Legato

Playing connected

Legato describes how one note joins the next: the first note sounds until the next begins, and no silence arises in between. What is meant is a flowing, singing way of playing. How to achieve it depends on the instrument: on the piano you hold a key until the next is struck. Strings play the connected notes in one bow stroke, wind players begin the notes without a new tongue stroke, singers join them in one breath.

Sign or word

Legato is notated with a slur over the notes concerned, the legato slur. It is placed between notes of different pitch; if it joins two notes of the same pitch, it is a tie, which does something else. Instead of the slur the word “legato” can also be written above or below the staff, often with an addition such as “sempre legato” (always connected). The word then remains in effect until another mark cancels it.

Legato in context

Legato is one possibility of articulation, that is, of the “how” of the single note. Between legato and staccato lie further levels, for example portato, in which the notes are carried and only slightly separated from one another. The counterword to legato in the narrower sense is staccato, as in the comparison above.

Common mistakes

• Confusing legato with louder or longer: Connected does not mean louder, but without a gap.
• Reading every long slur as legato: Over many notes the slur can also mean a phrase, see phrase slur.
• Re-striking notes of the same pitch under the slur: With the same pitch it is a tie; the second note is not played anew.