In music, a
mordent is an
ornamentIn music, ornaments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody , but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line. Many ornaments are performed as "fast notes" around a central note...
indicating that the note is to be played in a single rapid alternation with the note above or below. Like
trillThe trill is a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be identified with the context of the trill....
s, they can be
chromaticallyThe chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone or half step apart. "A chromatic scale is a nondiatonic scale consisting entirely of half-step intervals," having, "no tonic," due to the symmetry or equal spacing of its tones....
modified by a small flat,
sharpIn music, sharp means higher in pitch. More specifically, in musical notation, sharp means "higher in pitch by a semitone ," and has an associated symbol , which is often confused with the number sign...
or
naturalIn musical notation, a natural sign is an accidental sign used to cancel a flat or sharp from either a preceding note or the key signature. If a bar contains a double sharp or double flat accidental and the composer wishes to denote the same note with only a single sharp or flat, a natural sign...
accidentalIn music, an accidental is a note whose pitch is not a member of a scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the symbols used to mark such notes, sharps , flats , and naturals , may also be called accidentals...
. The term comes from the
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
mordere, meaning "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 precise meaning of
mordent has changed over the years.
In music, a
mordent is an
ornamentIn music, ornaments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody , but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line. Many ornaments are performed as "fast notes" around a central note...
indicating that the note is to be played in a single rapid alternation with the note above or below. Like
trillThe trill is a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be identified with the context of the trill....
s, they can be
chromaticallyThe chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone or half step apart. "A chromatic scale is a nondiatonic scale consisting entirely of half-step intervals," having, "no tonic," due to the symmetry or equal spacing of its tones....
modified by a small flat,
sharpIn music, sharp means higher in pitch. More specifically, in musical notation, sharp means "higher in pitch by a semitone ," and has an associated symbol , which is often confused with the number sign...
or
naturalIn musical notation, a natural sign is an accidental sign used to cancel a flat or sharp from either a preceding note or the key signature. If a bar contains a double sharp or double flat accidental and the composer wishes to denote the same note with only a single sharp or flat, a natural sign...
accidentalIn music, an accidental is a note whose pitch is not a member of a scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the symbols used to mark such notes, sharps , flats , and naturals , may also be called accidentals...
. The term comes from the
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
mordere, meaning "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 tempoIn musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. It is a crucial element of composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
of the piece, but at moderate tempi the above might be executed as follows: |
|
The precise meaning of
mordent has changed over the years. In the
Baroque periodBaroque music describes a style of European classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1750. This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical era...
, 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. Also note that 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 sometimes have 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,
notationMusic notation or musical notation is any system which represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols.-Western history:...
, and nomenclature vary widely for all of these ornaments, and this article as a whole addresses an approximate nineteenth-century standard.