A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Tenuto

by J. A. Fuller Maitland

TENUTO, 'held'; a direction of very frequent occurrence in pianoforte music, though not often used in orchestral scores. It (or its contraction ten.) is used to draw attention to the fact that particular notes or chords are intended to be sustained for their full value, in passages where staccato phrases are of such frequency that the players might omit to observe that some notes are to be played smoothly in contrast. Its effect is almost exactly the same as that of legato, save that this last refers rather to the junction of one note with another, and tenuto to the note regarded by itself. Thus the commoner direction of the two for passages of any length, is legato: tenuto however occurs occasionally in this connection, as in the slow movement of Beethoven's Sonata, op. 2, no. 2, in A, where the upper stave is labelled 'tenuto sempre,' while the bass is to be played staccato. Another good instance is in the slow movement of Weber's Sonata in A♭, op. 39.

[ J. A. F. M. ]