(Fr.).
In French music of the 17th and 18th centuries, a term directing the performer to follow the rhythmic convention of Notes inégales. In this sense pointer requires that notes (most usually quavers) written as equal be played ‘dotted’, so that the first of the series is lengthened, the second decreased by as much (e.g. a dotted quaver followed by a semiquaver). As late as 1768 Rousseau gave substantially this definition (Dictionnaire, article ‘Pointer’). However, he distinguished between French and Italian usage: while (he wrote) the French ‘point’, as a matter of course, those notes written as equal, the Italians play the notes as written (i.e. as equal) unless the specific term pointé is given in the music. In some contexts, applied to either a species of notes inégales or to a detached type of bowing (see Bow, §II, 2(vii)), pointer is synonymous with Piquer.
DAVID D. BOYDEN