C.P.E. Bach Study Guide: The Mordent

C.P.E. Bach: Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen
(Part One 1753, Berlin)
(Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments)

I am always interested in original sources, and this is one of the best for keyboard players. C.P.E. would have formed many of his ideas from his father, the great J.S. Bach. At the same time, he was very much part of the next generation and was well known and respected on his own merits. It is well worth the effort to study the text either in the original German or the English translation. Having made my way through both, it takes time to wade through the antiquated writing style and sort out the musical examples. The following study guide is intended to make the text more accessible by providing a summary of each paragraph along with audio clips of the musical examples.

Study Guide: Summary and Examples
Chapter Two, Embellishments: The Mordent

THE MORDENT

1) The Mordent:

  • Connects notes
  • Fills out notes
  • Gives notes brilliance

The length of the mordent:

  • May be long or short
  • The long mordent may be lengthened and if so, the symbol is the same

2) The long mordent symbol is usually found over long notes (often quarters and eighths, depending on the tempo). The short mordent symbol is found over notes of all values and lengths.

3) Figure 140 (c) shows a way to play very short mordents, by playing two notes at the same time, then releasing the lower note while holding the upper note. C.P.E. says this is fine, if it is used less often than the typical articulation. This execution should only be used in passages that are not slurred.

4) The mordent:

  • Is best used in ascending passages, stepwise or leaping
  • Is rarely used in descending leaps
  • Is never used in descending steps (use the short trill for descending steps)
  • May appear anywhere in the composition (beginning, middle or end)

5) Uses of the mordent:

  • Connects slurred notes in conjunct or disjunct motion, with and without an appoggiatura (Figure 141)
  • Used most often with ascending steps, and occasionally after an appoggiatura (asterisk examples)
  • Example (a) shows the mordent used to connect and fill out notes
  • When a mordent appears as in (a), with the appoggiatura moving to the principle note by an ascending leap, the principal tone must be long enough to allow the appoggiatura to be effective
  • The mordent appears occasionally in recitatives

6) When a mordent follows an appoggiatura, it should be played softly (same as an undecorated note would be played softer after an appoggiatura)

7) Used to fill out notes, and in the case of syncopations, fill out and make brilliant

8) Filling out with mordent at a slow tempo

  • When the tempo is so slow that even long mordents do not fill out a note, they may be altered by shortening and repeating as needed as shown in examples (a) and (b)
  • As with other ornaments, do not overuse this!
  • As with other ornaments, make sure leave enough time rhythmically to make the ornament clear from the following notes

9) Used to add brilliance (most often the short mordent serves this purpose)

  • Add brilliance to leaping, detached notes

10) Used in the bass (most frequently used ornament to be used in the bass)

11) Using accidentals with the mordent

  • As with other ornaments, the context determines the use of accidentals (i.e. the key in force at the time of the ornament)
  • Raising the lower tone of the mordent by a half step often adds brilliance, as in Figure 144

12) Fingering: use the strongest fingers when possible. A slow tempo allows for more opportunity to choose strong fingering, otherwise use normal fingering.

13) Using a mordent after a trill

  • Make sure to separate the mordent from the trill so they are heard as two individual ornaments
  • As the purpose is to fill out the notes, this should only be used in slower tempos
  • Figure 145 shows how to separate the half note into two parts to correctly add the mordent

14) Mordent vs. Short Trill

  • Short trill is used for a DESCENDING 2nd ONLY (mordent is not used in this case)
  • Mordent is used for an ASCENDING 2nd and in many more contexts

15) Vocal ornament with similarities to a mordent:

  • Singers add this arbitrary ornament in slow movements at the beginning and before fermatas and rests
  • The notes are the same as a mordent and the examples below show the execution
  • This can be considered a “slow mordent”, although there are very few uses aside from the cases shown

SOURCES

Bach, C.P.E. Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments. Translated and edited by William J. Mitchell, W.W. Norton & Company, 1949, pp. 127-132.

Bach, Karl Philipp Emanuel. Versuch über die wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen. Edited by Walter Niemann, C.P. Khant, Leipzig, 1925, pp. 65-69.

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