Agréments

What it means

Agréments is the French collective term for the small melodic ornaments of Baroque music, especially French harpsichord, organ, and vocal music of the 17th and 18th centuries. The term covers ornament types such as the trill, mordent, turn, appoggiatura, and slide, all meant to lend a melodic line expression, grace, and rhetorical subtlety.

In the notation

Unlike Italian practice, where ornaments were often left to the performer's free discretion, agréments in French music were usually notated with fixed, small graphic signs above or below the note. Composers such as François Couperin frequently prefaced their works with their own ornament tables, precisely specifying how each sign was to be performed.

Musical use

In French Baroque music, agréments were not decorative extras but a central part of musical expression. They served to highlight individual notes rhythmically and tonally, smooth transitions, and give the melody a dance-like or declamatory subtlety fitting the galant style of the era.

The precise, often highly detailed notation of agréments clearly distinguishes French ornamentation practice from the Italian and, later, German traditions, where ornaments were improvised more freely. Anyone playing works by Couperin, Rameau, or Lully today needs to study the relevant ornament table closely, since the signs and their meanings can differ from composer to composer.

Performance practice

When you play French Baroque music, check the ornament table of the relevant composer first to see what a given sign requires, rather than carrying over habits from other repertoire. Practice the agréments slowly and clearly at first, before integrating them into the piece's overall tempo.