Franchinus Gafurius, in his 'Practica Musicæ' (1496), says that the Rest 'was invented to give a necessary relief to the voice, and a sweetness to the melody for as a preacher of the divine word, or an orator in his discourse, finds it necessary oftentimes to relieve his auditors by the recital of some pleasantry, thereby to make them more favourable and attentive, so a singer, intermixing certain pauses with his notes, engages the attention of his hearers to the remaining parts of his song.' (Hawkins, 'Hist. In earlier times the cantus was sung without pauses, or with only such slight breaks as were necessary for the due separation of the sentences of the text, but so soon as the relative duration of the notes was established, the employment of rests of like proportionate values became a necessity. The employment of the rest dates from the invention of 'measured music,' that is, music composed of notes of definite and proportionate values. The sign of silence in music, the duration of the silence depending upon the form of the character employed to denote it. ĭouble-dotted rests, while theoretically acceptable, rarely appear in printed music, due to notational conventions and a concern for clarity.REST (Fr. 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). Dotted restsĪ 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. They are usually found in conjunction with the aforementioned four-measure rest. 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. They are only used in long silent passages which are not divided into bars. 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. This also applies in the case of a double-barline, which demarcates musical phrases or sections (a tacet instrumental part to a song may contain a sequence of multiple eight-measure rests, for instance). If a meter or key change occurs during a multiple-measure rest, the rest must be broken up as required for clarity, with the change of key and/or meter indicated between the rests. This serves as a counting aid and derives from Baroque notation conventions that were adapted from the old mensural rest system dating from Medieval times. Where the silence is for less than eight whole rest lengths, some publishers use a combination of four measure rests, double whole rests and whole rests to graphically indicate the extent of the rest. The number of whole rest lengths for which the multiple measure rest lasts is indicated by a number printed above the musical staff (usually at the same size as the numerals in a time signature). They denote a silence several times the duration of a whole rest. Multiple measure rests of variable duration are usually drawn in one of two ways: either as long, thick horizontal lines placed on the middle line of the staff, with serifs at either end, or as thick diagonal lines placed between the second and fourth lines of the staff. In instrumental parts, rests of more than one measure in the same meter and key may be indicated with a multiple measure rest, showing the number of measures of rest, as shown. Multimeasure rest using long and breve rests The composer can also completely leave out the staff lines (the practice of, for example, Krzysztof Penderecki). In manuscript autographs and facsimiles, bars without notes are sometimes left completely empty, without even a semibreve rest. Some published music places the numeral "1" above the rest to confirm the extent of the rest. For a 4/2 measure rest, it is now also common to use the semibreve (whole) rest instead of the breve, so that a whole-measure rest for all time signatures starting from 3/16 is notated using a semibreve. The only exceptions are for a 4/2 time signature (four minims per bar), when a breve 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. When an entire measure is devoid of notes, a semibreve (whole) rest is used, regardless of the actual time signature.
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