Ornamentation was not originally intended to . show off a musician's technical skills embellish a repeated passage provide added interest for the listener be written out exactly note by note

be written out exactly note by note.

nope! and if it is, i'd rather not know lol

c, d, e, f, g, a, b, and c.

sometimes western music will also use solfege. the names of these are do ra me fa sol la si (or ti) and do.

to indicate a note a half step higher or lower then the original note, you would say c # (for a half a step above c) or bb (for half a step below b)