ABSTRACT
Musicians accept that some variance is built into the concept of musical identity, most obviously in terms of performance. The concept of ornamentation is central to the Schenkerian approach to musical structure; one might reasonably say that Heinrich Schenker’s principal theoretical achievement lay in his transference of the idea of ornamentation from its established application at the musical surface to an underlying level. Like Arcangelo Corelli’s scores, Schenker’s graphs are for reading, not for playing. In effect, the movement becomes a binary one – and this binary form is the creation of Corelli-the-performer, not Corelli-the-composer. Like the arrangement for recorder, Francesco Geminiani’s arrangement of the movement as a concerto grosso irons out many of the registral contrasts in Corelli’s melodic line. Despite the difference of instrumental medium, both Corelli’s and John Walsh’s versions create an effect of luxuriance, to borrow Frederick Neumann’s pejorative term.
