Seems the board has become a bit obsessed with the tenuto mark, they are mysteriously appearing all over the place in the early grades piano pieces,I assume its the boards editors who are writing them in, but please tell me if I'm wrong. Anyway I feel they are being overused. Firstly nobody really knows what the mark means or put another way if you were to ask teachers you would get a few different answers. Printed explanations for the meaning of the mark vary too, Is the mark really relevant to the piano where you have no control of the shape and volume of the note after its played (it will surely decay).Do they mean slightly stressed notes, full or three quarter length notes surely these are for the interpreter to decide. I hope someone can enlighten me.

John (Hillingdon)

I've always interpreted tenuto as holding the note on for its full value; making the gaps between them as short as possible, like legato tounging. I guess on piano it could be a warning to not just hold it with the pedal? I'm not much of a pianist.

It means (on the piano) to give a slight stress, with arm weight rather than sharpness of hit, a little less than an arrow accent, also holding it for its full length, or even an agogic accent, but not quite legato. Clear as mud?

I've come to a definition which I believe to be authoritative, and to cover all situations in which the mark is used. I posted it here a couple of years ago and it met with approval, and have used it successfully with my pupils since.

An explanation of it is given at http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopi...l=tenuto+accent

My definition is:
A Tenuto Accent (a “held” accent) – emphasize, hold, and slightly separate the note.

....which creates the correct effect whether there is one note marked on its own, or a series of notes.

The link above gives proper details.

Hope that's useful,

DomRUK