Inverted Mordent

An inverted mordent is a quick ornament that flicks up to the note above and back: the written note, the note above, the written note again. Its sign is a short wavy line, like a mordent without the vertical stroke. Because it sounds like a tiny trill, it is also called a short trill, an upper mordent, or by its German name, Pralltriller.

▶As written0:06▶As played (from about 1800)0:06

How to play it today

In music from about Beethoven's time to the present, the inverted mordent is played like this:

1. The written note on the beat.
2. A quick flick to the note above and back.
3. The written note held for the rest of its value.

The upper note follows the key signature unless a small accidental is printed above the sign. Keep the two quick notes light and the main note clear: the ornament adds sparkle to the note, it does not replace it.

In older music

Before about 1800 the same sign was usually read from the note above. J. S. Bach's own table of ornaments calls it a trill, starting on the upper note on the beat. In the later 18th century, C. P. E. Bach described a shorter, "snapped" version: when the note before is already the upper note, it is held over into the beat and then the quick written–upper–written figure follows. Tissimo's Ornaments through the eras shows these readings side by side, and you can try both on the short trill in bar 9 of the Minuet in G minor.

Why "inverted"?

It is the mordent turned upside down: the mordent goes down to the note below, the inverted mordent goes up to the note above. The signs differ only by the vertical stroke through the mordent's wavy line. Names are not used consistently in every book, so read the sign, not the label.

Inverted mordent or trill?

A trill keeps alternating for the whole length of the note and may start on the upper note. An inverted mordent is just one quick up-and-back at the start of the note. If a passage is fast, a written trill on a short note may come out as no more than an inverted mordent.