Inmusic,division (also calleddiminution orcoloration)[clarification needed] refers to a type ofornamentation orvariation common in 16th- and 17th-century music[1][irrelevant citation] in which eachnote of amelodic line is "divided" into several shorter, faster-moving notes, often by arhythmicrepetition of a simple musical device such as thetrill,turn orcambiata on each note in turn, or by the introduction ofnonchord tones orarpeggio figures. The English term 'division' broadly corresponds to the contemporary usage ofpassaggio in Italian,diferencia orglosa in Spanish, anddouble in French.[2][3]
The word was used in this sense to describe improvised coloratura ornamentation as used byopera singers of the day, but it made a ready way of devising variations upon atheme, and was particularly cultivated in the form of the "division on aground" – the building of successively higher and faster parts onto a repeatingbass-line. Examples of "divisions on aground" were written by, among others,John Jenkins andChristopher Simpson.[4] Simpson gives a lengthy explanation of the art of freeimprovisation over anostinato bass-line in his bookThe Division-Violist (1659), which was reprinted in 1665 asThe Division-viol, or The Art of Playing Extempore upon a Ground.[3]