Quote:

A Fermata / Pause/ Hold certainly does not mean 'stop playing the note then start playing it again'! Was that your interpretation?



Hi Trevor,

Those are three entirely different commands that cannot be lumped together as all having the same meaning.

My point is that the term, "Pause" in music refers to silence. As in the "Grand Pause" notation device in a score. Example of the Grand Pause can be found at the ending bars of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" as one example. A dramatic use of silence where the amount of time that the Grand Pause takes up is up to the Conductor. It is not related directly on the score to any Tempo, although a conductor may choose to do so or not.

Another way to indicate controlled amount of silence is to use Rests. This means that the amount of silence is always counted in time with the Tempo of the music, paying strict attention to the value of the Rests placed on the page. With this method, the composer or arranger can indicate a rather exact amount of silence, either for one instrument or all. Use of the various rest signs available can do anything from indicating the resting of an entire bar, multiple bars, or fractions of a bar, or combinations of both whole bars plus fraction of one bar. This is always governed by the Tempo of the song and therefore the musicians must count the rests in order to do it correctly.

The Fermata is used over a single note. The note is, of course sounding at the time. In the terminology used by Band in a Box, which is taken from modern music, specifically jazz and studio session terminology, the Fermata corresponds almost directly to "Hold" -- although the Hold does not break Tempo, we can make it sound like a Fermata was assigned to instruments by invoking a Hold and then invoking a slower Tempo over a bar, which may or may not work right since BB cannot apply the Tempo change to 1 beat. But we can change the number of beats in a bar in the same Bar Settings window and get that result if desired. For example, a typical 4/4 bar in which the last beat is to be assigned the Formata, we could divide that bar into one bar of 3 followed by one bar of 1, assign the Hold to the one bar of 1, then assign a slower Tempo to that bar. With a bit of careful experimentation as to the length of the Hold created, it is possible to simulate a scored Fermata and have it sound like one, if not Notationally Nice on the chart.

I have never encountered a Fermata used over a Rest. Will leave stuff like that up to the John Cage types.


--Mac

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