Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach'' (Bach's original spelling: ''Clavier-Büchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach'') is a collection of Keyboard instrument, keyboard music compiled by the Germany, German Baroque composer Johann Sebasti ...
'',
Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...
lists a number of these signs together with the correct way to interpret them. Unless one of these specific signs is indicated, the details of how to play the trill are up to the performer. In general, however, trills in this era are executed beginning on the auxiliary note, before the written note, often producing the effect of a harmonic
suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Car suspension * Cell suspension or suspension culture, in biology * Guarded suspension, a software design pattern in concurrent programming suspending a method call and the calling ...
which resolves to the principal note. But, if the note preceding the ornamented note is itself one scale degree above the principal note, then the dissonant note has already been stated, and the trill typically starts on the principal note. Several trill symbols and techniques common in the Baroque and early Classical era have fallen entirely out of use, including for instance the brief ''Pralltriller'', represented by a very brief wavy line, referred to by
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German composer and musician of the Baroque and Classical period. He was the fifth ch ...
in his ''Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments'' (''Versuch'') (1753–1762). Beyond the baroque era, specific signs for ornamentation are very rare. Continuing through the time of Mozart, the default expectations for the interpretation of trills continued to be similar to those of the baroque. In music after the time of Mozart, the trill usually begins on the principal note. All of these are only rules of thumb, and, together with the overall rate of the trill and whether that rate is constant or variable, can only be determined by considering the context in which the trill appears, and is usually to a large degree a matter of opinion with no single "right" way of executing the ornament.


On specific instruments

The trill is frequently found in classical music for all instruments, although it is more easily executed on some than others. For example, while it is relatively easy to produce a trill on the
flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
, the proper execution on
brass instruments A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. The term ''labrosone'', from Latin elements meaning "lip" and "sound", ...
requires higher skill and is produced by quickly alternating partials. While playing a trill on the piano the pianist may find that it becomes increasingly difficult to execute a trill including the weak fingers of the hand (3, 4 and 5), with a trill consisting of 4 and 5 being the hardest. On the
guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...
, a trill can be either a series of
hammer-on A hammer-on is a playing technique performed on a stringed instrument (especially on a fretted string instrument, such as a guitar) by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on to the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound. Thi ...
s and
pull-off A pull-off is a stringed instrument playing and articulation technique performed by plucking or "pulling" the finger that is grasping the sounding part of a string off the fingerboard of either a fretted or unfretted instrument. This intermediate ...
s (generally executed using just the fingers of the fretting hand, but players can use both hands), or a rapidly plucked pair of notes on adjacent strings, known as a cross-string trill. Trill keys are used to rapidly alternate between a note and an adjacent note often in another register on
woodwind instrument Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and ...
s. On the bowed instruments, the violin and the viola in particular, the trill is relatively easy to execute, with a straightforward bowing and the trill involving the oscillation of just one finger against the main note which is stopped by the finger behind, or more rarely, the open string.


On brass instruments

Trills may be performed on valveless
brass instrument A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by Sympathetic resonance, sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. The term ''labrosone'', from Latin elements meani ...
s by rapidly slurring between two adjacent notes by means of the
embouchure Embouchure () or lipping is the use of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, and teeth in playing a wind instrument. This includes shaping the lips to the mouthpiece (woodwind), mouthpiece of a woodwind or brass instrument. The word is of French lan ...
– this is colloquially known as a "lip trill." This was a common practice on the
natural trumpet A natural trumpet is a valveless brass instrument that is able to play the notes of the harmonic series. History :''See: Clarion'' The natural trumpet was used as a military instrument to facilitate communication (e.g. break camp, retreat, e ...
s and
natural horn The natural horn is a musical instrument that is the predecessor to the modern-day (French) horn (differentiated by its lack of valves). Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the natural horn evolved as a separation from the tr ...
s of the
Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
/ Classical era. However the lip trill is often still used in the modern
French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...
in places where the
harmonics In physics, acoustics, and telecommunications, a harmonic is a sinusoidal wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the ''fundamental frequency'' of a periodic signal. The fundamental frequency is also called the ''1st harm ...
are only a
tone Tone may refer to: Visual arts and color-related * Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory * Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color * Toning (coin), color change in coins * ...
apart (though this can be difficult for inexperienced players). Such trills are also a stylistic feature of
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
music, particularly in trumpet parts.


Vocal trills

Vocal music of the classical tradition has included a variety of ornaments known as trills since the time of
Giulio Caccini Giulio Romolo Caccini (also Giulio Romano) (8 October 1551 – buried 10 December 1618) was an Italian composer, teacher, singer, instrumentalist and writer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was one of the founders of the genre o ...
. In the preface to his
Le nuove musiche ''Le nuove musiche'' ("The New Musics") is a collection of monodies and songs for solo voice and basso continuo by the composer Giulio Caccini, published in Florence in July 1602. It is one of the earliest and most significant examples of music w ...
, he describes both the "shake" (what is commonly known today as the trill) and the "trill" (now often called a Baroque or Monteverdi trill). However, by the time of the Italian
bel canto , )—with several similar constructions (, , , pronounced in English as )—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing, and whose definitions have often been misunderstood. ''Bel canto'' was not only seen as a vocal technique ...
composers such as
Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano p ...
,
Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera ...
and Bellini, the rapid alternation between two notes that Caccini describes as a shake was known as a trill and was preferred. Coloratura singers, particularly the high-voiced sopranos and tenors, are frequently required to trill not only in the works of these composers but in much of their repertoire. Soprano
Dame Joan Sutherland Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s to the 1980s. She possessed a voic ...
was particularly famed for the evenness and rapidity of her trill, and stated in an interview that she "never really had to learn how to trill". The trill is usually a feature of an ornamented solo line, but choral or chorus trills do appear. Despite the trill being written in many works for voice, a singer with an even, rapid trill is a rarity. Opinion is divided as to if and how well a trill can be taught or learnt, though mezzo-soprano
Marilyn Horne Marilyn Berneice Horne (born January 16, 1934) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages. She is a recipient ...
frequently stated that she gained her trill by a commonly taught exercise, alternating between two notes, starting slowly and increasing velocity over time. The director of the
Rossini Opera Festival The Rossini Opera Festival (ROF) is an international music festival held in August of each year in Pesaro, Italy, the birthplace of the opera composer Gioachino Rossini. Its aim, in addition to studying the musical heritage of the composer, is to re ...
,
Alberto Zedda Alberto Zedda (2 January 19286 March 2017) was an Italian conductor and musicologist whose specialty was the 19th-century Italian repertoire. Alberto Zedda was born in Milan, Italy, where he accomplished his education in music and humanities, comp ...
has opined in interview that the "widespread technical deficiency", the inability to trill, is a source of "frustration and anguish". In fact, whole performances and recordings, especially of bel canto works, have been judged based on performance—or lack thereof—of trills, especially trills written ''in the score'' as opposed to trills in a cadenza or variation.


Trillo

The word ''trillo'' is sometimes used to mean the same as trill. However, in
early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750) or Ancient music (before 500 AD). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad Dates of classical ...
some refer to a related ornament specifically called ''trillo'':
Montserrat Caballé María de Montserrat Bibiana Concepción Caballé i Folch or Folc (12 April 1933 – 6 October 2018), also known as Montserrat Caballé (i Folch), was a Spanish operatic soprano from Catalonia. Widely considered to be one of the best sopranos ...
was a known exponent of the ''trillo'', as can be heard from her famous 1974 ''
Norma Norma may refer to: * Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) ** Norma Lizbeth Ramos, a Mexican bullying victim Astronomy *Norma (constellation) * 555 Norma, a minor asteroid * Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral ...
''.


See also

* Blind octave *
List of ornaments Ornaments are a decorative embellishment to music, either to a melody or to an accompaniment part such as a bassline or chord. Sometimes different symbols represent the same ornament, or vice versa. Different ornament names can refer to an ornam ...
*
Ululation Ululation (, ), trilling or lele, is a long, wavering, high-pitched vocal sound resembling a Howl (sound), howl with a Trill (music), trilling quality. It is produced by emitting a high pitched loud voice accompanied with a rapid back and forth mov ...


Footnotes


References

* Taylor, Eric. ''"The AB Guide to Music Theory: Part I"'', England: The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (Publishing) Ltd., 1989. * Taylor, Franklin ''"Bach: Short Preludes & Fugues"'', London, England: Augener Ltd., 1913. No. 8020a
The Trill in the Classical Period (1750–1820)


External links



''WFG.Woodwind.Org''.

''WFG.Woodwind.Org''.

''WFG.Woodwind.Org''.

''WFG.Woodwind.Org''.

''WFG.Woodwind.Org''.

''WFG.Woodwind.Org''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Trill (Music) Opera terminology Ornamentation it:Abbellimento#Trillo