Although mordents are now thought of as just a single alternation between notes, in the Baroque period it appears that a " Mordent " may have sometimes been executed with more than one alternation between the indicated note and the note below, making it a sort of inverted trill.
22.
The opening phrase brings a spectacular swoop of on octave right down to low D . Franklin sang the rest of the aria in a macaroni of heavily accented Italian and English, and in her own style, not Puccini's; there is many a slide, mordent and spontaneous ornament and enough rhythmic freedom to give any conductor a heart attack.
23.
Practice, notation, and nomenclature vary widely for all of these ornaments, that is to say, whether, by including the symbol for a mordent in a musical score, a composer intended the direction of the additional note ( or notes ) to be played above or below the principal note written on the sheet music varies according to when the piece was written, and in which country.
