Accent (music) - Definition and Overview

In music, an accent is an emphasis on a particular note created by length, as in an agogic accent, pitch, as in a pitch accent, and dynamics, such as dynamic accents.

In music notation, an accent is one of a few specific types of dynamics, usually written above a note, that instructs the musician to play the note underneath with greater force than usual. These include staccato, staccatissimo, normal, strong, and legato accents. They are represented by, respectively, a dot (.), inverted triangle('), upward arrow (^), greater than (>), and a horizontal line (-). All of which may be combined.

Notation accents.