Q:

Trills and Mordents in BWV 926

I don't understand how to play the trills and mordents in Bach's BWV 926. I don't know how to play them in general. Could somebody please help me?

A:

Baroque trills generally start on the upper note of the trill and continue for the length of the note. Mordents are a single rapid alternation of the note above/below and are differentiated by a short squiggle. An upper mordent, where the single alternation is above, looks like this:

A lower mordent, where the single alternation is below, looks like this:

In your piece, there are no trills, only upper and lower mordents. A trill would have additional "humps" or repetitions, as well as possibly turns, prefixes, or tails.

