Talk:Tenuto

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Re: "Throughout history this direction has come to have two distinct meanings: To sustain the indicated note or notes to the full length [and] To hold the indicated note, causing a brief interruption of meter":

History aside, nowadays--unless the tenuto mark has a slur above it--it means either hold the note its full length (or longer, with slight rubato) or else play the note louder. In other words, the tenuto mark is sometimes interpreted as an articulation mark and sometimes interpreted as a dynamic mark. The marcato, ^, is the papa bear; the accent mark, >, is the momma bear; and the tenuto, -, is the baby bear, the lightest of these three degrees of dynamic accentuation. I suppose some may dispute that the horizontal line appearing above individual notes should in all musical circumstances be called a tenuto mark. That may account for some of the confusion. TheScotch 08:09, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Would it be a violation of copyright law to quote a short extract from a published source in the discussion page? I'm going to risk it. This is from Essential Dictionary of Music Notation by Tom Gerou and Linda Lusk, published by Alfred in 1996 (I chose it because it's compact and easy to carry and I'm not home right now), p.31: "A tenuto indicates that a note or chord is to be held for its full value (durational articulation), or the intent may be to apply a slight stress (articulation of force). However it is interpreted, the tenuto is meant to ensure that a note or chord will be given a certain amount of attention. This emphasis allows the tenuto to be flexible in its application, especially when combined with other articulations. The tenuto is sometimes referred to as a sostenuto or stress." Continuing, p.33: "There are three articulations that affect the force of attack of a note or chord: the tenuto [-] discussed earlier, accent [>] and marcato [^]."TheScotch 08:31, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

I'll wait until around 3/1/7 to see if anyone objects, and then I'll try to incorporate the "force of attack" meaning into the article (without plagiarizing Gerou and Lusk, I hope).TheScotch 07:55, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

Done. TheScotch 05:16, 8 April 2007 (UTC)