Accent

Accent, in Music, is analogous with accent in poetry. It is one of the elementary requisites of musical art, that in a series of notes, an emphasis or accent should recur with mostly unbroken regularity. The position of this is generally indicated by bars across the stave, the accent being normally on the first note within the measure. A secondary or weaker accent is sometimes placed on the third beat, whether in common or triple time. More frequently than in poetry, the accent is, for the sake of effect, transferred from its normal place. This is always clearly indicated. What is called by some writers the rhetorical accent, is the proper adaptation of the accent in vocal music to that of the words. Accents, in liturgical services, are the forms of intonation of various portions in definite musical rhythm.