The trill: start, termination, and performance by period

Definition

The trill is the rapid alternation of a note with its upper neighbor (a whole step or a half step, depending on the scale). It is indicated by tr, sometimes followed by a wavy line showing its duration. A small accidental above the sign modifies the upper note: tr with a sharp above a C means alternating C and D#.

The three parts of the trill

1. Start: from the upper note or from the main note, or with one or more preparation notes written in small print (from below or from above).
2. Body: the alternation proper, regular or accelerating.
3. Termination (in German Nachschlag): two final notes, the lower neighbor and the main note, which connect the trill to the next note. It is often written in small notes; when it is missing, the performer adds it if the trill leads to a higher note.

How it changes across periods

The speed is not fixed: it depends on the tempo, the instrument, and the character. A slow trill in a Baroque Adagio can begin with a few measured oscillations and then accelerate.

The cadential trill

In the Baroque and Classical perfect cadence the trill falls on the supertonic (or the leading tone) over the dominant chord: in C major, a trill on D over G, closing onto the tonic C. In Classical concertos the soloist's cadenza ends with a long trill on the dominant, a signal to the orchestra that it is about to come back in.

Variants

• Double trill: two voices trilling together, in thirds or sixths (piano, violin).
• Trill with mordent, or a trill tied to a preceding identical note: you start from the main note to avoid re-striking.
• Continuous trill: on very long notes, like a sustained note that shimmers.
• Tremolo: rapid alternation of notes more than a whole step apart, or repetition of the same note; it is not a trill and is written with slashes through the stem.

Common mistakes

• Starting from the main note in the music of Bach or Handel: the dissonance is lost.
• Playing the trill as a measured, rigid figure, without tension.
• Forgetting the accidental of the upper note, whether indicated above the sign or required by the key.
• Skipping the termination when the next note is higher: the connection comes out abrupt.

Examples

• Tartini, Sonata “The Devil's Trill”: extremely long violin trills, even double ones, while the same hand plays a melody.
• Beethoven, Sonata op. 111, last movement: chains of very long trills that become a sonic texture.
• Chopin, Etude op. 25 no. 6: an etude entirely devoted to trills in thirds.
• Mozart, Piano Concertos: the soloist's cadenza traditionally ends with the trill on the dominant.
• In the orchestra, trills in flutes and strings create shimmer and tension: a violin trill on a held high note is a staple of Romantic orchestration.

How to use it in composition

• Use the trill on the penultimate note of a phrase to intensify the cadence.
• In orchestration, a woodwind or string trill on a held chord keeps the sound alive without adding new notes.
• In orchestral libraries, choose the half-step or whole-step “trill” articulation according to the scale: a whole-step trill on a leading tone sounds wrong.
• In electronic production, a fast trill can be replaced by a square-wave LFO on the pitch (two semitones of excursion).

Exercise

1. Play a D–C cadence over G–C with a Baroque trill (from E, leaned on) and a Romantic one (from D): compare the effect.
2. Write three trills with different terminations and notate them correctly.
3. Program in the DAW a violin trill that accelerates from eight to sixteen notes per beat.

Connections

Ornaments; Acciaccatura and appoggiatura; Mordent and turn; Cadences; Solo concerto and ritornello form; String techniques.