Portato

Not to be confused with Portamento.

Portato ([porˈtaːto]; Italian past participle of portare, "to carry"), also mezzo-staccato, French notes portées,^[1] in music denotes a smooth, pulsing articulation and is often notated by adding dots under slur markings.

Portato is also known as articulated legato.^[2]

Description

One type of portato notation, also used for staccato and flying spiccato.

Portato is a bowing technique for bowed stringed instruments^[3] in which successive notes are gently re-articulated while being joined under a single continuing bow stroke. It achieves a kind of pulsation or undulation, rather than separating the notes. It has been notated in various ways. One early 19th-century writer, Pierre Baillot (L'art du violon, Paris, 1834), gives two alternatives: a wavy line, and dots under a slur. Later in the century a third method became common: placing "legato" dashes (tenuto) under a slur.^[1] The notation with dots under slurs is ambiguous, because it is also used for very different bowings, including staccato and flying spiccato.^[1][4] Currently, portato is sometimes indicated in words, by "mezzo-staccato" or "non-legato"; or can be shown by three graphic forms:

• a slur that encompasses a phrase of staccato notes (the most common), or
• a tenuto above a staccato mark (very often), or
• a slur that encompasses a phrase of tenuto notes (less common).^[5]

Portato is defined by some authorities as "the same as portamento".^[6]

See also

• Legato
• Bariolage