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Marked, emphasized — each note given weight and clearly projected. As a sign it is usually the vertical wedge (^), a stronger accent than >.
As a word it is printed beside the passage — marcato, marc., ben marcato, marc. sempre, il basso marcato — and lasts until a contrary word such as dolce or legato. As a sign, the vertical wedge (^) over the note is the marcato accent, stronger than the ordinary accent (>). A phrase like il canto marcato names the voice to bring out.
Abbreviations: marc., marc
Marcato means each note should be strongly accented and clearly projected. It is stronger than a simple accent. Use it for theme statements that need to cut through thick textures, or for rhythmic passages that must be absolutely clear.
Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, fourth movement: “Allegro energico, sempre ben marcato.” heads the double fugue that combines the “Freude” melody with the “Seid umschlungen” theme.
Marcato is one of 1760 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.
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