1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Appoggiatura

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APPOGGIATURA (from Ital. appoggiare, to lean upon), a musical term for a melodic ornament, a grace-note prefixed to a principal note and printed in small character. The effect is to suspend the principal note, by taking away the time-value of the appoggiatura prefixed to it. There are two kinds, the long appoggiatura, now usually printed as played, and the short, where the suspension of the principal note is scarcely perceptible; this is often called acciatura, a word properly applied to an ornament now obsolete, in which a principal note in a melody is struck together with the note immediately below, the lower note being at once released and the other held on.