View source for Fermata

{{Short description|Symbol of musical notation}}
{{about|the music notation symbol|the Slovak rock band|Fermáta|the Nicholson Baker novel|The Fermata{{!}}''The Fermata''}}
[[Image:Urlinie in G with fermata.png|thumb|[[Urlinie]] in G with fermata on penultimate note. {{audio|Urlinie in G without fermata.mid|Play without fermata}} & {{audio|Urlinie in G with fermata.mid|Play with}} (compare with penultimate note at {{audio|Urlinie in G with double value.mid|double the value}})]]
{{listen
 | filename     = Urlinie in G without fermata.mid
 | title        = Play without fermata
 | description  = [[Urlinie]] in G with fermata on penultimate note.
 | filename2    = Urlinie in G with fermata.mid 
 | title2       = Play with fermata
 | description2 = (compare with penultimate note at {{audio|Urlinie in G with double value.mid|double the value}})

}}
[[File:Beethoven - Concerto in C minor, cadenza.png|thumb|Cadenza indication from Beethoven's [[Piano Concerto No. 3 (Beethoven)|Piano Concerto in C minor]]: fermata over rest indicates beginning, fermata over shake (trill) indicates close.<ref name="Grove">Sir George Grove (1904). ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', Vol. 1, p.442. John Alexander Fuller-Maitland, ed. Macmillan Company.</ref> {{audio|Beethoven - Concerto in C minor, cadenza.mid|Play}}]]
[[File:Schubert - D. 759, I mm.60-4 G.P..png|thumb|Grand pause ({{audio|Schubert - D. 759, I mm.60-4 with G.P..mid|Play}}) in [[Franz Schubert]]'s D. 759, I, mm.60-4. (without G.P.: {{audio|Schubert - D. 759, I mm.60-4 without G.P..mid|Play}})]]

A '''fermata''' ({{IPA|it|ferˈmaːta|lang}}; "from ''fermare'', to stay, or stop";<ref>Stainer, John and Barrett, William Alexander (1898). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=K2H0AAAAMAAJ&dq=%22fermata%22+stainer&pg=PA169 Stainer and Barrett's Dictionary of Musical Terms]'', p.169. Novello. {{pre-ISBN}}.</ref> also known as a '''hold''', '''pause''', colloquially a '''birdseye''' or '''cyclops eye''', or as a '''grand pause''' when placed on a [[Musical note|note]] or a [[Rest (music)|rest]]) is a symbol of musical notation indicating that the [[Note (music)|note]] should be prolonged beyond the normal [[duration (music)|duration]] its [[note value]] would indicate.<ref name="Music p. 310">''The Harvard Dictionary of Music'', p. 310</ref> Exactly how much longer it is held is up to the discretion of the performer or conductor, but twice as long is common. It is usually printed above but can be occasionally below (when it is upside down) the note to be extended.

When a fermata is placed over a [[bar (music)|bar]] or double-bar, it is used to indicate the end of a phrase or section of a work. In a [[concerto]], it indicates the point at which the soloist is to play a [[cadenza]].<ref>''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', p. 293</ref>

A fermata can occur at the end of a piece (or [[movement (music)|movement]]) or 
in the middle of a piece. It can be followed by either a brief rest or more notes.<ref>McElheran, ''Conducting Technique'', Chapter XVII, "Fermatas", p. 85. The author classifies them into three types: fermatas followed by uninterrrupted sound, fermatas followed "by a short period of silence," and fermatas "followed by a long period of silence." After that classification, the author gives detailed advice for conducting each type.</ref>

{{Blockquote|Fermata is the Italian name for the sign (𝄐), which in English is commonly called a Pause, and signifies that the note over which it is placed should be held on beyond its natural duration. It is sometimes put over a bar or double  bar, in which case it intimates a short interval of [[silence]].<ref name="Grove21">Grove, et al.; eds. (1906). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=6eS2AAAAIAAJ&dq=fermata+grove%27s&pg=PA21 Grove's dictionary of music and musicians]'', p.21. Macmillan. {{pre-ISBN}}.</ref>}}

Other names for a fermata are ''corona'' (Italian), ''point d'orgue'' (French), ''Fermate'' (German), ''calderón'' (Spanish), ''suspensão'' (Portuguese).<ref name="Music p. 310"/>

==History and use==
[[File:Fermata (Inverted).svg|51px|right]]

This symbol appears as early as the 15th century. It is quite common in the works of [[Guillaume Du Fay]] and [[Josquin des Prez]].

In [[chorale]]s by [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] and other composers of the [[Baroque music|Baroque]], the fermata often signifies only the end of a [[phrase (music)|phrase]], and a breath is to be taken. In a few [[organ (music)|organ]] compositions, the fermatas occur in different measures for the right and left hands and for the feet, which would make holding them impractical. "In the older music the sign for the fermata is used, as frequently by Bach, merely as indicating the end of the piece, after a Da Capo, when modern composers usually write the word 'fine.' It does not then imply any pause in the music between the first and second part of the number."<ref name="Grove21"/>

In the classical and baroque eras, fermatas were usually points at which performers were expected to improvise cadenzas commensurate with its place in the score: in the middle of a movement required short cadenzas, over a I{{supsub|6|4}} and it implied the kind of cadenzas that are associated with the ending of concerto movements.

The word '''''lunga''''' (shortened form of the Italian ''lunga pausa'', meaning "long pause") is sometimes added above a fermata to indicate a longer duration, the length of which is at the discretion of the performer rather than note values.<ref>{{Cite Grove |last=Fallows |first=David |title=Lunga}}</ref>

[[File:Fermata square.png|51px|right]]
[[File:Fermata triangle.png|51px|right]]

Some modern composers (including [[Francis Poulenc]], [[Krzysztof Penderecki]], [[György Kurtág]], and [[Luigi Nono (composer)|Luigi Nono]]) have expanded the symbol's usage to indicate approximate duration, incorporating fermatas of different sizes, square- and triangle-shaped fermatas, and so on to indicate holds of different lengths. However, that is not standard usage. In the music notation program [[Sibelius (software)|Sibelius]]: "By default, a regular fermata is set to 1.5 times written duration, a long (square) fermata is set to 1.75 times written duration, and a short (triangular) fermata is set to 1.25 written duration."<ref>Spreadbury, Daniel; Eastwood, Michael; Finn, Ben; and Finn, Jonathan (March 2008). "Sibelius 5 Reference", p.284. Edition 5.2.</ref> Thus, a whole note (semibreve) with fermata would last 4+2=6 quarter notes (crochets), 4+3=7 quarter notes (crochets), or 4+1=5 quarter notes (crochets), respectively.

The fermata sign is encoded in [[Unicode]] in the [[Musical Symbols (Unicode block)|Musical Symbols block]] as U+1D110 MUSICAL SYMBOL FERMATA (𝄐) and U+1D111 MUSICAL SYMBOL FERMATA BELOW (𝄑).<ref>[http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1D100.pdf PDF of Musical Symbols block from the unicode consortium]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Caesura]]
*[[Da capo]]

==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite book
 | last =Kennedy
 | first =Michael
 | title =The Oxford Dictionary of Music
 | publisher =Oxford University Press
 | edition =Second
 | date =1994
 | location =Oxford
 | isbn =0-19-869162-9
 }}
*{{cite book
 | last =McElheran
 | first =Brock
 | title =Conducting Technique
 | publisher =Oxford University Press
 | date =1989
 | location =Oxford
 }} 
*{{cite book
 | editor-last =Randel
 | editor-first =Don Michael
 | title =The Harvard Dictionary of Music
 | publisher =Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
 | edition =Fourth
 | date =2003
 | location =Cambridge, Massachusetts
 | url =https://archive.org/details/harvarddictionar0004unse
 | isbn =0-674-01163-5
 | url-access =registration
 }}

== External links ==
* {{Wiktionary-inline}}

{{Musical notation}}

[[Category:Musical notation]]
[[Category:Italian words and phrases]]
[[Category:Articulations (music)]]
[[Category:Rhythm and meter]]