What is "^" called?

[Dean E]

What the heck is it(^) called? . . . .

Marcato, I read somewhere, is used to designate an unexpectedly forceful attack sufficient to surprise the audience. However, the surprise effect is certainly lost for one or two measures of runs.

[jmh3412]

yep circumflex - in French at least

[Anterux]

In Portuguese: Acento Circunflexo.

[quinterbourne]

"^" = marcato (think of lots of tongue in the attack)
">" = accent (think of lots of air behind the attack)

[Chuck(G)]

The marcato is a strong accent, somewhat forced, and usually struck hard. It is often used as a hard impact effect resulting in a loud attack.

Your source is talking about string bowings, not wind instruments. As I noted, the notion and execution of accents are quite different with strings.

For a very good treatise see:

http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory21.htm#accent

[Chuck(G)]

In Jared's favor, I've noticed that (from strings to winds) interpretation and execution of markings is very inconsistent, but the names of the markings tend to be pretty consistent.

And that's the problem--Jared's illustration seems to call a normal accent a marcato and a marcato a martellato. I don't think I've ever heard anyone call a normal accent a marcato before now.

Although, Dr. Blood does state:

Martelé (Fr.); Martellato (It.); Marcato (It.) notes are played with accented force, literally “hammeredâ€