This term is used for both the short vertical line (also commonly called ‘stroke’; see also Strich), and the horizontal line. The former mark is most commonly used as an indication for Staccato, but it is sometimes also encountered with more specialized meanings, such as to cancel inequality (see Notes inégales) or to indicate Tasto solo passages in Baroque thoroughbass notation; the horizontal dash generally signifies either that the note should be accented or held for its full value.
The vertical dash is one of three commonly encountered forms of staccato mark, the others being the dot and the wedge. All three forms occur in printed music, but the wedge was rarely, if ever, employed in manuscript. Although the slur had long been used as a sign for legato, the use of staccato marks did not become general until well into the 18th century. It seems unlikely that any distinction was, at first, intended between different forms of staccato mark; the early staccato mark seem sometimes to have indicated merely a detached execution and sometimes an accented and detached execution. By the mid-18th century some theorists, for example Riepel and Quantz, proposed differentiated meanings for dots and vertical dashes while others, such as C.P.E. Bach felt that a single sign for staccato was more appropriate (part of Bach's argument was that the use of staccato dots would obviate the possibility of confusion with the dashes used to indicate tasto solo). Nevertheless, there is little firm evidence to suggest that composers, including Mozart, used more than one form of the mark with differentiated meanings at that stage (see Staccato). In the 19th century composers became increasingly concerned to convey their intentions to performers with greater precision, and some began consciously to use two forms of staccato mark. However, the vertical dash acquired rather different meanings in Germany, where it tended to be associated with a sharper attack than the dot, and in France, where it implied greater lightness and shortness than the dot (see Articulation marks, §6).
The horizontal dash began to gain currency in 19th-century music. This mark was not used by Beethoven or Schubert but, either alone, in combination with a dot, or in combination with slurs, it is quite often found in music of the next generation of composers. At first it was associated primarily with accentuation (perhaps by analogy with the symbol for a stressed syllable in poetry). Henri Herz (Méthode complète de piano: op.100, Manz and Antwerp, 1838) considered a horizontal dash with a dot under it to indicate a heavy accent, and J.A. Hamilton's Dictionary of Two Thousand Musical Terms (London, 4/1837) illustrated the horizontal dash alone, as well as with a dot, as an accent sign. A.B. Marx (Allgemeine Musiklehre, Leipzig, 1839, 10/1884) considered the dash with dot to imply lingering as well as accent. Others, especially string players equated the horizontal dash with portato and employed it under slurs to avoid confusion with dots under slurs meaning slurred staccato (see Bow, §II, 3(iii)). Later 19th-century writers often associated it with Tenuto. However, the sign appears to have had a range of subtly different meanings for particular composers, which can only be determined from an examination of their particular usage.
A horizontal dash is also used following a number or sign in Figured bass to indicate the continuation of the same harmony upon as many bass notes as the dash covers.
For bibliography, see Staccato.
CLIVE BROWN