Trill (music)

Figure no. Trino.
Play a short passage that is first interpreted with trine and then without trine. (?·i)

The trill is a musical ornament consisting of an alternation between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be identified by the context of the trill. Other languages use terms such as trill in English, trillo in Italian, trille in French and triller in German.. (Attention: it is done respecting the key signature) The speed of the alternation depends on the character of the music that carries it.

Representation on the staff

This musical ornament is represented in scores and scores by the letters tr, or just with a t, located above the note that is considered the main note in this trill. Sometimes such letters tr have been followed by a wavy line and it has even been represented directly by the wavy line without the letters, especially in Baroque music and early Classicism. The length of the wavy line normally denotes the amount of time to hold the trill. However, both signs, the letters tr and the wavy line, are necessary to clarify the meaning of the trill when it is applied to more than one note or to linked notes. Likewise, there will be no doubt if both signs are used when the trill is associated with a single musical figure or note head in one part, which corresponds to figures of shorter values in another part.

Figure 2. Various trine notation options.

The trill sign can affect two notes simultaneously. In this case, the double trills of thirds and sixths or octaves are executed in parallel. When there are two voices or parts on a single staff and a trill needs to be indicated in the lower voice, the trill sign is placed below the note. In the event that the auxiliary note of the trill requires an accidental, a small accidental sign is used together with the trill sign to represent it.

Different uses and effects

The execution of a trill consists of rapidly alternating both notes involved, that is, the main note that appears in the score and the auxiliary note, which would be the natural note immediately higher in the diatonic scale depending on the tonality in which the passage is. Thus, the interval between the main note and the auxiliary note will depend on the key signature, unless it is expressly indicated in the trill sign that it must be interpreted with an accidental on the auxiliary note.

Types

The way of interpreting trills has changed over time, giving rise to the following types of trills:

• Direct dial: is the one who begins and ends with the main note, except when the next note is of equal name and sound. This is the most common type currently.
• Triune invested: is the one that starts with the upper auxiliary note and ends with the main note. He was the most common in the Baroque and the principles of Classicism.
• Trine with preparation: is the one that precedes a group of notes among which there is one that is neither the main note nor the auxiliary and ends with the main note. In interpreting it, such notes should be included within the trine measure. In the Baroque the preparation was indicated by a curved line prior to the undulating line. Preparation can be upward or downward, which is represented by the shape of the curved line or with a series of supports before the note that carries the trine indication. This results in the following trine subtypes:
  • Upward Triune: if the preparation consists of two notes that ascend by joint grades to the main note.
  • Triune descendant: if the preparation consists of two notes that descend by joint grades to the main note.

In both cases, the first of the two notes coincides with the pulse and both the preparation notes and those that form the trine present the same duration.

• Triune with resolution: is the one who ends with a group of notes among which there is one that is neither the main note nor the auxiliary. As in the previous case, such notes are included within the number of fuse required for their execution. In the Baroque there was a single type of resolution that the last alternation was not between the main note and the upper one but between the main and the lower one. In this way, the end of the trine resembles another type of musical ornament called the rumpet. In the scores it was represented by a curved line at the end of the trine sign, being in this case indifferent the form of that line since there was only one possible resolution. It could also be pointed out by a few supports following the trine indication note.
• Triune with preparation and resolution: is the one who brings together the characteristics of both types.
• Cadential TriuneHe is the one who is associated with a cadence.

Figure 3. Trinx execution starting in the main note. Direct trine. Play (?·i)

Figure 4. Trinx execution starting in the auxiliary note. Inverse and resolute trine. Play (?·i)

This embellishment is often used to emphasize a long note, but can also be associated with smaller values. Trills on short notes are usually equivalent to a upper mordant, also called a semitrino. When the tempo is fast and the note is short, the trill may be reduced to playing the main note, the top note, and the main note again, with no time for further alternations. Consequently, the number The total number of notes that make up a trill will depend on the tempo of the piece, the musical figure to which it is applied, and the way the performer plays or sings it. In any case, the truth is that usually this alternation between notes is not measured, it does not follow a regular and stipulated rhythm. In fact, sometimes it happens that the speed in the alternation of notes varies throughout the duration of the trill, usually in the sense of speeding up.

The various variants in the way of interpreting a trill end up being, ultimately, a matter of both personal taste and approximation to the way in which it should have been interpreted in the historical and cultural context in which the music was created. Studying him always represents a great challenge for performers, since it requires a mixture of relaxation and very determined speed. As they say "the execution of the trill is the mirror of the instrumentalist's technique".

Interpretive techniques

	Trinos in a fagot
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The trill appears frequently in classical music written for all instruments, though it is easier to play on some than others.

• On the piano a trine is relatively easy to produce. While the pianist will find it more difficult to execute the trine when it involves the weak fingers of the hand (in digitation 3, 4 and 5), being the trine formed by the fingers 4 and 5 the most complex.
• In the metal wind instruments an appropriate execution requires greater skill and is produced by the rapid alternation of harmonics.
• In instruments such as the transvender flute and the oboe, two trine keys are used to quickly alternate between two adjacent notes.
• In the clarinet, the trinos through the so-called break between records are very difficult and often found in virtuosistic literature.
• On the guitar, a trine is a series of hammer-ons and pull-offs, which is usually executed using only the fingers of the hand of the frets, but can be used both hands.
• In the rugged string instruments, the violin and rapes it in particular, the trine is relatively easy to execute. It consists of a direct arch movement accompanied by a single finger oscillation against the main note that is stopped by the back finger, or more rarely, the air rope.

In vocal music

Vocal music in the classical tradition has included a variety of embellishments known as trills since the time of Giulio Caccini. In the preface to his work Le nuove musiche, he describes both the “shake” (shake) (what is commonly known today as the trill) and the “trill” (now often called the baroque or Monteverdi trill). However, in the days of Italian bel canto composers such as Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini, the rapid alternation between two notes that Caccini describes as "shaking", was preferred and known as a "trill".

Coloratura singers, particularly high soprano and tenor voices, are frequently required to perform trills not only in the works of these composers, but in much of their repertoire. Soprano Joan Sutherland was particularly famous for the regularity and rapidity of her trill, and she never really had to learn how to "trill"; as she stated in an interview, the trill is usually a feature of a graceful solo line, but there are choral trills or the chorus, most notably in the triumphal scene of the second act of Verdi's Aida.

Although trills have been included in a large number of pieces of vocal music, it is a rarity to find a singer with a fast trill. Opinions are divided as to whether a trill can be taught or learned properly, although mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne frequently claimed that she achieved her trill by a commonly taught exercise, alternating between two notes, starting slowly. and increasing speed over time. The director of the Rossini Opera Festival, Alberto Zedda, in an interview spoke about a "generalized technical deficiency", the inability to perform trills, constituting a source of "anguish and frustration".

In wind instruments (brass)

Trills can be played on a tubeless brass instrument by quickly slurring two adjacent notes across the embouchure - this is colloquially known as a "lip trill". This was common practice on trumpets and natural horns of the Baroque/Classical period. In any case, the "lip trill" it is often still used on the modern horn in places where the harmonics are only a tone away (although this can be difficult for inexperienced players). Such trills are also a stylistic feature of jazz music, particularly in the trumpet parts.

History

Three classes of trills can be distinguished according to the context of the interpretation:

• The baroque or trine invested, which is interpreted starting with the upper auxiliary note, that is, as if there was a backrest before.
• The classic or direct trine, which is interpreted starting with the main note.
• The romantic, which is interpreted in such a way that at first the notes are not very followed but later interpreted continuously.

Baroque

Figure 5. Table showing how to perform different types of trines when playing baroque music (1600-1750). Note the similarity between the sign of trine and that of mordente.
She was introduced by Bach in her little book by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. The original is Baroque Trill Instructions.png.

In the music of the Baroque they used a series of specific signs that allowed explaining various patterns of beginnings and endings of the trills. of this class of signs and proposes the correct way to resolve them. The interpretation of the trill was left to the interpreter, as long as there were none of these specific signs. However, trills often began on the auxiliary or higher note, producing a suspended harmonic effect that resolved after a moment to the main note. Although, at this time the trill began on the main note when the note immediately before the trill was the highest, since the suspension effect had already occurred just before.

The various specific signs for trills and techniques that were common in the Baroque and early Classical periods have fallen completely out of use. For example, the short Pralltriller represented by a very short wavy line, which is mentioned by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in his Essay on the true art of playing keyboard instruments (1753-1762).

"The taste for cadences (such as the taste for sequences), and with them the obligation to carry their implicit cadences, was... rooting in the musicians of the baroque... For those who do not like cadences, sequences and cadenceal trims, baroque music is not the scene. » -

Classicism

In Classicism when there was no specific indication about the trill, what was expected of the performer was essentially similar to what was expected in the Baroque. Over time all the trills began to start on the main note.

Romanticism

In the 19th century, the trill progressively lost its character as an appoggiatura, becoming a virtuoso timbre of the main note, which is the one that initiates the trill. Frequently the corresponding appoggiatura that indicates it is written.