the.com/ornamentation
The art of proving you could play the simple version, but won't.
means The decorative flourishes and embellishments added to something — music, writing, architecture — beyond its basic functional form.
from From Latin 'ornamentum' (equipment, adornment, embellishment), built from 'ornare' (to equip, decorate, or adorn), which also gave us 'adorn' and 'ornate'. The Latin root carried a double sense from the start: to ornament something was both to decorate it and to properly equip or fit it out — a reminder that in the Roman mind, decoration and function weren't always so far apart.
- baroque habit
- trills existed partly to sustain notes on decaying harpsichord strings
- written vs improvised
- baroque scores often left ornaments to the performer's taste
- architecture rule
- modernists called it crime; Adolf Loos literally wrote that essay
- function hiding
- grace notes can disguise weak technique or cover pitch errors