mordent

American  

[mawr-dnt] / ˈmɔr dnt /

Or mordant

noun

Music.

1. a melodic embellishment consisting of a rapid alternation of a principal tone with the tone a half or a whole step below it, called single or short when the auxiliary tone occurs once and double or long when this occurs twice or more.

2. inverted mordent.

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mordent British  

/ ˈmɔːdənt /

noun

1. Also called: lower mordent.  music a melodic ornament consisting of the rapid alternation of a note with a note one degree lower than it

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Etymology

Origin of mordent

1800–10; < German < Italian mordente biting < Latin mordent-, stem of mordēns, present participle of mordēre to bite; see -ent

Example Sentences

Fingers, position of, 6. the other, 16. fourth and fifth, 16. weak, 18. broad-tipped, 20. needed to play a mordent, 28.

From Piano Playing: With Piano Questions Answered by Hofmann, Josef

To return a full Answer to this last period, we need only put him in mind of the Proverb, Canes timidi vehementiùs latrant quam mordent, and much good may it do him.

From An Answer to a Scurrilous Pamplet [1693] by Anonymous

Accenting a Mordent in a Sonata How should one play and accent the mordent occurring in the forty-seventh measure of the first movement—allegro di molto—of Beethoven's Sonata Pathétique, Opus 13?

From Piano Playing: With Piano Questions Answered by Hofmann, Josef

Sonata, accenting a mordent in a, 70. in playing a, 75.

From Piano Playing: With Piano Questions Answered by Hofmann, Josef

An exchange of fingers in a mordent is seldom of any advantage, for it hampers precision and evenness, since, after all, each finger has its own tone-characteristics.

From Piano Playing: With Piano Questions Answered by Hofmann, Josef