Tenuto
Hold every note for its full value with a little weight — not a detached stroke
Related
Tenuto asks the player to hold a note for its full value and keep it sounding, marked by a short horizontal line above or below the notehead. On strings it means an even bow speed with no release of weight; on the piano the key is held down to the last moment; in wind playing the breath does not stop.
It usually carries a slight weight — not a sharp accent, but a note that "stands" within the phrase. The colour is fuller and more connected, while the attack need not be louder. The usual mistake is to treat tenuto as "a lengthened staccato" or as an accent: it is first a commitment to duration, and its dash is not a fermata.
Sources
- tenuto 的时值与重音含义，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Tenuto"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.