Legando

Legando is a term formed from the Italian gerund legando, derived from legare, meaning to tie or bind. In music, legando has appeared in a minority of historical sources as an alternative or variant spelling of legato, conveying a sense of smooth, connected phrasing. It is not a standard term in contemporary notation, where legato remains the primary designation for a continuous, connected line.

Historical usage and interpretation of legando vary. It is documented in a few early modern and Baroque-era sources where editors or composers chose legando to emphasize a particularly binding or bridged connection across notes. Because it is not widely adopted in modern scores, legando can be encountered as ambiguous in modern scholarly editions, with some editors treating it as synonymous with legato and others assigning a more specific nuance, such as a stronger sense of phrasing or a more continuous line without audible separations.

In practice, performers today would typically follow the established meaning of legato in their repertoire, using slurs or the instruction legato to indicate smooth connection. When legando appears, performers may consult the source material or editor’s preface for intended nuance, understanding that the instruction is not universally standardized and may reflect historical conventions rather than a fixed modern articulation. Legando is thus largely of historical interest, illustrating how articulation terminology evolved and diversified across musical practice. See also legato, slur, and portamento for related concepts of connected articulation.