Marcato (rooftop) accent always above?

[Wescott]

This touches on a pet peeve of mine that I know nothing can be done about, but can anyone tell me what makes the marcato (rooftop) accent special with respect to it having to always be placed above the staff? I don't understand this and it seems like one of those things that people do because "it's always been done that way". I don't see why it can't be placed just like you place all the other articulation marks. What am I missing?

[John Ruggero]

The marcato accent may be placed above or below the notes. Certain things would be impossible to notate if this were not true; for example, in a piano piece, placing a marcato on a low bass note played simultaneously with a second voice above it in the lower staff. Dorico has an option called "natural" placement of the marcato, which does precisely that.

marcato below.png (31.18 KiB) Viewed 216 times

[Wescott]

Thanks, John.

Yes, it can be placed beneath a note of a second voice, but I'm talking about the default nature standard of marcato symbols always (or almost always) being above the staff of a single voice staff. I don't get it. You have a line of stem up notes going along with an accent here, a tenuto there, a staccato here, and so on, all placed beneath the staff, and then when you have a marcato, suddenly it has to go above the staff.

[Fred G. Unn]

I don't see why it can't be placed just like you place all the other articulation marks. What am I missing?

It's virtually always placed above to avoid confusion with an up bow symbol. When inverted, it looks almost identical so its meaning is no longer clear.

[Wescott]

Okay, thanks.

That makes some sense. But I thought that's why up bow symbols were drawn so differently than the marcato accent, and when the marcato is upside down is beneath the staff anyway.

[John Ruggero]

Perhaps it goes back to the days of hand copying when it was much harder to distinguish between the two symbols. In an orchestral setting, questions and confusion are shunned at all costs. As I mentioned, Dorico does give the option of a more natural placement of the marcato. Maybe this should be limited to instruments in which potential confusion is not an issue.

[hautbois baryton]

I would only use the upside down version on a staff with multiple voices; otherwise it's always above the staff.