37
votes
Fermata over a rest at the end of the piece?
Do you sit there and prevent the audience from clapping until you want that rest to finish its extended duration?
I've always thought this is pretty much what a fermata like this is about. When ...
- 58.6k
14
votes
Fermata tie confusion
The notes are not tied. This is relatively conventional notation for portato, which is rather like a "sticky" staccato with longer but still detached notes.
- 14.3k
10
votes
Accepted
How to conduct a fermata over a rest?
Wrap up the previous note. Do nothing for a suitable amount of time (but don't drop your hands. Keep the orchestra's attention). Give an upbeat into the continuation.
- 95.6k
8
votes
Is the length of a G.P. that has no fermata discretionary?
G.P. and a fermata have entirely different meanings. OnMusic Dictionary is wrong.
G.P. (or the Italian "vuota") is a courtesy indication that nobody is playing. In the absence of any ...
- 22k
7
votes
Fermata over Rest
In some performance scenarios, for example in a church or cathedral, the sound will echo around the building, dying away after the musicians have stopped playing. This could be an instruction from the ...
- 201
6
votes
Is the length of a G.P. that has no fermata discretionary?
I just found this in The Definitive Guide To Music Notation (2016) p.190, which is quite specific about a difference:
As I imagined, working backwards from a multi-measure G.P. as logically ...
- 1,549
5
votes
Legato & Fermata notation on tied notes
The textbook Music Notation: A Manual of Modern Practice by Gardner Read answers your first question as follows:
When slurs are placed over a passage that ends in a tied note, the slur sign should ...
- 6,496
5
votes
Identify Notation, dot (period or point) with semicircle below
It’s called a fermata and can be found on the Breaths and Pauses palette (in MuseScore 4. In MuseScore 3, it's on the Articulations palette.).
To remove a rest from the end of any measure, you can ...
- 95k
3
votes
Accepted
Paganini's Cantabile for violin and guitar in D - clarification on the notation
Those are fermatas, and they indicate to hold the note longer than the given duration. There’s no defined length, but 1.5x the given duration is a frequently suggested rule of thumb. They create a ...
- 95k
3
votes
Fermata over a rest at the end of the piece?
I've always understood it as a largely conceptual action.
I've never seen something like this at the end of an aggressive or violent movement (though if anyone has any examples, I'd love to see it!); ...
- 85.1k
3
votes
Fermata over a rest at the end of the piece?
In some performance scenarios, for example in a church or cathedral, the sound will echo around the building, dying away after the musicians have stopped playing. This could be an instruction from ...
- 201
3
votes
Proper use of fermata marks on sheet music
A fermata tells the player they can hold the note as long as they feel is appropriate and not a specified length of time. If you want a note held a specific length you should notate it exactly. If you ...
- 22k
3
votes
Fermata tie confusion
Although not all engravers make the distinction, it is common to place ties and slurs differently. A tie should be placed between the note heads, while slurs should be placed conspicuously above or ...
- 4,207
2
votes
Legato & Fermata notation on tied notes
I'd go generally with 2.2. The fermata position is often dictated by what else is going on in the music. If everybody is to come off at the same time after the pause, then put it on the last note. But ...
2
votes
Accepted
Legato & Fermata notation on tied notes
Unlike what some of the answers and comments state, there is a reason why one could include a slur within a slur (1.1). In jazz, it is common to combine "licks" into slurred sections. I play tenor ...
- 1,510
2
votes
Fermata over a rest at the end of the piece?
"The rest is silence." A subtle concept when spoken by Hamlet at the end of his play. Maybe not quite so subtle in this musical context.
The most magical moments in a piece of music are ...
- 95.6k
2
votes
Identify Notation, dot (period or point) with semicircle below
To answer your next question, I believe you can select the note or rest and use ctrl+del (or cmd+del).
- 21
2
votes
Flam under a fermata
That's an example of bad writing. There's no telling what the composer or arranger were thinking, if indeed they were thinking at all.
In a situation like this I would play the flam once. It's not ...
- 22k
1
vote
Is the length of a G.P. that has no fermata discretionary?
TL;DR
G.P. = "Be very, very quiet. Nobody else is playing here either." But says nothing about the duration of the rest, which is as notated.
Fermata = Extend the rest beyond its notated ...
- 95k
1
vote
Legato & Fermata notation on tied notes
I don’t see a difference between examples 1.1. and 1.2. As you say there are only tied notes and no phrase slurs all notes have to be played legato.
The other 3 examples mean each something ...
- 26.1k
1
vote
Legato & Fermata notation on tied notes
Number 1.1 and 1.2 would mean the same thing. At least I would play it exactly the same way. Number 1.2 is how it would most often be written.
Number 2.1 would mean you hold a fermata on the 4th beat ...
- 4,823
1
vote
Why is this Fermata over a double bar line?
It is usually the case, when you have multiple sections of a piece, one after the other, where the composer wants a slight pause in between sections. Remember Fermata just simply means pause.
- 15k
1
vote
Why is this Fermata over a double bar line?
Looks like a way to say 'hang on a bit before you play the next bit'. There's no rest to put it on, and if it was over a note, that'd have to be held on.
P.S. What's the strange sign instead of a ...
- 198k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible