Loading…
Loading…
Accent the melody.
Printed beside the staff where the melody enters, usually in piano music where the tune must cut through busy writing; it lasts while that melody continues.
Accentuato is a stronger request than marcato il canto: individual melody notes are stressed, not just projected. Use it when a melody is surrounded by full or busy accompaniment and needs definite articulation to cut through. If you only want the line to sing above the rest, marcato il canto or cantando is gentler.
Liszt, Piano Sonata in B minor, m. 603: “accentuato il canto” at mf, two bars after a “riten.”
Accentuato il canto is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
Browse the full dictionary →