Accentuation (music)

Accentuation is one of the elements of musical expression. Just as it happens in language that certain phrases, words or syllables must be said or written in a certain way to express different meanings; in music certain notes in the musical phrase must be emphasized to achieve certain effects, as provided in the piece of music.

An accent in music is an emphasis or relief that is applied to a certain sound, either in the form of a note or a chord, or as a result of its context or specifically indicated by a accent mark.

Description

Musical accentuation is usually perceived aurally as a feeling of support or release of energy. Contributes to the articulation and prosody of the interpretation of a musical phrase. This accentuation or accent is indicated by various signs and terms. In musical notation, an accent is a sign that indicates that a note must be interpreted with greater intensity than those around it. That is, it must audibly stand out from unstressed notes. The accented note itself can also be called an accent.

Types

Accents can be of various types depending on the factor that determines the perception of the accent. These factors can be related to the rhythm, pitch, intensity or duration of the music.

Metrical accent

The metrical accent is that inherent to the rhythmic organization of music and consists of the increase in the rhythmic intensity of a given musical measure. Generally, though not always, this positional stress occurs at regular intervals in musical notation and performance, giving rise to a specific meter. The accent falls on the first beat of each measure. In turn, within the measure there are subaccents that are located at the beginning of each beat. In the case of the quaternary time signature, a semi-strong accent falls on the third beat, which must be played moderately accented.

Accents that do not correspond to the downbeat of the predominant rhythm are said to be syncopated.

Tonic accent

A tonic accent is an emphasis on a note that makes the sound higher than the rest of the notes. This type of accent has been applied in the poetry and prose of languages such as ancient Greek, emphasizing the stressed syllable by raising the tone of voice when pronouncing it. For this reason, in literature this accent receives names such as tonic, musical,, height, chromatic or melodic.

Agogic accent

An agogic accent is an emphasis on a note that is based on the sound being longer in duration compared to other notes. This type of accent is highlighted in written pieces in non-uniform rhythms or free rhythm. There are four kinds of agogic accent:

• A longer duration of a note. For example a white one among the black notes.
• A longer duration of a note with its full time value, without altering the tempo. For example, organ and key interpreters, which do not allow the use of dynamic accents, can emphasize one of a sequence of black notes in staccato making it less staccato.
• A longer duration of a note with the effect of slowing down.
• The delayed attack of a note.

Dynamic accent

A dynamic accent is an emphasis on a note that is based on the sound being louder than the rest of the notes, usually more pronounced in the attack of the sound. They are stronger sounds that do not necessarily coincide with the metric accent and that the composer places at convenience. These accents are represented by various signs that are placed in the score above or below the note (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Staccato, staccatissimo, Marcato, accent and Tight..

The intensity accent replaced the prosodic accent from the 3rd century on in Byzantine music and from the 4th century on in the music of Ancient Rome.

In musical notation, an accent indicates that strong dynamics are to be applied to a single note or articulation mark. The horizontal accent is the most common, the fourth symbol in the illustration above, which is the symbol most musicians mean when they say accent sign. The vertical accent, in third place in the scheme, can be interpreted stronger or weaker than the horizontal accent. Composers have never made a consistent use of these signs. In most musical works this type of accent is meant to be played louder and usually shorter. The rest of the signs tend to shorten the note.

Figure 2. Brand.

Figure 3. Acento.

• Staccatoindicates that the last part of a note should be silenced to create a separation between that note and the next. The duration of a note in staccato may be about half, as long as the musical figure indicates, although the Tempo as well as the criteria of the interpreters make it a bit different.
• Staccatissimo, is usually interpreted as shorter than the staccato. Although the composers until the time of Mozart used both symbols indistinctly. A black one staccatissimo it was interpreted in traditional music as a slightly articulated semicorchea followed by the silences that fill the rest of the pulses.
• Brand, with vertical open wedge shape (see Figure 2), is even stronger or more marked than a normal accent sign.
• Accent, in the form of horizontal open wedge (see Figure 3), indicates that the note to which it affects must have an initial emphasis and then decrease fairly quickly. This sign is known by classical musicians as mark, although it usually refers simply as a accent.
• Tenuto.which can have three meanings. It may indicate that a note or chord will be played in all its duration or longer, that a note or chord will be interpreted a little stronger, or that a note should be separated with a brief pause of the surrounding notes. This last meaning is usually inferred when several notes are displayed with signs of Tight.especially under an expression ligature.

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

Anti-accents

Music for percussion especially makes use of signs such as anti-accents that are notated as follows:

• ↓: with a brief sign on the head of the note, indicates that it should be touched slightly softer than the next notes.
• (): with the head of the note in parentheses, it means that it is played significantly smoother than the next notes.
• [ ]: With the head of the note in brackets, it means that it will be interpreted much smoother than the next notes.

Figure 4. Anti-acentos.