multimeasure

Multimeasure, in musical notation, refers to a multimeasure rest, a symbol used to indicate silence for several consecutive measures. It is commonly employed in instrumental and vocal scores to simplify notation when a player has no material to perform over a stretch of bars.

Notation and appearance: The multimeasure rest is shown as a thick horizontal line spanning the staff, often with short vertical marks at the ends. A numeral placed above or below the line specifies how many measures are to be silent. In some editions the numeral may be omitted if the number is clear from context or the rest covers a short span.

Usage: Multimeasure rests are most frequent in ensemble parts such as orchestral and chamber music where different players enter and exit at different times. They help avoid writing a succession of single-bar rests for every measure. In piano reductions or keyboard scores, a multimeasure rest may appear when one hand or voice is silent for several bars, though publishers sometimes prefer separate rests on each staff.

Interpretation: During a multimeasure rest, the musician does not play for the indicated number of measures. When the rest concludes, normal notation resumes and the musician enters as indicated by the score.

Variants and conventions: There are multimeasure rests of varying lengths (two-bar, three-bar, etc.). Some editions show only the line with the implied count, while others always print a numeral. Modern notation software standardizes multimeasure rests within parts, adapting to changes in the score.