marcato

{{for|the surname|Marcato (surname)}}thumb

{{Short description|Musical instruction}}

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|width=200|caption=The vertical wedge on the first note indicates marcato (It. marcatissimo or martellato), while the horizontal wedge on the second indicates an accent (It. marcato).}}Marcato (short form: Marc.; Italian for marked) is a musical instruction indicating a note, chord, or passage is to be played louder or more forcefully than the surrounding music. The instruction may involve the word marcato itself written above or below the staff or it may take the form of the symbol ∧,George Heussenstamm, The Norton Manual of Music Notation, W. W. Norton & Company, p. 52Anthony Donato, Preparing Music Manuscript, Prentice-Hall, Inc., p. 50Tom Gerou and Linda Rusk, Essential Dictionary of Musical Notation, Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., p.36 an open vertical wedge. The marcato is essentially a louder and often shorter version of the regular accent > (an open horizontal wedge).

Like the regular accent, however, the marcato is often interpreted to suggest a sharp attack tapering to the original dynamic,Walter Piston, Orchestration, W.W. Norton & Company: 1955, p. 20 an interpretation which applies only to instruments capable of altering the dynamic level of a single sustained pitch. According to author James Mark Jordan, "the marcato sound is characterized by a rhythmic thrust followed by a decay of the sound."James Mark Jordan, Evoking sound: Fundamentals of Choral Conducting and Rehearsing, GIA Publications: 1996, pp193.

{{citation needed span|date=March 2021|reason=see discussion around https://musescore.org/en/comment/1070006#comment-1070006 and especially the contradicting Jazz-specific source given in that comment|text=In jazz big-band scores, the marcato symbol usually indicates a note is to be shortened to approximately {{2/3}} its normal duration, and given a moderate accent.}}

The instruction marcato or marcatissimoWalter Piston, Orchestration, published by W.W. Norton & Company, 1955, page 17 (extreme marcato), among various other instructions, symbols, and expression marks may prompt a string player to use martelé bowing, depending on the musical context.Kent Kennan and Donald Grantham, The Technique of Orchestration, Third Edition, published by Prentice-Hall, pp.53-54 An example is the Gavotte in D major{{Which one|date=October 2018}} from J. S. Bach (Suzuki Book Volume 3) page 19, Bar 39.