Rest (music)

Pause on weak interior cadence from Lassus's Qui vult venire post me, mm. 3-5.

When an entire bar is devoid of notes, a whole (semibreve) rest is used, regardless of the actual time signature.[4] The only exceptions are for a ⁴
₂ time signature (four half notes per bar), when a double whole 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.[5] For a ⁴
₂ bar rest, it is also common to use the whole rest instead of the double whole rest, so that a whole-bar rest for all time signatures starting from ³
₁₆ is notated using a whole note rest.[5] Some published (usually earlier) music places the numeral "1" above the rest to confirm the extent of the rest.

Occasionally in manuscript autographs and facsimiles, bars without notes are sometimes left completely empty, possibly even without the staves.[6]

Fifteen bars' rest. A five-bar multirest has the number 5 written above, etc.

The old system for notating multirests (which is still in use today) which varies as the extent to which it is followed.

Seven measure multirest, notated variously

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. Multimeasure rests of are usually drawn in one of two ways:

• As long, thick horizontal lines placed on the middle line of the staff, with serifs at both ends (see above middle picture)[1] or as thick diagonal lines placed between the second and fourth lines of the staff (but this method is much less used than the above method; although a small number of publishers use this method, it most commonly used casually in modern manuscripts),[5] regardless of how many bars' rests it represents;
• The former system of notating multirests (deriving from Baroque notation conventions that were adapted from the old mensural rest system dating from Medieval times) draws multirests according to the picture above right until a certain amount of bar rests is reached when multirests are then drawn to the first method. How long exactly must a multirest be until the above method is used is largely a matter of personal taste, most publishers use ten as the changing point, however bigger and smaller changing points are used, especially in earlier music.[1]

The number of whole-rest lengths for which the multimeasure rest lasts is indicated by a number printed above the musical staff (usually at the same size as the numerals in a time signature). If a meter or key change occurs during a multimeasure rest, the rest must be broken up as required for clarity, with the change of key and/or meter indicated between the rests. This also applies in the case of double barlines, which demarcate musical phrases or sections.

A 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. 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). See: Anacrusis.