“Caps”

“Caps,” the articulation mark that looks like an upside down “v” over a note, are a type of accent that is potentially problematic in an ensemble situation. The reason they are problematic is because they can be played quite differently in different musical situations.

I am most comfortable when I see this marking in a jazz/commercial situation. In this case a cap is short–a series of three quarter notes with caps would be played “bop-bop-bop” with plenty of space.

The next most comfortable situation is in 19th century music. In say Schumann (there are a number of caps in the Konzertstuck) it is roughly similar to a regular accent with a dot. They are not nearly as short as the jazz cap, have more “body” to the sound. You can find a lot of instances where this articulation is on half notes under a slur or tie, so these in particular are not short, more like a slight push. (An aside: I was recently working through a copy of the International publication of the first horn part of the Konzertstuck in relation to the score, a number of places that should be caps over half notes have been changed to regular accents).

The Maxime-Alphonse etudes also have quite a few caps in them, performed in a similar manner to that in the Schumann, above. He sets up a wide variety of articulations in his etudes, which is part of why they are so standard to study.

The least comfortable situation for me when I see caps is something that is more recent but not jazz/commercial. In works of this type it can be a big mystery to estimate how short the composer or arranger really wants the notes to be. Is it a short marcato? A long marcato? How pointed? Spaced a little or a lot?

Above all this points out the need for complete control of various articulation lengths, the type of skill you master working through Kopprash and Maxime-Alphonse etudes.