On the Ornamentation of Baroque Music

Abstract

The contrastive mentalities of the two nations represent the generating sources of their music: Italians are extroverted and passionate, used to express their joy and pain directly and spontaneously, whereas the French filter their feelings intellectually. This is the way both contrastive mentalities gave birth to two contrastive styles of musical expression. Italian music is characterised by drama, spontaneity, a fantastic richness of musical forms, and a colourful expression, which also includes bizarre elements. Its opposite, French music, emerged as a reaction to the volcanic music: it is intellectual, aristocratic, and it provides clear musical forms and precise rules for interpretation. These contrastive elements of expression influenced the entire European musical life strongly, and led to a gradual polarisation of baroque music in relation to the two styles.