George Frederick McKay · section 89 of 111

STACCATO AND LEGATO (Simultaneous)

Nothing sounds more live and interesting than a musical structure in which continuous staccato and continuous legato sound simultaneously, as in this excerpt from Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2:

The scores of Saint-Saëns are particularly vivid in their use of this principle. Composers vary in their uses of staccato and legato. Some, like Franck, Delius, and Wagner, tend to be somewhat monotonously legato; whereas others, like Scarlatti and Prokofiev, are more staccato. The ideal or norm should be a balance of staccato and legato and sufficient use of the simultaneous contrast, as in the above example.