Hi,

Can some one please explain (in simple terms) what a mordent is, I'm having a bit of trouble.

From what I've read a mordent is similar to a trill, in that it involves moving rapidly from one note to the note either above or below, depending one whether it's an upper (the note above ) or lower (the note below) mordent that is been played. What's confusing me is the examples I am seeing, showing music written using the mordent and then written again how it would be played without the mordent. In such examples, the rythm seems to be uneven, it seems to get slower?? Is this correct?

Can someone please explain where I'm going wrong with my thinking? I'm trying to get to grips with ornamention before next weeks theory exam

Thanks in advance,
LG

what i understand about mordent is the note is called the principal note(P), then if upper mordent then we should play upper principal note(UP), P, below principal note(BP), then back to P. if it is a lower mordent, start with below principal note(BP), P, UP, back to P again. i think others can explain in more detail about mordent.

dennis~~

That's a turn. A mordent is just the written note followed by the upper/lower note then the written note again.
It sort of squished into the time that the written note would take on its own.

oops.. maybe i'm wrong. sorry for the wrong information. Anyone over there can explain in more details? thanks!

dennis~~

It sometimes looks odd written out as the first two notes (the main note and the note above or below) are written as demi-semi-quavers then the main note is written again as a semi-quaver this makes up a quaver in total. If the main note is longer then another quaver is written making up a crotchet, then if necessary a crotchet to make up to a minim and so on depending how long the original written note is. But these are all the same note and tied together so if for example you see a C crotchet with a mordant (ignoring key signature) you just play a quick C-D-C and hold the C so the whole thing is a crotchet in length.

Oh the benefits of having done my grade 5 theory in the middle ages!

Thanks for the help! If you were asked what to explain the term mordent in a few words in the exam what would you put? I'm still having trouble explaining what a mordent is in a simple sentence. This question has come up on passed papers and I've been a bit clueless ??

I don't remember ever having to describe an ornament in words.

I've seen the question asked to name the ornament in which case the answer is obviously mordent or perhaps upper mordent or lower mordent. If asked to descripe it how about "...an instruction to rapidly play the written note, the note above (below) then the written note again" ?

what's an inverted mordent then, or for that matter an inverted turn?

Does this help?

same thing but the other way up (for note above read note below and vice versa).

mordent=auxilary