The Short

Ex. 6.10. Schumann, Second Symphony op. 61/ii
Mendelssohn's music, too, contains these patterns. An example that neatly illustrates the purpose of the staccato mark
merely to confirm separation from the slur may be taken from the overture Ruy Blas, where an isolated staccato mark
is found in the parts containing a slur, but not in the parts where there is no slur, in a passage that otherwise has no
hint of staccato execution (Ex. 6.11.) It also seems questionable whether the very infrequent staccato marks in the
‘Con moto’ section of the overture to the oratorio Paulus are anything but warnings not to slur; an isolated dot on a
quaver is there to prevent the slur continuing over the bar-line (Ex. 6.12,) while at the point where the slurring of the
semiquavers ceases, a few staccato marks reinforce the absence of slurs. This practice gradually disappeared, however,
in the course of the nineteenth century.
Ex. 6.11. Mendelssohn, Ruy Blas, overture
Ex. 6.12. Mendelssohn, Paulus, overture
DOTS AND STROKES 213
Most theorists agreed that the staccato mark was, in general, an instruction for shortening the note. How this was to be
achieved, and to what degree, depended to a considerable extent on the instrument and the musical circumstances. In
string playing, shortening seems often to have been less important than the manner in which the bowstroke was made.
Joseph Riepel, considering the matter from the point of view of the string player, stressed the importance of noting
whether the staccato occurred in the solo part of a concerto, a