Tenuto is a direction used in musical notation

Musical notation

Music notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols.-History:...

. Arguably, it is one of the first directions to be used in music notation, as Notker of St. Gall

Notker of St Gall

Notker the Stammerer , also called Notker the Poet or Notker of Saint Gall, was a musician, author, poet, and Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Saint Gall in modern Switzerland...

 (c.840

840

Year 840 was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.-Europe:* After the death of Louis the Pious, his sons Lothar, Charles the Bald and Louis the German fight over the division of the Holy Roman Empire, with Lothar succeeding as Emperor.-Asia:* Tang Wu Zong succeeds Tang Wen Zong...

 - 912

912

Year 912 was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.-Africa:* Second rebellion of the Kutama tribesmen against the Fatimid Caliphate in two years.- Europe :...

) discusses the use of the letter t in plainsong

Plainsong

Plainsong is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Catholic Church. Though the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Catholic Church did not split until long after the origin of plainchant, Byzantine chants are generally not classified as plainsong.Plainsong is monophonic, consisting of a...

 notation as meaning trahere vel tenere debere in one of his letters.

The precise meaning of tenuto is contextual: it can mean either hold the note in question its full length (or longer, with slight rubato), or play the note slightly louder. In other words, the tenuto mark may alter either the dynamics or the duration of a note. Either way, the marking indicates that a note should receive emphasis.

The marking's meaning may be affected when it appears in conjunction with other articulations. When it appears with a staccato

Staccato

Staccato is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation it signifies a note of shortened duration and separated from the note that may follow by silence...

 dot, it has the same meaning as staccato dots under a slur

Slur (music)

A slur is a symbol in Western musical notation indicating that the notes it embraces are to be played without separation. This implies legato articulation, and in music for bowed string instruments, it also indicates the notes should be played in one bow; and in music for wind instruments, that the...

: non legato or detached. When it appears with an accent mark, because the accent indicates dynamics, the tenuto takes on its meaning of full or extra duration. If there is a succession of tenuto marks, one right after another, the performer would play the notes slightly detached and with a slight accent as well.

Notation

Tenuto can be notated three ways:

1. The word tenuto written above the passage to be played tenuto.
2. The abbreviation ten. written above the note or passage to be played tenuto.
3. A horizontal line, roughly the length of a notehead, placed immediately above or below the note to be played tenuto (as in the image above).