Rest (music)

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Pause as weak interior cadence from Lassus's Qui vult venire post me, mm. 3-5

Play (helpinfo).

A rest is an interval of silence in a piece of music, marked by a symbol indicating the length of
the pause. Each rest symbol corresponds with a particular note value:
American English
British English
Long (or four-measure rest) Long
Double whole rest
Breve rest
Whole rest
Semibreve rest
Half rest
Minim rest
Quarter rest
Crotchet rest
Eighth rest
Quaver rest
Sixteenth rest
Semiquaver rest
Thirty-second rest
Demisemiquaver rest
Sixty-fourth rest
Hemidemisemiquaver rest

The quarter (crotchet) rest may also be found as a form in older music.[1][2]
(The four-measure rest or longa rest is a symbol found in Western musical notation denoting a
silence four times the duration of a whole rest. They are only used in long silent passages which
are not divided into bars.[citation needed]
The two-measure rest or breve rest is another symbol found in Western musical notation
denoting a silence twice the duration of a whole rest.
The combination of rests used to mark a pause follows the same rules as for notes.[3] For more
details see note value.

Time is the measure of actual sound as well as of the opposite, its omission.
Franco of Cologne, [4]

Contents

1 One-bar rests
2 Multiple measure rests
3 Dotted rests
4 See also
5 References

One-bar rests
When an entire bar is devoid of notes, a whole (semibreve) rest is used, regardless of the actual
time signature.[3] The only exceptions are for a 4/2 time signature (four half notes per bar), when
a double whole rest is typically used for a bar's rest, and for time signatures shorter than 3/16,
when a rest of the actual measure length would be used.[5] For a 4/2 bar rest, it is also common to
use the whole rest instead of the double whole rest, so that a whole-bar rest for all time
signatures starting from 3/16 is notated using a whole note rest.[5] Some published (usually
earlier) music places the numeral "1" above the rest to confirm the extent of the rest.
Occasionally in manuscript autographs and facsimiles, bars without notes are sometimes left
completely empty, possibly even without the staves.[citation needed]

Fifteen bars' rest. A five bar

multirest has the number 5
written above, etc.

The old system for notating multirests (which is still in use today) which varies as the extent to
which it is followed.

Multiple measure rests

In instrumental parts, rests of more than one bar in the same meter and key may be indicated
with a multimeasure rest (British English: multiple bar rest), showing the number of bars of
rest, as shown. Multimeasure rests of are usually drawn in one of two ways:

As long, thick horizontal lines placed on the middle line of the staff, with serifs at both
ends (see above middle picture)[1] or as thick diagonal lines placed between the second
and fourth lines of the staff (but this method is much less used than the above method;
although a small number of publishers use this method, it most commonly used casually
in modern manuscripts),[5] regardless of how many bars' rests it represents;
The former system of notating multirests (deriving from Baroque notation conventions
that were adapted from the old mensural rest system dating from Medieval times) draws
multirests according to the picture above right until a certain amount of bar rests is
reached when multirests are then drawn to the first method. How long exactly must a
multirest be until the above method is used is largely a matter of personal taste, most
publishers use ten as the changing point, however bigger and smaller changing points are
used, especially in earlier music.[1]

The number of whole-rest lengths for which the multimeasure rest lasts is indicated by a number
printed above the musical staff (usually at the same size as the numerals in a time signature). If a
meter or key change occurs during a multimeasure rest, the rest must be broken up as required
for clarity, with the change of key and/or meter indicated between the rests. This also applies in
the case of double barlines, which demarcate musical phrases or sections.

Dotted rests
A rest may also have a dot after it, increasing its duration by half, but this is less commonly used
than with notes, except occasionally in modern music notated in compound meters such as 6/8 or
12/8. In these meters the long-standing convention has been to indicate one beat of rest as a
quarter rest followed by an eighth rest (equivalent to three eighths).

See also

Caesura
List of silent musical compositions
List of musical symbols

References
1.
History of Music Notation by C. Gorden, p. 93, copyright 1937.[full citation needed]
Examples of the older form are found in the work of English music publishers up to the
early 20th century, e.g., W. A. Mozart Requiem Mass, vocal score ed. W. T. Best, pub. London:
Novello & Co. Ltd. 1879.
AB guide to music theory by E. Taylor, chapter 13/1, ISBN 9781854724465

 Alfred W. Crosby, . The Measure of Reality: Quantification in Western Europe, 1250 1600
([full citation needed], 1997): p.152. ISBN 9780521639903. Cites Source Reading in Music History,
1:140.[full citation needed]
5. Gardner Read, Music Notation: A Manual of Modern Practice, second edition (Boston:
Alyn and Bacon, 1969): 98. (Reprinted, New York: Taplinger Publishing Company,
1979).
[hide]

v
t
e

Musical notation

Staff

Musical
notes

8va
15ma
Abbreviation
Bar / barline / measure
Clef
Da capo
Dal segno
Key signature
Ledger line
Musical mode
Ossia
Scale
Rehearsal letter
Repeat sign
Tempo
Time signature
Transposition
Transposing instrument

Accidental (flat
natural
sharp)
Cue note
Dotted note
Grace note
Note value (beam
note head
stem)
Pitch

Articulation

Sheet music

Alternative

Rest
Tuplet
Tremolo
Interval
Helmholtz pitch notation
Letter notation
Scientific pitch notation

Accent
Caesura
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Dynamics
Fermata
Legato
Marcato
Ornament (trill
mordent
grace note)
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Slur
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Tenuto
Tie
Tonguing

History of music publishing

Music engraving
Popular-music publisher
Sheet-music publisher

Braille music
Chord chart
Figured bass
Graphic notation
Lead sheet
Eye music
Numbered musical notation
Klavarskribo
Tablature
Parsons
Percussion notation

NonWestern
and ancient

Related

Simplified

Chinese
Kepatihan
Neume
Swaralipi
Shakuhachi
Znamenny

List of musical symbols

Mensural notation
Sight-reading
Transcription

Categories:

Musical notation
Rhythm and meter
Silence

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