Salto

What it means

Salto is the Italian word for “leap” and designates, in a musical context, a leaping movement. The meaning is not fixed and depends on the context.

In dance, salto means a jump such as occurs in lively dances of the Renaissance and the Baroque. The galliard, for example, is characterized by jumps; the name of the saltarello goes back to the Italian verb saltare, to jump, even though the present-day folk dance of that name is not danced with leaps.

In melodic theory the term can designate an interval leap, that is, the step from one note to a more distant one, as opposed to stepwise movement. With string instruments there are also playing techniques with a bouncing bow whose designations go back to the same root.

The word has no fixed, generally binding meaning as a technical term; it is used more descriptively than terminologically.

In the notation

There is no notation of its own. Jumps in dance result from the choreography, not from the notated text. Interval leaps are recognizable by the distance between the notes. Bouncing bow techniques are indicated by dots, words, or combinations with slurs.

Musical use

Leaping movement shapes lively dances of every period. In the Renaissance, dancers showed their skill in jumps. In melodic writing, leaps create contrast to stepwise movement and give themes profile; large leaps seem expressive and tense.

For string players, saltando and saltato designate a bouncing bow technique in which the bow, through its elasticity, rebounds from the string; saltando corresponds to the French sautillé, while saltato is rendered in German as gesprungen. In the galliard, a large leap, the cadence, concludes the basic step cinq pas; the dancer then lands in the so-called posture, with one leg ahead of the other.

Performance practice

Prepare interval leaps by hearing the goal note internally before you play it — especially for singers and string players. Keep the line together despite the leap. And inform yourself, with dances, about the step sequence, for the jumps determine tempo and accent.