AGREMENS (Fr., properly Agrémens du Chant or de Musique; Ger. Manieren; Eng. Graces). Certain ornaments introduced into vocal or instrumental melody, indicated either by signs, or by small notes, and performed according to certain rules.
Various forms of agrémens have been from time to time invented by different composers, and many of them have again fallen into disuse, but the earliest seem to have been the invention of Chambonnières, a celebrated French organist of the time of Louis XIV (1670),...