In music, a mordent is an ornament indicating that the note is to be played in a single rapid alternation with the note above or below. Like trills, they can be chromatically modified by a small flat, sharp or natural accidental. The term comes from the Latin 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: |
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| As with the trill, the exact speed with which the mordent is performed will vary according to the 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 period, 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.[1]
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, notation, and nomenclature vary widely for all of these ornaments, and this article as a whole addresses an approximate nineteenth-century standard.
See also
References
| This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (January 2010) |
- ^ Taylor, Eric (1989). The AB Guide to Music Theory. London: Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. p. 93. ISBN 1-85472-446-0.
- Dr Blood, Brian. "Music Theory Online: Ornamentation". Music Theory & History Online. Dolmetsch. http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory23.htm. Retrieved 11 March 2008.
- Gieseking, Walter; Karl Leimer (1972) [1932/1938]. Piano Technique. New York: Dover. pp. 26, 27. ISBN 0486228673.
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Categories: Ornament
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hu, 15 Oct 2009 17:21:58 GM
C'est a New York, que se deroulait la fin de semaine derniere la 23e edition du championnat Nord Americain de Karate Shorinjiryu. Cette annee, deux karatekas de Sherbrooke se sont joints a pas moins de 200 des meilleurs participants ...
Q. My book (Henle edition) gives me a 1-4-3 fingering for trills in The Tempest last movemnt. But that doesn't make sense because trills start on the auxiliary note in Classical rep, don't they??!!! They're not exactly trills. They're mordents, but I assume it doesn't really make a difference, does it? It's still the same ornament... It sounds like a lot of people start it on the principal note (Brendel starts his trills in the second movement on the principal note). What do I do? I feel very pathetic without my teacher.
Asked by Mr. Selick - Sun Jul 13 16:53:19 2008 - - 4 Answers - 0 Comments
A. I only remember there being one instance of trills in the third movement (two instances, really, but it's the same material), so I hope I'm addressing the right ones. Beethoven's ornaments are often hard to formalize because he came right at the time when the common practise was changing from starting on the higher note to starting on the principal note. Common wisdom is that the earlier sonatas are played in the baroque style of ornamentation, and the later ones in the romantic style. This also doesn't help, because the tempest is right in the middle. So, we have to go to the music itself. In the second movement, the melody before the trill is not technically in the voice that the trill occurs in. There are three Cs in a row in… [cont.]
Answered by Pianist d'Aurellius - Sun Jul 13 19:12:43 2008
