Please could someone tell me what is this for in piano music? I've looked in my theory books to no avail. Many thanks.

It's a strong accent.

Thank you very much. There is one at the end of a phrase in a piece I'm looking at. It is placed over a tenuto and a staccato mark - ie all three together. So would you say that the upside down 'v' affects the way you start the note, and the staccato and tenuto marks together affect the way you finish it (ie, somewhat detatched but not as short as staccato)?

Your guess is as good as mine on that.
It sounds a bit over the top!

I'm glad you said that! Thanks.

as has already been said, its basically a type of accent. It might be worth looking at other editions of the same piece. they might have a different symbol or some of them might have a preface explaning it. In my experiance a lot of symbols have different meanings for different composers/editors. Another thing you could maybe do is listen to recordings and see what others have done.

Hmmm weird. I would defo look at other editions as already said. But I would say that I would play it accented, long but detached I can't remember the word for it but its in between legato and staccato.

Does sound weird

According to my teacher it's a staccatissimo marking. i.e very short like a stab and then a stop. I have one over a tenuto or something similar in a piece I'm doing and queried it with my teacher. He said that wherever that symbol is used it indicates a need to "attack" the note. Hope that's of some help

Lol thats sounds good to get some stress out! What sort of pieces are you playing (with these markings)?

Thank you very much for all these thoughts and suggestions. I wondered about staccatissimo but would have expected a vertical wedge. But I do agree with Oboecop; it seems to me that the use of these kinds of symbols isn't consistent. (I'm playing from Bartok's pieces 'For Children'.)

Its called a Marcato - It's a really heavy accent, you should play the note Sforzando, however only sound it for 2/3rds of how long it should, then leave an obvious rest for the other 1/3rd. The Staccato and Tenuto marks also imply this, although they aren't necessary.

For me - I'm a clarinettist mainly and I think it's in the malcolm Arnold Sonatina but it occurs in somem of the wind band stuff - Phantom of the Opera intro for example.

With the '^', a lot depends on the music you're playing. As a general rule, if I have a piece with both '>' and '^' accents, I'll make the '^' accents stronger and shorter than the '>' accents.

Thank you, everyone.