A bit of a thinkpiece before getting into specific examples...

Unlike the kinds of ornamentation we've discussed so far, free ornamentation involves elaborations and embellishments that cannot be expressed in shorthand symbols...

This post will discuss a few of the other agrèments that you may encounter in the suites. (An agrèment, you will recall, is any one of a number of French ornaments that are expressed in shorthand symbols within a piece of music.)

As promised, our discussion of ornamentation continues—today's post addresses the metered or unmetered execution of trills. As with the starting-note issue and the concept of support, most of what is presented here will be in the form of guidelines as opposed to hard-and-fast rules.

In addition to the starting-note question, there are a couple other characteristics of trills that are worth addressing. This post discusses supported and unsupported trills.

I think it's a good idea to talk about some basics before jumping into the zany, freewheeling world of free ornamentation. Trills are a good place to start, because anyone who plays Bach needs to navigate them...

I've been on a huge lute kick for the past couple of months, and it's informing my Bach performance in a significant way. I've felt for a long time that there is a lot of good stuff that we can borrow from guitarists and lutenists...