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The Common ToneWhere the Sacred and the Profane Share the Same Cup
The Common Tone · Visual Language of Music
Tenuto A short horizontal line centered above a notehead.

Tenuto

also called: tenuto mark · tenuto line · stress mark

A short horizontal line above or below a notehead telling you to hold the note for its full written value, often with a slight lean into it.

What you do

Give the note its full written value and a little extra weight — a lean, not an attack. What that means in practice shifts with style and era — sometimes fully sustained with no daylight before the next note, sometimes a slight expressive stress, sometimes even a hair of separation. The constant is that this note gets its full due.

In context

Tenuto — example Two engraved measures of the same descending four quarter notes. In the first measure each notehead carries a short horizontal tenuto line; the second measure is unmarked. Engraved by Verovio 6.2.1-8d42439
The first bar carries tenuto lines — each note held for its full written value and, depending on style, possibly given extra weight; the second bar shows the same notes without articulation marks.

Don’t confuse with

staccato
The staccato dot shortens the note; the tenuto line does the opposite — it asks for the full value. Same positions, opposite instructions.

See also

staccato · accent

For specialists

SMuFL: articTenutoAbove
Record status: draft — verification pending (bookshelf locators + chord-symbol authority; OQ-1 blocks the slice gate)