Regular accent louder than marcato accent

• Jul 22, 2021 - 16:13

Why? It's supposed to be the other way around.


Comments

There are two different interpretations of that marking in common use. In older music, it is used rarely, but can indeed mean a louder accent. In much modern music (jazz/rock/funk/etc), however, it is used very commonly, and doesn't mean louder than a standard accent, but rather, shorter. MuseScore had to pick one of the two interpretations to use, so we went with the one used in the genres where the marking is actually common, rather than the interpretation used in genres where it is more rare.

In reply to by scorster

Via the Piano Roll Editor
Or by editing the mscx file (inside the mscz), there you'll find, per instrument, something like this:

        <Articulation>
          <velocity>100</velocity>
          <gateTime>95</gateTime>
          </Articulation>
        <Articulation name="staccatissimo">
          <velocity>100</velocity>
          <gateTime>33</gateTime>
          </Articulation>
        <Articulation name="staccato">
          <velocity>100</velocity>
          <gateTime>50</gateTime>
          </Articulation>
        <Articulation name="portato">
          <velocity>100</velocity>
          <gateTime>67</gateTime>
          </Articulation>
        <Articulation name="tenuto">
          <velocity>100</velocity>
          <gateTime>100</gateTime>
          </Articulation>
        <Articulation name="marcato">
          <velocity>120</velocity>
          <gateTime>67</gateTime>
          </Articulation>
        <Articulation name="sforzato">
          <velocity>150</velocity>
          <gateTime>100</gateTime>
          </Articulation>
        <Articulation name="sforzatoStaccato">
          <velocity>150</velocity>
          <gateTime>50</gateTime>
          </Articulation>
        <Articulation name="marcatoStaccato">
          <velocity>120</velocity>
          <gateTime>50</gateTime>
          </Articulation>
        <Articulation name="marcatoTenuto">
          <velocity>120</velocity>
          <gateTime>100</gateTime>
          </Articulation>
 

In reply to by SLJK

From Wikipedia:
Accented notes can be notated sforzando, sforzato, forzando or forzato (abbreviated sfz, sf, or fz) ("forcing" or "forced"), or using the sign >, placed above or below the head of the note.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Quite old post I know, not sure if you are going to read this but I am wondering if these articulation names shown in mscx are the whole set or if there are more defined names for soft version of articulations which in musescore are encased in "<>" and other symbols like this Captura de pantalla 2023-05-18 073931.png .

Thanks in advance.

In reply to by SLJK

For piano, the simplest way to reduce the volume of the accent note is to just reduce its velocity (that of the note itself, not the accent) in the Inspector. You can do this for as many notes at a time as you like, provided you make sure you literally have only notes selected (eg, click the Notes button in the Inspector after selecting a range).

For wind and string other instruments, I suspect you'll find the accent is not too loud, it's actually very subtle, a slight push on the attack then immediately decreasing in volume again - very natural-sounding. It's only the instruments that don't support single note dynamics where it seems so harsh, and even then, really only the ones in which the increase in velocity also triggers a more percussive sample to be played.

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