Lang

As Printed on a Score

Placed over a fermata, a held note or a rest to ask for a long hold, and inside phrases such as “lange Pause” or “lang gezogen”. Its scope is the sign or note it stands over; it is not a running direction and needs no cancelling. Mahler opens a movement with it, beside verklingend.

Also spelled: lange

How Composers Use It

A fermata alone leaves its length to taste; lang (or kurz) tells the performer which end of the scale you mean. Mahler uses it to make one held tone an event — a long note that is then left to fade (lang … verklingend). Pair it with a dynamic shape so the length has a purpose, and write lange Pause when the silence after a cadence matters as much as the sound before it.

Example

Mahler, Symphony No. 5, fifth movement (Rondo-Finale), first horn, m. 1: “lang” and “verklingend” over an fp — the movement’s first markings, asking for a long tone that fades.

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