Sempre marcato

As Printed on a Score

Printed above or below the staff at the start of the passage, often naming what is to be marked (sempre marcato il canto, the melody) and sometimes joined to a contrasting word (dolce ma sempre marcato). It lasts until a new articulation word or texture.

Abbreviations: sempre marc.

How Composers Use It

Keeps an emphasis going through a passage that would otherwise relax. Its most useful form names the target: in a piano texture, sempre marcato il canto tells the player which line carries the melody while the rest stays lighter. Combined with dolce it asks for a tender line that still projects — a balance players need to be told about.

Example

Liszt, Transcendental Étude No. 9 (“Ricordanza”), m. 36: “dolce ma sempre marcato il canto.”

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