esportato

Esportato is a musical articulation marking used to indicate a light, semi-detached touch within a legato phrase. It sits between legato and staccato: notes should be connected in musical line but lightly separated, avoiding a fully smooth legato or a harsh staccato. The effect is often described as a restrained, singing line with gentle articulation.

Notationally, esportato is typically realized by a slur over a group of notes with dots or tenuto marks on the individual notes, or by the explicit marking esportato in the score. In modern practice, the term portato (or mezzo-staccato) is more common, and esportato is often treated as a variant or synonymous marking, particularly in older scores or certain editions.

Context and usage vary by instrument and period. Esportato has been used in Romantic-era music and earlier, across strings, keyboard, and vocal lines, to produce a refined balance between connected phrasing and light detachment. Performers apply a subtle re-articulation: the notes remain part of a single musical idea, but with careful attention to touch and timing to avoid a full legato or a harsh staccato.

In practice, esportato is closely related to portato. Contemporary editors may favor the term portato, but esportato remains part of music notation vocabulary as a description of the same or similar half-detached articulation. See also: portato, mezzo-staccato, legato, staccato.