My second degree’s a B.M. (my first one’s a PhDBS–yeh, bovine scatology, wanna make something of it? –but that’s another story, and we’ll not talk about my other useless academic wall dung, either *heh*). Ran into a lot of great technicians who sound to the non musician, and probably to quite a few who think they’re musicians, as though they are very, very good musicians when all they can do is regurgitate the notes on a score accurately.

*pfui*

That’s not music.

Your former teacher seems, from this lil vignette, to be one of those amazing musical technicians who don’t really understand music.

BTW, there ARE no hard and fast rules for Baroque ornamentation. General guidelines that changed pretty fluidly (as Daniel noted above). Performers made idiosyncratic choices based on talent, ability level, performance venue, generally-accepted perfomance parameters, composer input (if available beyond the very sketchy scores–by today’s standards–most Baroque composers gave their instrumentalists) and other factors.

Yes, there are some general guidelines, but hard and fast rules for ornamentation (as in trills, etc., as noted in your post)? Not so much. Heck, even the “rules” for playing a figured bass score on a keyboard (not “ornamentation” in the sense used above) could result in dramatically different performances depending on a huge array of factors.

The closest thing today to a typical Baroque instrumental score would probably be a Nashville chart, though even there, such a thing would be much more rules-bound than a typical Baroque score. *feh*

If the piano teacher were so rues bound as to feel Baroque pieces should be purely reproduced, she should dith the piano for harpsichord or clavichord, which, since she is NOT a purist, she won’t likely do.

Nah. Whenever I run into an anal-compulsive claiming to be a musician, I know I’ve met another person living in denial, no matter how brilliant a technician they are.

Keep questioning. It’s healthy.

“… like hell my dear,
From anyone likely
To put a sharp knife
Into the sacred, tender vision
Of your beautiful heart.”

yea for YOU!!! Keep running and don’t look back. Hoping you find a teacher who’s more mentor/on-the-journey WITH you type.