> But one should not "practice" them - ideally they should be 
> improvised in the moment, responding to each unique performance situation.

That applies, I suppose, to the Italian manners, rather than to the
French. Improvisation is confined, though. For both kinds or
embellishments one needs training of *taste*, i. e. experience of where
to and how to.

> Thus, to practice a piece in a relatively unornamented fashion (or more or 
> less as it is written) does not strike me as contradictory

okay, let me put it another way. We probably agree, that French ornament
signs are abbreviations of fixed formulae that are supposed to be
applied in certain ways. Gallots explains his ornament signs on the very
next page after his general playing advices. 

Sometimes, you can find certain ornaments written out, e. g. there are
manuscript versions of pieces that have the separees written out instead
of the vertical chords with strokes between the letters. (Andreas
Schlegel's article on the Rhetorique des Dieux is a treasure of insights
reagarding this.)

Anyway, they are not graces that can possibly be added when players feel
like adding them, or be left out when players feel like leaving them
out. Just the opposite, they're an integral part of the music and cannot
be omitted. In French baroque lute music, there is no relatively
unornamented fashion to play a piece.
  
Best,

Mathias

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