Crystal Premo:
I am composing an explanation of some musical symbols for my class of acting students learning to read music. I have been consulting my musical dictionary (Theodore Karp) to make sure I know whereof I speak,Lesson 1: Never, never trust a music dictionary. They are all wrong. Every one of them. Without exception. Especially on the rudiments, which they seem to copy from each other w.o thinking.
and have noticed that his examples do not include accents I am used to seeing, such as the combination accent/staccato (the greater-than sign with a dot below it) and the combination accent/tenuto (the greater-than sign with a line below it).Since these are simply combinations of other symbols whose meaning is unaffected by the combination, why should the dictionary (or you, for that matter) bother to define them?
I have been taught that the short line above a pitch is called "tenuto", but in my dictionary it is just described as a less marked accent.
See Lesson 1, above.
Portato is a string bowing term. In (fussy) string writing, a staccato specifically means that the note is to be shortened by lifting the bow from the string, not by stopping the bow's motion while remaining in contact w. the string. To get that latter effect, the staccato/tenuto combination symbol is employed. Technically, portato is the bowing effect needed to execute a staccato/tenuto; it is not the name of the symbol, because the symbol can be used in other instruments (see below) that are incapable of performing a portato.
Also, how do these symbols differ from what my dictionary identifies as portato, a line with a dot beneath it?
On the piano, the staccato/tenuto usually indicates staccato touch with tenuto pedalling. On wind instruments the symbol is usually taken to mean a long staccato--that is, the note is shortened, but not as much so as in a plain staccato. This is turn is (or was originally) supposed to represent an imitation of the string portato sound.
--
Andrew Stiller
Kallisti Music Press
http://www.kallistimusic.com
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