Dictionary:
fer·ma·ta (fĕr-mä'tə)  |
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| fermata |
from (1729) by Johann Sebastian Bach (Precision Graphics) |
[Italian, from feminine past participle of fermare, to stop, from Latin firmāre, to make firm, from firmus, firm.]
| Music Encyclopedia: Fermata |
The sign of the corona (a point surmounted by a semicircle) showing the end of a phrase or indicating the prolongation of a note or rest beyond its usual value. In some contexts it may indicate an improvisation. See Pause and Organ point.
| Wikipedia: Fermata |
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A fermata (or hold or pause, or colloquially a birdseye or before the 20th century a corona) is an element of musical notation indicating that the note should be sustained for longer than its note value would indicate. Exactly how much longer it is held is up to the discretion of the performer or conductor, but twice as long is not unusual. It is usually printed above, but occasionally below (upside down), the note that is to be held longer. Occasionally holds are also printed above rests or barlines, indicating a pause of indefinite duration.
This symbol appears as early as the 14th century, and is quite common in the works of Dufay and Josquin.
A fermata can occur at the end of a piece (or movement), or it can occur in the middle of a piece, and be followed by either a brief rest or more notes.[1]
In chorale arrangements by Johann Sebastian Bach and other composers of the Baroque, the fermata often only signifies the end of a phrase, where a breath is to be taken. In a few organ compositions, the fermatas occur in different measures for the right and left hand, and for the feet, which would make holding them impractical.
Gustav Mahler sometimes added the word "lunga" (Italian for "long") to some fermatas, to indicate an even longer duration. Some modern composers (including Francis Poulenc, Krzysztof Penderecki, and 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. None of these has become standard usage, however.
The Brahmi diacritical mark called chandrabindu is identical in appearance to the upside-down fermata.
Novelist Nicholson Baker used the idea of a sustained pause in The Fermata, which explored the (mostly sexual) desires of a young man who could stop time.
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Copyrights:
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Music Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Fermata". Read more |
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