Leggiero vs Martellato

Side-by-side comparison of two musical terms.

	Leggiero	Martellato
Definition	Lightly, delicately.	Hammered; strongly accented notes.
Category	expression	articulation
Pronunciation	leh-JEH-roh	mar-tel-LAH-toh
Origin	Italian	Italian
BPM	—	—
Synonyms	Lightly Delicately	Hammered
Antonyms	Pesante Marcato	Leggiero Dolce
Usage	Debussy's piano music frequently calls for leggiero passagework — shimmering, weightless textures.	Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 features martellato octaves in the friska section.

Definition: Lightly, delicately.
Category: expression
Pronunciation: leh-JEH-roh
Origin: Italian
Synonyms: Lightly Delicately
Antonyms: Pesante Marcato
Usage: Debussy's piano music frequently calls for leggiero passagework — shimmering, weightless textures.

Definition: Hammered; strongly accented notes.
Category: articulation
Pronunciation: mar-tel-LAH-toh
Origin: Italian
Synonyms: Hammered
Antonyms: Leggiero Dolce
Usage: Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 features martellato octaves in the friska section.