A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Attacco
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ATTACCO (Verbal substantive, from attacare, to unite, to bind together). A short phrase, treated as a Point of Imitation; and employed, either as the Subject of a Fugue, as a subordinate element introduced for the purpose of increasing the interest of its development, as a leading feature in a Motet, Madrigal, Full Anthem, or other Choral Composition, or as a means of relieving the monotony of an otherwise too homogeneous Part-Song.
A striking instance of its employment as the Subject of a Fugue will be found in No. xxvii. of Das Wohltemperirte Clavier.
When used merely as an accessory, it almost always represents a fragment of the true Subject; as in 'Ye House of Gilead,' from Handel's 'Jephthah.'
![{ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \override Score.Rest #'style = #'classical \time 4/4 \key d \major \relative d'' { r4 r8 d fis e16 fis g8 fis16 e | fis8 s } }](https://cdn.statically.io/img/upload.wikimedia.org/score/e/z/ezbodvlkb85i6u5ssoz5wouzfn55oao/ezbodvlk.png)
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