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Staccato (; Italian for "detached") is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration,Willi Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1960), p. 708. separated from the note that may follow by silence.Geoffrey Chew, "Staccato", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001). It has been described by theorists and has appeared in music since at least 1676.Werner Bachmann, Robert E. Seletsky, David D. Boyden, Jaak Liivoja-Lorius, Peter Walls, and Peter Cooke, "Bow", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
A number of signs came to be used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to discriminate more subtle nuances of staccato. These signs involve various combinations of dots, vertical and horizontal dashes, vertical and horizontal wedges, and the like, but attempts to standardize these signs have not generally been successful.Geoffrey Chew, "Staccato", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
The example below illustrates the scope of the staccato dot:
<< \clef treble
\relative c' {
\stemNeutral -. -. -. -.
\stemUp a'-. c-. c-. d-.
} \\ {
s1
f'4 f' g' g'
}
>>
}
In the first measure, the pairs of notes are in the same musical part (or voice) since they are on a common stem. The staccato applies to both notes of the pairs. In the second measure, the pairs of notes are stemmed separately indicating two different parts, so the staccato applies only to the upper note.
The opposite musical articulation of staccato is legato, signifying long and continuous notes. There is an intermediate articulation called either mezzo staccato or non legato.
For wind and bowed string instruments in particular, staccato is often also associated with a faster attack, potentially involving a different bowing or tonguing technique as appropriate.
\new Staff {
\relative c' {
\time 3/4
\key d \minor
\clef treble
d8->(\ff cis d2~
d4) a'-! d-!
es-! e-! f-!
fis-! g-! gis-!
a8(-> gis a4)
}
}
}
Alternatively, it can be notated by writing the word "staccatissimo" or the abbreviation "staccatiss." over the staff. A few composers, such as Mozart, have used staccato dots accompanied by a written instruction staccatissimo when they mean the passage to be played staccatissimo.Philip Farkas, The Art of French Horn Playing (Evanston: Summy-Birchard Company, 1956): p. 51. .
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