Finally, we come to ornamentation, the parameter on which we tend to spend most of our time in the studio. Here we have the help of many, many treatises and edition prefaces, elucidating ornamentation signs and recommending florid ways of getting expressively from one note to another. “Hmm…Which of the 24 different varieties of port de voix should I use here?” The trouble with most theoretical descriptions is that they tend to be hopelessly formulaic, however helpful they might be as sources of ideas. Take Quantz’s section on ornamenting simple intervals. If you were to use it to ornament a slow movement, you would come up with a string of unrelated “noodles” (as some refer to florid baroque ornamentation), and miss entirely the gestural element that is crucial to the question of how much ornamentation to use where. That’s why we are fortunate to have some written-out examples of ornamentation. The authority of some of these has been called into question. For example, Handel’s embellishments for a few of his arias: what singer of Handel needed to have the embellishments written out, anyway? Think about it. But the Sonate Methodiche of Telemann are especially useful, not least because they give us a chance to see hear slow movement ornamentation in a variety of different meters, and meter is an important key to the gestural element I mentioned. Corelli also has some of his Opus V solo sonatas published, first in Amsterdam then in London, with the ornamentations advertised as printed “the way Signor Corelli wishes them to be played.” We have no way of knowing whether that is true but still, they are a valuable record of what might have been done. Even given the precise ornamental indications, however, and paying attention to virtually every parameter of performance practice, it is still possible to come up with performances that sound and feel very different. If you were to listen to two or three recordings of the first movement of Corelli’s Sonata Opus V, No. 3, you’d see what I mean.Sigiswald Kuijken’s (Accent ACC 48433D) is calm and flowing with a round tone, a leisurely vibrato, and an unhurried meander through Corelli’s fanciful roulades.Ingrid Seifert’s (EMI CDC 7 47965 2) is more intense, with a silvery tone, noticeable liberties with the written ornamentation, and an uncanny sense of rubato.Monica Huggett’s (Virgin Classics VCD 790840-2) has a strong rhetorical sense with lots of dynamic nuance, and combines the warm sound of Kuijken with the greater urgency of Seifert. The more recent Andrew Manze recording (Harmonia Mundi HMU 907298-99) falls into the category of “inspired by,” rather than interpretation of Corelli’s ornaments.