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As an amateur, I've largely had recordings as my teachers over the years. {Bruce Hagreen at Syracuse (I hope he doesn't regret me dragging his good name into this) boosted my all around proficiency 1000% and helped set my sights far higher than where I had put them, however, I don't recall covering much of the classical literature with him while under under his tutelage for just a short semester or two. We generally focused on my preference for early Romantic period works.}

As I recall from an LP recording I had of a Rossetti E flat Concerto (the music is the same as in International Music's edition), the artist played the grace notes before the eighth notes in the 6/8 Rondo movement before the beat. Sort of a slip into the note feeling - adding a skipping feeling to the music.

In a recording of Haydn Concerto 1 by the same artist, the grace note before a quarter note was treated like an eighth note on the beat, dividing the quater in two. In the same movement, however, a grace note before an eighth is before the beat like in the Rossetti. Seemingly there are two grace note treatments in the same work! Does the rule change depending on whether an eighth or quarter follows? What of halves and whole notes? What then?

When I listen to other artists play Mozart concerti, especially Concerto "2" (K 417), I hear all the grace notes as on the beat and dividing the subsequent note in two. Now I perceive another rule: divide all subsequent note in two.

All these works are of generally the same period, so I suspect the rules weren't supposed to change. Maybe they were - based possibly on region, tradition, or something else I'm missing.

When I move into the Romantic periods, I thought I understood the grace note to always preceded the beat, not affecting the following note. For example, Weber, Beethoven, Franz and Richard Strauss recordings seem to corroborate that understanding.

So kind horn artists and teachers, what is the correct rule to apply to the Haydn, Mozart, and Rossetti grace notes?

Grace notes are intended to do what the name implies--to add a subtle, graceful decoration between two notes. As such, they are done before the beat, take up very little clock time, and should receive no accentuation.

Appogiature, on the other hand, are a species of non-harmonic tone whose purpose is to put stress on a tone that does not belong to the underlying harmony (i.e., to insert and stress a note not in the chord). Thus, they appear on the beat in order to put the extra crunch where it should go, and they receive accentuation by virtue of being on the beat. They get further accentuation because they derive their length from the note to which they are attached--roughly half of that value. So an appogiatura attached to a quarter note would last an eighth-note's length (and the quarter note would be accordingly shortened). The idea, of course, is to due this stressing of non- chord tones with a sense of style and proportion, so "roughly" is a key word here.

"How do I know which I have?" is a logical next question. The notation should tell you, where the grace note has a line or slash mark running through its stem and flag(s) while an appogiatura will not. The harmonic and melodic context should also help you to determine which you have, if you have any doubts about the accuracy of the notation. Even here, however, that idea of taste is an important factor, and this kind of taste comes from experience and guidance.

Hope this helps. Hope I spelled appogiatura correctly. Hope I didn't omit any important detail in this abbreviated discussion.