Protip: Grace Notes

By A-R's house editors

The category of grace notes includes various types of ornamental notation: appoggiaturas, acciaccaturas, coulés, slides, Nachschläge, and many others. While such graces have been notated in various ways throughout the history of Western music, this article will specifically cover those that are commonly notated nowadays using small-sized musical notes placed adjacent to regular-sized notes; guidelines on ornaments indicated with symbols (tr, +, and the like) are covered here.

In general, grace notes are set in reduced size, with stems upward, as in example 1.

Example 1. “Vite, allons à ma toilette!,” mm. 25–29 (chorus and violin 1 parts), from Ohé! les p’tits agneaux: A Parisian revue de fin d’année for 1857, ed. Richard Sherr (N082–83).

As an exception, however, a grace note applying only to the lower layer of a two-part contrapuntal texture may be set with a downward stem (see example 2).

Example 2. Antonio Salieri, “Benedictus,” mm. 11–12 (choir 1 trombone and soprano parts, in C3 and G2 clef, respectively), from Plenary Mass in C with Te Deum, ed. Jane Schatkin Hettrick (C103).

Though most grace notes precede their main note, some may be placed after their main note to function as a Nachschlag, sometimes in conjunction with an ornament mark on the main note (see example 3). Please ensure that the positioning of such notes is clear in your score.

Example 3. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Symphonic Variations on an African Air, Opus 63, m. 575 (strings), ed. John L. Snyder (N043).

Sources vary widely in terms of the rhythmic values used for grace notes, the presence or absence of slashes through the note’s stem(s), and the use of slurs connecting the grace note to its main note. Depending on the period in question and the type of repertoire, these factors may denote differences in execution and thus may be worth retaining in a critical edition, even when they appear inconsistent (see example 5, from an edition of arias ornamented by a mid-nineteenth century operatic singer).

Example 4. John Fane, Lord Burghersh, “Placido zeffiretto,” mm. 34–36, in Songs and Arias Ornamented by Giovanni Battista Velluti, the Last Operatic Castrato, ed. Robert Crowe (N080).

At the same time, inconsistencies are possible in any source (especially in manuscript sources), and editors will need to weigh the question of whether to let those inconsistencies stand or to regularize them. Various possibilities for regularization exist, depending on the prevailing practices of the sources:

• In a source where most grace notes are notated as slashed eighth notes, slashes could be added to those few that have been notated without.
• In a source where most grace notes are slurred to their main notes, slurs could be added to those few that have been notated without (or vice versa if most grace notes are not slurred to their main notes).
• Many sources follow the convention where most grace notes are notated as half the value of the main note (or one-third its value if dotted), not going above a quarter note or below a sixteenth. In such a case, the same practice can be adopted tacitly for the few grace notes not notated this way.
• In sources where most grace notes are shown as eighth notes but sometimes have slashes and sometimes lack them, the slashed eighth notes can be converted to sixteenth notes (as this practice originated as an early form of notation for sixteenth notes).
• Grace notes may be added editorially if the editor deems them helpful in balancing parallel parts or passages. When this is done, the notational presentation of the added grace notes should match the prevailing practice of the source (e.g., if the source uses slashes on grace notes, the added grace notes should have them as well), and they should be placed in brackets, as in example 5.

Example 5. Giuseppe Sarti, “La sposerò, signore,” mm. 94–96, from Arias for Francesco Benucci: Mozart’s First Figaro and Guglielmo, ed. Dorothea Link (C072).

Whatever approach is chosen should be described in the editorial methods. Questions of interpretation and suggested realizations may also be discussed in a “Notes on Performance” section of the introduction (perhaps with notated examples).