Molto marcato

As Printed on a Score

Printed above or below the staff at the passage it governs, often after or beside accents and sf. It holds until another articulation word, dynamic change or new material.

How Composers Use It

Strongly marked: more weight and separation than ben marcato, close to marcatissimo. It suits bass lines and themes that must cut through a full texture, especially in loud passages. Watch for redundancy — molto marcato over notes that already carry accents and sf says the same thing three times — but the word does usefully fix the character for a whole passage.

Example

Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major (“Eroica”), fourth movement, cellos, m. 221: “molto marcato”, after an sf in each of the four bars before.

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