Signs as Accent Markings II

• le petit chapeau ( ^ )
  • 18th cent. usage by, e.g., Türk and Wolf to designate expressive stress
  • adopted by Hummel and other authors of instructional books in early 19th cent.
  • in all cases, intended as a relatively gentle accent (the plus sign, +, being used as an even lighter stress)
  • Fink (1808) lists ^, f, sfz and > as ‘nuanced expressive accents'; ^ probably lighter character than sfz and >
  • (recall that Türk proposed [1789] ^ as a less intense accent than sf)
  • in practice, ^ rarely used by composers of the earlier period
  • Meyerbeer among the first to use ^ extensively, probably as less powerful accent than >>
  • sometimes combined with dolce sf
  • In Les Huguenots, Meyerbeer adds instructions to the vocal line when using ^: "mark each of the six notes but without force" or "very soft (with plaintive expression)"
  • Verdi seems to have mixed > and ^ indiscriminately
  • Spohr and others began to use ^ more widely ca. 1840
  • ca. 1840-50, meaning of the sign changed from lighter than > to heavier
  • Czerny, writing after 1840, ranked it among the stronger accents: it "implies a higher degree of power"
  • composers who used ^ to indicate a gentle stress also tended to use > instead of sf
  • Schumann seems to have mostly agreed with Czerny: ^ is heavier than >
  • Berlioz is "similarly ambiguous": > may imply a dim. (^ lacking it), but that's not always clear
  • Dvorák: combines ^ and downbows

• messa di voce ( <> )
  • commonly used by some 19th cent. composers
  • Beethoven fond of the symbol
  • used extensively by Schumann
  • that it represents a stress (accent?) as opposed to cresc./decresc. is supported by its routine use by many composers on short notes in piano music
  • mostly found in 19th cent. German composers' works
    • Mendelssohn
    • Brahms
    • Bruch
  • apparently indicates a kind of "warm", not too powerful, accent (perhaps an agogic element?), with implication of vibrato where appropriate

• horizontal line ( – )
  • with or without a dot above or below the line
  • rare before mid-19th cent., though mentioned in instruction books earlier
  • Herz: "If the execution of a single tone requires to be heavily accented the sign [– with a dot below it] is employed".
  • note that – is also used to indicate a stressed syllable in poetry
  • A.B. Marx: "a greater degree of intensity"..."linger over each sound"
  • Czerny: (esp. with notes separated by rests,) "...keys must be struck with more than the usual emphasis, and the notes must be held for almost more than their usual value"
  • Schmann's use in a number of instances seems to agree with Czerny
  • other definitions (where the dot is included):
    • associated with accent and a degree of sostenuto (Mendel–Reissmann Lexikon)
    • "a broad kind of playing, but yet with separation of the single tones (portato, non legato) (Reimann)
    • "attack the note heavily and weightily, and quit it immediately in a detached manner (Encyclopédie of the Paris Conservatoire)
  • without the dot, definitions are as diverse:
    • "held down for its full value" (Riemann)
    • "pressed with more firmness" (Encyclopédie)
    • "broadly staccatoed or legato" (L. Schubert, Violinschule)
  • context seems to be the best guide:
    • weight without sharpness of attack (Liszt)
    • tenuto (length of note) instead of accent (Liszt)
    • discrete vibrato (Wagner)
    • slightest degree of separation (Elgar)
    • equality of weight with almost imperceptible articulation, esp. reinforced by bowing (Tchaikovsky)

"Most of the signs...are also encountered in combination with slurs. In keyboard playing, and, to a large extent, in wind playing the use of a slur usually seems to have meant simply that the notes should be less distinctly separated (though in wind playing there may also have been implications for breathing). In string playing the slur is specifically a bowing instruction, but the end effect is much the same. Where such signs appear over successive notes under a slur, however, their function is as much articulation as accent...." --Brown, pg. 137