Afermata (Italian:[ferˈmaːta]; "fromfermare, to stay, or stop";[2] also known as ahold,pause, colloquially abirdseye orcyclops eye, or as agrand pause when placed on anote or arest) is a symbol of musical notation indicating that thenote should be prolonged beyond the normalduration itsnote value would indicate.[3] 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 abar or double-bar, it is used to indicate the end of a phrase or section of a work. In aconcerto, it indicates the point at which the soloist is to play acadenza.[4]
A fermata can occur at the end of a piece (ormovement) or in the middle of a piece. It can be followed by either a brief rest or more notes.[5]
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 ofsilence.[6]
Other names for a fermata arecorona (Italian),point d'orgue (French),Fermate (German),calderón (Spanish),suspensão (Portuguese).[3]
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This symbol appears as early as the 15th century. It is quite common in the works ofGuillaume Du Fay andJosquin des Prez.
Inchorales byJohann Sebastian Bach and other composers of theBaroque, the fermata often signifies only the end of aphrase, and a breath is to be taken. In a feworgan 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."[6]
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 I6
4 and it implied the kind of cadenzas that are associated with the ending of concerto movements.
The wordlunga (shortened form of the Italianlunga 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.[7]
Some modern composers (includingFrancis Poulenc,Krzysztof Penderecki,György Kurtág, andLuigi 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 programSibelius: "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."[8] 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 inUnicode in theMusical Symbols block as U+1D110 MUSICAL SYMBOL FERMATA (𝄐) and U+1D111 MUSICAL SYMBOL FERMATA BELOW (𝄑).[9]
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