mordent
Americannoun
-
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.
noun
Etymology
Origin of mordent
1800–10; < German < Italian mordente biting < Latin mordent-, stem of mordēns, present participle of mordēre to bite; -ent
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They may take a mordent pleasure in installing Dr Eilidh Whiteford - who, as a member of the previous committee, was at the centre of a memorable and nasty spat with the previous chair, Labour's Ian Davidson.
From BBC
The Fingers Needed to Play a Mordent When executing the mordent, is not the use of three fingers preferable to two?
From Project Gutenberg
The selection of the fingers for the execution of a mordent depends always upon the preceding notes or keys which lead up to it.
From Project Gutenberg
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 Project Gutenberg
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 Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
