The Short

204 NOTATION OF ARTICULATION AND PHRASING
works. The orthographic distinction between thin vertical lines and staccato marks that correspond with his dots of
prolongation is usually quite clear (Ex. 6.2.) (The passage in Ex. 6.2(a) recurs with the same obvious strokes in the
recapitulation, and the dotted passages are consistent throughout.) Schubert's concern to make a difference is
demonstrated by a place in the autograph of Fierrabras, where he appears to have written dots in the cello and bass part
(which was sketched first, together with the vocal parts), but subsequently changed them to strokes to match the other
orchestral parts, which he added later. 353 Cherubini and Spohr were among those who appear to have shown little if any
interest in using two staccato marks. It has been argued that Rossini did so, but this remains questionable, at least in all
but the last operas. In Semiramide, for instance, many pages provide examples of an indiscriminate mixture of dots and
strokes as staccato marks (Ex. 6.3.) Among composers born in the eighteenth century, Meyerbeer certainly seems to
have intended two signs in some works, though unlike many German composers he used the dot as his predominant
staccato mark, employing strokes relatively infrequently. Marschner, too, employed both signs, apparently
intentionally. 354 Nevertheless,
Ex. 6.2. Schubert, Piano Sonata in G D. 894/i
353 No. 3, bar 22. It is also significant that the outer sections of this march consistently have strokes while the gentler middle section has dots throughout.
354 See ch. 3 and n. 65 for a 19th-c. opinion on the meaning of Marschner's staccato strokes.