Rest (music) - Multiple Measure Rests

Multiple Measure Rests

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) 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, althrough a small amount of publishers use this method it most commonly used casually in modern manuscripts), 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.

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 a double-barline, which demarcates musical phrases or sections.