<sigh> 1) The line, however it is performed, is always to be called a tenuto. So is the effect it designates, however varied.>Crystal Premo wrote: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.John Howell responded:I would disagree with this. I interpret it--and intend it when I use it--as a stress mark, not an accent mark. Clap your hands together;thatis an accent. Press your hands together; that is a stress. It is not, ever, a "tenuto," which means a "holding" or stretching of the beat,quitea different thing.I wouldn't expect "tenuto" to imply extra length, though I hear it interpreted that way. In circumstances where it is used immediately after staccato I interpret it as "hold this for its full length, in contrast to the preceding staccato". Does the Italian mean both "held" and "stretched"? The little line seems to be used quite ambiguously.Patsy Moore
2) On all sustaining instruments, and on piano, harp, guitar, vibes, chimes too, the tenuto indicates that the affected note is to be detached from its successor by the minimum perceptible gap. In actual practice the gap is seldom narrower than that of an ordinary detached note, but both the cutoff of the note and the attack of the succeeding note, if any, is softened, so that the notes seem to be almost, if not quite, slurred. Where (as most frequently) the tenuto is followed by a rest, it indicates that the affected note is to be given its full notated value, and not cut off a bit short as is ordinarily the case (e.g., with alternating eighth-notes and eighth rests); in effect, such a tenuto has the significance of a "non staccato" warning.
3) As a matter of expressivity, some tenuto marks do imply a slight accent, because broadly-articulated notes imply a raised degree of passion--but this is definitely secondary to the broad, near-slurred effect, which is *always* to be produced.
4) The word tenuto means "held" in Italian, which emphasizes its central significance of "non staccato."
5) On drums, harpsichord, marimba, etc. you just play a normal note but put a look on your face that sez you're holding it out longer than it actually sustains.
6) People, people, people: you *know* all this! We all took music lessons, right? Every one of us was told all these things, exc. maybe #3, when we were kids. So why do I have to repeat it all now?
--
Andrew Stiller
Kallisti Music Press
http://www.kallistimusic.com
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