(Fr.).
A term meaning ‘to dot’ in the sense of Notes inégales or, as a type of bowing, to detach or separate. According to Loulié (Elements, Paris, 1696), piquer or pointer, applied to a passage of quavers written as equal (‘in any time signature, but especially in triple time’), meant that the first quaver was to be played much longer than the second so that the first quaver ‘ought to have a dot’. The result is evidently patterns of dotted quavers followed by semiquavers. On the other hand, Brossard (Dictionaire, 1703) wrote that picqué or pointé meant about the same as spiccato or staccato, which to Brossard meant to play the notes detached or separated. He did not mention Loulié’s dotted quaver–semiquaver pattern in this connection. See Bow, §II, 2(vii); and Pointer.
DAVID D. BOYDEN