Ornamentation as applied to selected soprano concert arias, operatic arias and sacred works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

This research is intended to provide a guide for singers interested in appropriate ornamentation for authentic performances of the concert and operatic arias and arias from sacred works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Selected soprano arias are examined and appropriately ornamented in the Classical style. The arias are accompanied by a concise narrative of stylistic practices with regard to ornamentation appropriate to Mozart's works. Ornaments used by Mozart are identified and the indications for ornamentation are studied. Tempi, text, harmonic context and character traits were determining factors in the selection of ornaments suggested in this study. Sources consist of the letters of Mozart, vocal and instrumental method books and theoretical writings of the period, and Mozart's vocal music.;Evidence found in these sources leaves little doubt that improvised ornamentation was a part of eighteenth-century performance practice. To be sure, it would offend the ear to hear someone excessively ornament "Dove sono" and destroy the lines of the aria with inappropriate appoggiaturas or flourishes. But is it not just as offensive to leave out a proper cadenza, eingang realization or prosodic appoggiatura? Does not such an exclusion constitute an incomplete performance? Certainly it is impossible to determine exactly how these arias were performed two hundred years ago, but through research such as this, one can absorb the ideas proffered in the sources listed and make an effort to create an educated interpretation of this music.