ABSTRACT
The meaning of dots and strokes in 18th- and 19th-century music has exercised the minds of editors and scholars for over a century. Much attention has been focused on the question of what sort of distinctions theorists made between these markings and how many different forms were employed by particular composers. During the last decades of the 18th century an ever more sophisticated hierarchy of dynamic, accent and articulation markings began to develop. One important consequence of the use of a wider range of articulation, accent and expression markings in the 19th century was that some of the functions previously inherent in dots and strokes began to be taken over by other markings, especially accent markings. In his article in the last issue of Early music Frederick Neumann lent support to the view that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart used dots and strokes on unslurred notes with distinct meanings.
