Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/208

192 as it were too complaisant, it suits very well everywhere, and on this account is often abused, for many players imagine that the whole grace and beauty of pianoforte-playing consist in making a turn every moment.' Properly introduced, however, it is of the greatest value, both in slow movements, in which it serves to connect and fill up long notes in a melody, and also in rapid tempo and on short notes, where it lends brightness and accent to the phrase.

When the sign stands directly above a note, the four notes of the turn are played rapidly, and, if the written note is a long one, the last of the four is sustained until its duration is completed (Ex. 2); if, however, the written note is too short to admit of this difference, the four notes are made equal (Ex. 3).

When the sign is placed a little to the right of the note, the written note is played first, and the four notes of the turn follow it, all four being of equal length. The exact moment for the commencement of the turn is not fixed; it may be soon after the written note, the four turn-notes being then rather slow (Ex. 4), or later, in which case the turn will be more rapid (Ex. 5). The former rendering is best suited to a slow movement, the latter to one of a livelier character.

Both the turn upon the written note and that which follows it may be expressed in small grace-notes, instead of by the sign. For this purpose the turn upon the note will require three small notes, which are placed before the principal note though played within its value, and the turn after the note will require four (Ex. 6). This method of writing the turn is usually employed in modern music in preference to the sign.

The upper auxiliary note of a turn is always the next degree of the scale above the principal note, and is therefore either a tone or a semitone distant from it, according to the position in the scale held by the written note. Thus, in a turn on the first degree, the upper note is a tone above (Ex. 7), while a turn on the third degree is made with the semitone (Ex. 8). The lower auxiliary note may likewise follow the scale, and may therefore be also either a tone or a semitone from its principal note; but the effect of the smaller distance is as a rule the more agreeable, and it is therefore customary to raise the lower note chromatically, in those cases in which it would naturally be a tone distant from its principal note (Ex. 9).

This alteration of the lower note is in accordance with a rule which governs the use of auxiliary notes in general, but in the construction of both the ordinary turn and the turn of the shake [, vol. iii. p. 483, Ex. 40] the rule is not invariably followed. The case in which it is most strictly observed is when the principal note of the turn is the fifth degree of the scale, yet even here, when it is accompanied by the tonic harmony, an exception is occasionally met with, as in Ex. 10. That Bach did not object to the use of a lower auxiliary note a tone below the principal note is proved by the four semiquavers in the subject of the C♯ major fugue in the Well-tempered Clavier, and by other similar instances. Another and more frequent exception occurs when the upper note is only a semitone above the principal note, in which case the lower note is generally made a tone below (Ex. 11). In the case of a turn on the fifth degree of the minor scale the rule is always observed, and both notes are a semitone distant (Ex. 12). A turn of this kind is termed a chromatic turn, because its notes form part of a chromatic scale.