![Various mordents](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Various_mordents.jpg)
In music, a mordent is an
ornament indicating that the note is to be played with ''a single'' rapid alternation with the note above or below. Like
trill
TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) is an Internet Standard implemented by devices called TRILL switches. TRILL combines techniques from bridging and routing, and is the application of link-state routing to the VLAN-aware cus ...
s, they can be
chromatically modified by a small
flat
Flat or flats may refer to:
Architecture
* Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries
Arts and entertainment
* Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch
* Flat (soldier), ...
,
sharp
Sharp or SHARP may refer to:
Acronyms
* SHARP (helmet ratings) (Safety Helmet Assessment and Rating Programme), a British motorcycle helmet safety rating scheme
* Self Help Addiction Recovery Program, a charitable organisation founded in 19 ...
or
natural
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are p ...
accidental. The term entered English musical terminology at the beginning of the 19th century, from the German ''Mordent'' and its Italian etymon, ''mordente'', both used in the 18th century to describe this musical figure. The word ultimately is derived from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''
mordere'' (to bite).
The ''mordent'' is thought of as a rapid single alternation between an indicated note, the note above (the ''upper mordent'') or below (the ''lower mordent'') and the indicated note again.
The upper mordent is indicated by a short squiggle; the lower mordent is the same with a short vertical line through it:
:
As with the trill, the exact speed with which the mordent is performed will vary according to the
tempo
In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...
of the piece, but at a moderate tempo the above might be executed as follows:
:
The precise meaning of ''mordent'' has changed over the years. In the
Baroque period
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
, a ''mordent'' was a ''lower mordent'' and an ''upper mordent'' was a ''pralltriller'' or ''schneller''. In the 19th century, however, the name ''mordent'' was generally applied to what is now called the ''upper'' mordent, and the ''lower mordent'' became known as an ''inverted mordent''.
In other languages the situation is different: for example in German ''Pralltriller'' and ''Mordent'' are still the ''upper'' and ''lower'' mordents respectively. This ornament in French, and sometimes in German, is spelled ''mordant''.
Although mordents are now thought of as just a single alternation between notes, in the Baroque period it appears that a ''Mordent'' may have sometimes been executed with more than one alternation between the indicated note and the note below, making it a sort of inverted trill.
Also, mordents of all sorts might typically, in some periods, begin with an extra ''unessential note'' (the lesser, added note), rather than with the ''principal note'' as shown in the examples here. The same applies to trills, which in Baroque and Classical times would typically begin with the added, upper note. Practice,
notation
In linguistics and semiotics, a notation is a system of graphics or symbols, characters and abbreviated expressions, used (for example) in artistic and scientific disciplines to represent technical facts and quantities by convention. Therefore, ...
, and
nomenclature
Nomenclature (, ) is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences. The principles of naming vary from the relatively informal naming conventions, conventions of everyday speech to the i ...
vary widely for all of these ornaments, and this article as a whole addresses an approximate nineteenth-century standard.
The
slide
Slide or Slides may refer to:
Places
* Slide, California, former name of Fortuna, California
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums
* ''Slide'' (Lisa Germano album), 1998
* ''Slide'' (George Clanton album), 2018
*''Slide'', by Patrick Glees ...
can be written using a symbol similar to that of the mordent, but placed to the left of the principal note, rather than above it.
See also
*
List of ornaments
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
References
Further reading
*
*
{{Musical notation
Ornamentation
de:Pralltriller#Pralltriller_und_Mordent
it:Abbellimento#Mordente