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A symbol indicating that a note or rest should be held beyond its normal duration. The length is at the performer's discretion.
Printed as an arc over a dot above a note, rest or barline (inverted below for a lower voice); it affects that one event, and a word may lengthen it — “lunga”, or “Lange” beside “Fermata.” in Mahler’s Fifth. Over a barline it can mark where a da capo form ends; in Bach chorales it marks phrase ends rather than long holds. Over a G.P. bar it stretches the silence.
The fermata suspends musical time. Use it for dramatic pauses, cadential emphasis, or moments of reflection. At the end of phrases (especially in chorales), fermatas mark breathing points. In concertos, fermatas mark the cadenza — the soloist's improvised display.
Bach's chorales — fermatas mark the end of each phrase, creating breathing points in the four-part harmony.
Fermata is one of 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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