Staccato

In musical notation, the Italian word staccato (literally "detached", plural "staccatos" or "staccati") indicates that notes are separated in a detached and distinctly separate manner, with silence making up the latter part of the time allocated to each note. [http://neilhawes.com/sstheory/theory43.htm] The rhythm is not affected. Notes identified as staccato are often played or sung abruptly and short. They are usually denoted by a dot over the head of the note when the stem is downward, or by a dot below the head of the note when the stem is upward:

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Sometimes in the Classical period (the piano works of Mozart, for example) some sort of an accent mark might be used instead, which leads to uncertainty as to what the composer intended. Accentuation and staccato effects at times go hand in hand, but scarcely so in most modern works.

Playing staccato is the opposite of playing legato. A staccato passage for strings does not necessarily have to be pizzicato, though pizzicato itself might be thought of as a kind of staccato effect. For example, Leroy Anderson's "Jazz Legato/Jazz Pizzicato". There is an intermediate articulation called either mezzo staccato or non-legato.

Audio examples

ee also

*Staccatissimo
*Legato
*Portato
*Slur (music)

External links

* [http://neilhawes.com/sstheory/theory43.htm Basic Music Theory] Neil V. Hawes, organist and choirmaster of St. Mary's Church, Osterley
* [http://www.theviolinsite.com/bowarm.html Staccato] - video example of staccato playing