An ornament, consisting in its normal form of the rapid alternation of the main note with the note a step below. This is also known as a lower mordent; a variant is the inverted or upper mordent, when the main note alternates with the note above. It is known in German as the Schneller (from schnellen, ‘to jerk’), and in French as the pincé, battement or martellement. A double mordent has two (occasionally more) iterations, and is considered suitable in a slower tempo; in ex.1 (from Gottlieb Muffat,c 1739), the outer mordents show a normal realization, the central one a double. Ex.2 shows both with the French mordent sign (from Couperin, 1713). The upper mordent is notated with the same sign as in the first example but without the vertical line through it (identical with that for the Pralltriller). Sometimes the sign is prolonged to indicate extra iterations.
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| Ex.1 |
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| Ex.2 |
