A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Beat (Ornament)

by Franklin Taylor

BEAT. The name given in English to a melodic grace or ornament, but with considerable uncertainty as to which particular ornament it denotes, the word having been very variously applied by different writers.

With some authors it signifies the Acciacatura, but it appears to be most generally understood to mean the Mordent (Ger. Beisser) (Ex. 1), in which connection it seems not impossible that its English name may have been originally 'bite.' Dr. Callcott however, in his Grammar of Music, speaks of the beat as a reversed shake, and derives its name from Battement, giving an example as in Ex. 2. Battement again, according to Rousseau (Dictionnaire de Musique), is a shake beginning on the upper instead of the principal note (Ex. 3)

It is doubtless owing to this uncertainty that the word has now almost fallen into disuse.

[ F. T. ]