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The Application Of (Ornamental) Strokes In English Virginalist Music: A Brief Chronological Survey, Desmond Hunter

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: The English virginalists from 1530 to 1650 used signs in the form of an oblique stroke through the note stem to indicate a grace. The single stroke does not appear to have been used as a grace sign until around 1570 and was used frequently only after the later 17th c. The double stroke appears often; 16th-c. English keyboard music sources imply that it was realized with a form of shake. The triple stroke was used only in a small number of sources including 16th- and 17th-c. MSS. The sometimes idiosyncratic usage of signs suggests that composers and …