Ribattuta Explained

Ribattuta or Ribattuta di gola is a musical ornament found in Italian and German works of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Execution

The ornament is a trill on a long-short dotted rhythm accelerating to end on either a tremolo or a regular trill.^[1]

Sources

The ornament is described by Mattheson (1739),^[2] Spiess (1745),^[3] and Marpurg (1749).^[4]

Frederick Neumann^[5] notes the trill following the dotted preparation is a main-note trill (that is, starting on the written note), and he cautions against use of the term as a general descriptor for dotted alternation as a prelude to a trill.

Nomenclature

Italian: ribattuta (f) di gola
German: der Zurückschlag^[6] or der gedehnte oder punctirte Triller (Mattheson)
English: ribattuta
French: ribattuta (f) or tour de gosier (Marpurg) or cadence pleine à progression (Lacassagne)^[7] or double cadence (Bérard-Blanchet)^[8]

References

1. Book: Randel, Don Michael. The New Harvard Dictionary of Music. 1986. Harvard. Harvard. 0-674-61525-5. 706. registration.
2. Book: Mattheson, Johann. Der vollkommene Capellmeister. 1739. Hamburg.
3. Book: Spiess, Meinrad . Tractatus musicus compositorio-practicus. Augsburg. 1745.
4. Book: Marpurg, Friedrich Wilhlem. Des cristischen Musicus an der Spree erster Band (collected issues of the journal Der critische Musicus 1749-1750). 1750. Berlin.
5. Book: Neumann, Frederick. Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music. 1978. Princeton University Press. Princeton. 0-691-09123-4. 367, 372.
6. Book: Leuchtmann, Horst. Terminorum musicae index septem linguis redactus. 1979. Bärenreiter. Kassel. 3-7618-0553-5.
7. Book: Lacassagne, L'abbe Joseph. Traité géneral des élements du chant. 1766. Paris.
8. Book: Bérard, Jean-Antoine. L'Art du chant. 1755. Paris.