What does mordent mean in music?

Notation & reading

Mordent

Italian mordente, "biting" · Also: inverted mordent, ornament

A mordent is an ornament in which the written note is played, followed rapidly by the note below it, then the written note again, notated as a short zigzag with a vertical stroke through it.

The zigzag without a stroke is the upper mordent, sometimes called an inverted mordent or a Schneller, which uses the note above instead. The two symbols differ only by that small vertical line, and confusing them is one of the classic reading errors in Baroque repertoire.

The ornament happens at the start of the note and is quick: three pitches inside the space that would otherwise be the beginning of the written note, with the remainder of the note value held afterwards. Whether the auxiliary note is a semitone or a whole tone away is decided by the key signature, plus any accidental printed above or below the sign.

On a string instrument it is a left-hand ornament made by a single fast finger action, closely related to the trill in technique. A mordent is essentially a trill that stops after one alternation.

Trill: A trill is a rapid alternation between the written note and the note directly above it in the key, marked tr above the staff.
Articulation: Articulation is how a note is started, sustained, and released, the markings that distinguish smooth, separated, accented, and shortened notes from one another.
Key signature: A key signature is the group of sharps or flats written at the start of each staff line, indicating which notes are consistently altered throughout the piece.
Accidental: An accidental is a sharp, flat, or natural sign placed before a note to raise, lower, or restore its pitch for the remainder of that bar.

Every term in this glossary is taught in context somewhere in Arco's curricula, on the staff, on the keyboard, and on your own fingerboard at the same time.

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