Accents and marcato · From Zero to Mozart

An accent mark says: lean on this one note. More attack, a little more weight, so it stands out from its neighbours. It does not change the dynamic level of the passage — it's a local bump, not a new setting.

The two marks

Mark	Name	What it asks
`>` — a wedge open to the left	accent	a stress on the note — more bite at the start, within the current dynamic
`^` — a small caret / roof	marcato	heavier still, and separated — "marked", almost hammered; the note doesn't blend into the next

You've also met sf / fz (Movement B) — a sharper, more sudden jab than a plain accent. Same idea, more violent.

Hear it

Eight even eighth notes, with an accent on each half-bar downbeat. Listen to the metre step forward.

92 bpm

Accents on notes 1 and 5. The stream is otherwise even; the two leans make you hear where the beats are. An accent is a shaping tool as much as an effect.

76 bpm

Marcato carets. Each note leaned on and clearly cut off from the next — weighty and deliberate, like stamping each one down.

The lean is proportional

84 bpm

The same accents in p, then in f. In the soft bar they're gentle nudges; in the loud bar they're firm. An accent is always measured against the dynamic it sits in.

Try it

Try

Play eight even eighth notes on the open A at 96. Now put a quick catch of bow speed — not weight — on the first of each group of four. The note should bite at its start and then relax. You've placed an accent, and the eight notes now have a shape.

The usual mistake

Making an accent by crushing the string — you get a scratch, not a stress. A fast little surge of bow at the start of the note does it cleanly. Second: playing every accented note up at f regardless of the passage — an accent in p stays inside p. Third: reading > the accent as > the diminuendo hairpin. The accent sits on one note; the hairpin stretches across several. Check the width.