Staccato

Not to be confused with a dotted note.
For other uses, see Staccato (disambiguation).
{ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \relative c'' { a4-. b-. c2-. } }
Three notes with staccato dots

Staccato ([stakˈkaːto]; Italian for "detached") is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration,[1][2] separated from the note that may follow by silence.[3] It has been described by theorists and has appeared in music since at least 1676.[4]

  1. ^ Willi Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1960), p. 708.
  2. ^ Kennedy, Joyce; Kennedy, Michael; Rutherford-Jones, Tim, eds. (2012). "Staccato". The Oxford Dictionary of Music (6th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-957810-8.
  3. ^ Geoffrey Chew, "Staccato", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
  4. ^ 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).