▪ I. mordent Mus.
(ˈmɔːdənt)
Also mordant, mordente.
[a. G. mordent, ad. It. mordente, pr. pple. of mordere to bite. Cf. mordant a.]
A grace consisting in the rapid alternation of a written note with the one immediately below it. It has two varieties, the short mordent (symbol {mord}), and the long mordent or double mordent ({longmord}).
Also applied by various writers to the passing shake (G. Pralltriller), sometimes called inverted mordent; to the acciaccatura (abbreviated mordent); to the turn; and to various other graces.
| 1806 J. W. Callcott Mus. Gram. vi. 61 The Mordent, Beat, Slide, and Spring are peculiar to the Germans. 1818 Busby Gram. Mus. 153 The Mordente, or according to the Germans, the Spring, consists of two notes preceding the note to be graced; the first of which is the same as the principal, and the second, one note higher than the principal. 1845 Gwilt in Encycl. Metrop. V. 775/1 Mordente, a grace used by the Italian School, by turning upon the note without employing the note below. 1906 Daily Chron. 12 Nov. 3/4 The importance of the proper interpretation of the ‘upper mordant’ in Beethoven's sonatas. 1907 Grove's Dict. Mus. (ed. 5) III. 259 The appropriateness of the term Mordent..is found in the suddenness with which the principal note is, as it were, attacked by the dissonant note and immediately released. Walther says its effect is ‘like cracking a nut with the teeth’. |
▪ II. mordent, morder
obs. ff. mordant, murder.