Da

As Printed on a Score

Appears only inside phrases (“da capo”, “Menuetto da Capo”, “da lontano”), most often in repeat directions printed at the end of a section, where it sends the player back to the beginning. Combined with the article it becomes dal (dal segno); in instrument names it means “for” or “of” (oboe da caccia, viola da gamba).

How Composers Use It

In repeat directions da begins an instruction that needs an end: Menuetto da capo returns to the minuet, and the composer must say where to stop (al Fine, al segno, e poi la Coda) unless convention makes it clear, as in Classical minuet-and-trio movements. In expressive phrases such as da lontano (from afar) it describes distance or source, not a repeat.

Example

Beethoven, Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21, third movement, flute, m. 141: “Menuetto da Capo” at the end of the trio.

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