Stress

The acute-like stress mark emphasizes a note where that stress contradicts the prevailing metre or phrasing. Schoenberg adapted stress and unstress signs from poetic scansion; the mark is not simply a decorative accent variant.

Stress: music notation symbol placed above the note. Give the note more weight than its neighbours.
Family
Articulation
Where it sits
Above the note
What it looks like
A slash

Do not confuse it with

A normal accent marks emphasis generally; stress chiefly clarifies an intended metrical or phrasal contradiction.

What the sources say

  • Dorico Pro — Articulations Steinberg
    Indicate notes that should be emphasized or not emphasized where that contradicts the prevailing meter, using stressed and unstressed marks.
  • Unicode request for three musical symbols Unicode Consortium
    Arnold Schoenberg ... borrowed the acute-and-breve notation from scansion in poetry to represent stressed and unstressed notes that contradict the meter
  • SMuFL — Articulation W3C Music Notation Community Group
    articStressAbove — Stress above

All notation signs

Top Write to me