# Portato (Italian, "carried")

Source: https://arcosounds.com/glossary/portato
Also known as: louré, slurred staccato

**Portato is a bowing in which several notes share one bow stroke but are gently separated by a pulse of pressure, notated as dots or dashes under a slur.**

The bow never leaves the string. Each note within the slur gets a small swell of weight and a slight release, so the notes are articulated without being detached. The result sits exactly between legato and staccato, which is what makes it useful: a composer can ask for a line that breathes without breaking.

Dashes under a slur mean a gentle, sustained separation; dots under a slur are lighter and often faster, and at speed the same notation becomes slurred staccato or ricochet. Reading the difference is a matter of tempo and context rather than of the symbol alone.

The French name louré attaches particularly to the slow, weighted version, and it is common in Baroque repertoire where it colours a stepwise line.

Canonical source: https://arcosounds.com/glossary/portato