The author of this volume, the outstanding Hungarian baroque flute and recorder player János Bali, provides a guide here for bewildered recorder players, including teachers, students, amateurs and professionals alike; faced with the extremely intriguing but difficult question: How should baroque pieces be ornamented? The answers are given by contemporary musicians themselves; the collection contains only contemporary ornaments (and richly ornamented pieces and movements) selected from the repertoire of the period between 1550 and 1760, that is, from the late Renaissance, through the various national styles of early and mature baroque, right up to Rococo. In the score the original melody of each work or movement and several different ornamented versions of the same melody can be found one below the other. Thus, the various possible modes of ornamentation can easily be compared.

In the extremely valuable and informative introductory study, János Bali provides a basic historical survey of the subject and offers useful practical advice to musicians using the collection; at the end of the volume, he includes, almost in their entirety, the tables of ornamentation compiled by G. L. Conforto (1693) and J. J. Quantz (1752).