Accent (music)

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Accent (music)

In music

Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
, an accent is an emphasis placed on a particular note, either as a result of its context or specifically indicated by an accent mark. A tonic accent is an emphasis on a note by virtue of being higher in pitch

Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
than surrounding notes. An agogic accent is an emphasis by virtue of being longer in duration

Duration

A tone may be sustained for varying lengths of time. Duration is a property of tone that becomes one of the bases rhythm or an quantity of time or a particular time Interval ....
than surrounding notes, in a way that shifts their time of onset. Dynamic accents are created when one note is louder than another.

Accents which do not correspond to the stressed beats

Beat (music)

A beat is the basic time unit within much Western music; for example, each tick sounded by a metronome would correspond to a beat. More technically, "the beat is the pulse of the mensural level", also known as the beat level, the meter level at which pulses are heard as the basic unit?"the denominator of the time signature,"...
of the prevailing meter

Metre (music)

Meter or metre is a concept related to an underlying division of time characteristic of western music. The concept provides that the pattern, is usually 2, 3, or 4 beats long, , and each beat may be normally divided into 2 or 3 basic subdivisions ....
are said to be syncopated (See syncopation

Syncopation

In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak beat in a meter ....
).

Accent marks
In music notation, an accent mark indicates a louder dynamic

Dynamics (music)

In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note , but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional ....
to apply to a single note, or an articulation

Articulation (music)

In music, articulation refers to the direction or performance technique which affects the transition or continuity on single note or between multiple notes or sounds....
mark.

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Encyclopedia

In music

Music

Pitch (music)

Duration

Beat (music)

Metre (music)

Syncopation

In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak beat in a meter ....
).

Accent marks

In music notation, an accent mark indicates a louder dynamic

Dynamics (music)

Articulation (music)

In music, articulation refers to the direction or performance technique which affects the transition or continuity on single note or between multiple notes or sounds....
mark. The most common is the horizontal accent, the fourth symbol in the diagram above; this is the symbol that most musicians mean when they say accent mark. The vertical accent, third in the diagram, may be stronger or weaker than the horizontal accent; composers have never been consistent in using these markings. The vertical accent has many informal names such as a "housetop". In most musical works this type of accent is meant to be played more forcefully and usually shorter.

The remaining marks typically shorten a note. Staccato

Staccato

In musical notation, the Italian language word staccato indicates that note are separated in a detached and distinctly separate manner or short and separated, with silence making up the latter part of the time allocated to each note....
, the first symbol shown above, indicates that the last part of a note should be silenced to create separation between it and the following note. The duration of a staccato note may be about half as long as the note value

Note value

In music notation, a note value indicates the relative duration of a note , using the color or shape of the note head, the presence or absence of a stem , and the presence or absence of flags....
would indicate, although the tempo

Tempo

In musical terminology, 'tempo' is the speed or pace of a given musical piece. It is an extremely crucial element of composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece....
and performers' taste varies this quite a bit. The staccatissimo

Staccatissimo

In musical notation, staccatissimo indicates that the notes are to be played extremely separated and distinct, a superlative staccato. This can be notated with little pikes over or under the notes, depending on stem direction, as in this example from Bruckner's Symphony No....
, shown second, is usually interpreted as shorter than the staccato, but composers up to the time of Mozart used these symbols interchangeably. The tenuto

Tenuto

Tenuto is a direction used in musical notation. Arguably, it is one of the first directions to be used in music notation, as Notker of St Gall discusses the use of the letter t in plainsong notation as meaning trahere vel tenere debere in one of his letters....
mark, shown fifth above, indicates that a note is to be separated with a little space from surrounding notes. This separation may be enough to emphasize the note, or it may have to be played a little louder, at the discretion of the player. The tenuto mark also indicates that the note should be played for its full value - not cut off earlier. Sometimes these symbols are used in combination.

Even when these symbols are absent, experienced musicians will introduce the appropriate gesture according to the style

Music genre

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music....
of the music.

Anti-accent marks

Percussion music in particular makes use as well of anti-accent

Ghost note

Ghost notes are musical notes occurring in a rhythmic Figure which are purposely deemphasized, often nearly to the point of silence. In popular music drumming these notes are played, "very softly between the 'main' notes," most often on the snare drum in a drum kit:...
marks, as follows:

slightly softer than surrounding notes: (ubreve)
significantly softer than surrounding notes: (note head in parentheses)
much softer than surrounding notes: [ ] (note head in brackets)