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Lesson 58: Major Work Study, Part 2 — The Slow Movement

  • Learn the Adagio (movement III) of Loeillet's D minor sonata.
  • Add tasteful French Baroque ornamentation — ports de voix, mordents, flattements — without overcrowding the line.

A slow movement is not a long movement played slowly. It is a different piece.

The third movement is the sonata's heaviest: where the Largo leans on the first beat and descends, the Adagio leans on the second beat, climbs, and suspends. The long notes are dissonances waiting to resolve, and they need ornament to feel alive while they sit.

The opening

Read the first four bars at quarter = 55. The affect is already different from the Largo — deeper, more reflective.

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Where the ornaments go

Four ornaments belong in this movement:

  • Port de voix — an appoggiatura from the note below, on the long suspended Fs and Es.
  • Mordent — on the cadential leading-tone (xC resolving to D), once per cadence.
  • Trill — the final cadence's penultimate note, always.
  • Flattement — on the closing long note D, after the trill has resolved.

The rule: one ornament per gesture, not per note. A note can take a port de voix or a mordent, not both.

Drill — the cadence with full ornamentation

Practise the closing cadence isolated, slowly, ornaments and all, before integrating it back into the run-through.

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Trill on the penultimate xC; the final D takes a flattement after the trill resolves.

Breath planning

Mark breath points before practising at tempo — one breath every two bars, at the end of a slurred group, never mid-suspension.

Practice plan — one week

Sessions 1–2 — ornament drill in isolation
Each of the four ornaments as a separate gesture on a held note.
Sessions 3–4 — ornaments applied to the Adagio
Half tempo with the ornaments in place.
Session 5 — the Adagio at tempo, end-to-end
One recorded run at quarter = 55; the ornaments should sound like the line, not decorations on top of it.

Now play these

Loeillet: Sonata in D minor — Movement III (Adagio)
Apply the ornaments and breath plan above.
Handel: Sonata in A minor, HWV 362 — slow movements
Compare Handel's denser ornamentation with Loeillet's restraint.

When the Adagio plays end-to-end at quarter = 55 with four ornaments placed and a breath plan that lets every suspension resolve, move on to Lesson 59.