A practical approach to understanding the eighteenth century cadenza

Performers of 18th-century vocal and instrumental music have long been aware that an element of improvisation was expected of performers, be it simple ornaments, improvised florid decoration of melodies, cadenzas, or improvisation of a melody on a given bass line. However, the means to achieve fluency in these skills are not immediately apparent, as the tradition of teaching and learning improvisatory skills has been largely lost in the Western classical tradition. Cadenzas in modern performances sometimes therefore rely too heavily on formulaic approaches; by means of a close study of surviving original cadenzas, especially those incorporated in student materials such as solfeggio exercises, I hope to indicate a more effective, creative and stylistically coherent approach to devising and improvising cadenzas.