ORNAMENTATION
ORNAMENTATION is relatively short melodical combination of sounds to decorate the melody, make it more expressive, show the skills of a musician. O. includes melismas, tirades, passages, coloraturas, glosses, fiurituras, figurations. O. can be written in notes or marked by the signs of melismatics (forschlags, trills, mordents, groupetto). Bashkir O. in a number of cases can be compared with Italian fiorituras (virtuous, technically difficult passages and melismas in vocal part) and tirades (ornamentation with melodic course structure), or Spanish glosses (rhythmically clear and melodically variable ornamentations), but in contrast to their virtuous and abstract nature, it is based on a certain meaning and stands more separate as a result of the performer’s mastery, kuray playing and regional traditions of playing. The Tatar culture of O. is close to the Bashkir one, but it is less expressive and smaller ambitus of decorative texture which is mostly connected with vocal tradition (“Tazkira”, “Cold spring”, “Zilaylyuk”). The improvised manner of certain Bashkir melodies and naigryshes (“My moth”, “Alluki”, “Friday”) often can be differentiated only by listening method. Russian O. can be noticed in intrasyllabic chant and sub-vocalization of long songs to a certain degree. O. of peoples from the Ural and Volga regions (Maris, Chuvashes, Udmurts) is mainly connected with vibration. Bashkir ornamental melodies develops according to the tradition of monodic structure of solo and ensemble heterophony. It is most illustrated by the quaray and accordion playing.
Common semiography helps to understand the sound of ornamental elements only relatively as it shows the peculiarities only partly. The most frequent melismas in playing the guitar are: forschlags of one or several sounds, which are typically produced with agogic (deviation of a real sound duration and pauses from those registered in the sheets, e.g. “Buranbay”, “Zyulkhizya”, “Sibay”, “Ural”, etc.); fermata is a prolongation of a sound or a pause; its articulation-dash differentiation is seen in naigryshes with high and moderate tempo in order to distinguish climax and basis points (contrast articulation is strengthened by the ornamentation and free rhythmic division of the triplets and longer; “Gulnazira”, “Baik”).
Instrumental O. can be used as an onomatopoeia in a number of cases (crane cries, sulpa’s ring). Traditional types of O. are reflected in art of the bayanists M.I. Gaynetdinov, R.A. Faskhitdinov, F.K. Sharafullin, etc. Composers, teachers and performers of academic style simplify and standardize free improvisational ornamentation with common signs to distinguish the decorations and general melody, sometimes by using different sizes.
R.G. Rakhimov
