Orchestration
String Bowing and Articulation: A Practical Arranger Guide
Legato, detache, spiccato, staccato, martelé: what each bowing sounds like, how to mark it, and writing playable string parts.
Articulation
How a note begins, sounds and ends, controlled by marks such as staccato, accent, tenuto and legato.
Also called: articulations, articulation marks, note attack
Articulation is the way an individual note is begun, shaped and ended. It covers the attack, the moment a note starts, and the release, where it stops or joins the next note. Articulation marks include staccato (short and detached), legato (smooth and connected), accent (an emphasis on the attack) and tenuto (held for its full value, sometimes with a slight stress). The same pitch and loudness can sound quite different with different articulation. A quarter note at forte played staccato and the same note played tenuto differ in length and attack, not in volume. On string instruments articulation depends on bowing, on wind instruments on tonguing, and on piano on touch. The composer writes the marks, and the performer interprets them.
Related terms
- StaccatoNotes played short and detached, marked by a dot above or below the notehead, with silence left before the next note.
- LegatoNotes played smoothly and connected, with no silence between them, often marked by a slur over the group.
- DynamicsThe relative loudness of music, shown by markings such as p for soft and f for loud, and by hairpins for gradual change.
- PizzicatoPlucked strings, written pizz., played with a finger rather than the bow, with the marking arco restoring bowing.