{| align=right cellspacing=5

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|border|alt=A long/longa rest|Long/Longa rest

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|border|alt=A whole/semibreve rest|Whole/Semibreve rest

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|border|alt=A quarter/crotchet rest|Quarter/Crotchet rest

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|border|alt=A sixteenth/semiquaver rest|Eighth/Semiquaver rest

|}

A rest is the absence of a sound for a defined period of time in music, or one of the musical notation signs used to indicate that.

The length of a rest corresponds with that of a particular note value, thus indicating how long the silence should last. Each type of rest is named for the note value it corresponds with (e.g. quarter note and quarter rest, or quaver and quaver rest), and each of them has a distinctive sign.

Description

Rests are intervals of silence in pieces of music, marked by symbols indicating the length of the silence. Each rest symbol and name corresponds with a particular note value, indicating how long the silence should last, generally as a multiplier of a measure or whole note.

640px|Rest symbols, names, and lengths

{| class="wikitable"

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! American English !! British English !! Multiplier !! Symbol

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| Longa || Long rest || 4 || alt=A long/longa rest|Long/Longa rest

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| Double whole rest || Breve rest || 2 || alt=A double-whole/breve rest|Double-whole/Breve rest

|-

| Whole rest || Semibreve rest || 1 || alt=A whole/semibreve rest|Whole/Semibreve rest

|-

| Half rest || Minim rest || || alt=A half/minim rest|Half/Minim rest

|-

| Quarter rest || Crotchet rest || || border|80px|alt=A quarter/crotchet rest|Quarter/Crotchet rest

|-

| Eighth rest || Quaver rest || || border|alt=An eighth/quaver rest|Eighth/Quaver rest

|-

| Sixteenth rest || Semiquaver rest || || border|alt=An sixteenth/semiquaver rest|Sixteenth/Semiquaver rest

|-

| Thirty-second rest || Demisemiquaver rest || || border|alt=A thirty-second/demisemiquaver rest|Thirty-second/Demisemiquaver rest

|-

| Sixty-fourth rest || Hemidemisemiquaver rest || || border|alt=A sixty-fourth/hemidemisemiquaver rest|Sixty-fourth/Hemidemisemiquaver rest

|}

  • The quarter (crotchet) rest [[File:crotchet rest alt plain-svg.svg|

x20px]] (š¯„½) may take a different form x14px in older music.

  • The four-measure rest or longa rest are only used in long silent passages which are not divided into bars.
  • The combination of rests used to mark a silence follows the same rules as for note values.

One-bar rest

When an entire bar is devoid of notes, a whole (semibreve) rest placed at the middle of the measure is used, regardless of the actual time signature. Some published (usually earlier) music places the numeral "" above the rest to confirm the extent of the rest.

Therefore, dotted whole rests and dotted rests of longer values are very rarely seen.

Occasionally in manuscripts and facsimiles of them, bars of rest are sometimes left completely empty and unmarked, possibly even without the staves.<!--the practice of, for example, Krzysztof Penderecki).It can be documented that this was Stravinsky's practice, too, in manuscripts from at least as early as 1916, but in printed scores only from about 1960 onward. Why is Penderecki a particularly good example, and can it be documented?-->

Multiple measure rests

{| align=right border=0 cellspacing=0

|- valign=top

|thumb|160px|alt=a 15 bar multirest|Fifteen bars' rest

|thumb|440px|alt=Old multirests from 1 to 14 bars|The old system for notating multirests, still in use today but followed only to varying extents

|}

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. A multimeasure rest is usually drawn in one of two ways:

  • As a thick horizontal line placed on the middle line of the staff, with serifs at both ends (see above middle picture), Specifically marking general pauses each time they occur (rather than writing them as ordinary rests) is relevant for performers, as making any kind of noise should be avoided thereā€”for instance, page turns in sheet music are not made during general pauses, as the sound of turning the page becomes noticeable when no one is playing.

thumb|upright|Page from the score of [[Erwin Schulhoff's "" (one of his "") incudes smiley faces]]

Erwin Schulhoff's "" (the middle movement of his "", published in 1919) comprises nothing but annotated rests; and results in a silent performance.

See also

  • Caesura
  • List of silent musical compositions
  • List of musical symbols
  • Tacet

References

de:Notenwert#Pausen