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Hoots : What do these symbols mean? This is part of Hasse's "Mea Tormenta, Properate". I think the one on the second staff is some sort of repeat sign, from the research I've been able to do, but I have no idea what the one on the - freshhoot.com

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What do these symbols mean?
This is part of Hasse's "Mea Tormenta, Properate".

I think the one on the second staff is some sort of repeat sign, from the research I've been able to do, but I have no idea what the one on the third staff is for. I can provide more musical context if that's necessary.

The second staff is a violin part and the third staff is a viola part, if that's helpful too.

Figure 1. Three staffs of handwritten music. The top staff is a treble clef in the key of B flat. The second staff is also a treble clef in the same key. It has no notes and just contains a cesura/simile like symbol in the middle of the staff. The third staff is an alto clef in the same key. This staff contains a symbol that's like a backwards c, two parallel lines, and a small s. The center of the symbol is on the second line of the staff.


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These are both shorthand notations that refer to music occurring simultaneously in other staves.

The first notation (the slashes) simply tell the performer to "do exactly what the other violins (the staff above you) are doing." This is especially clear when you consider, for instance, the following two portions of the score:

This is just a practical measure to prevent the engraver from writing out the same music twice. Instead, the engraver uses this symbol and only needs to write the music when it diverges from that in the staff above.

As for the second symbol, it's just a bass clef (It's upside down compared to modern standards, but it's a bass clef nevertheless; compare it to the bass clef throughout the rest of the score.) It markes a temporary change into bass clef from the prevailing alto clef, and although I've actually never seen this particular notation before, it seems to tell the performer to "do what the continuo is doing" (albeit an octave higher). This is made clear in the excerpts below by the fact that the middle staff begins this notated portion on the C an octave above the continuo and ends it on the E♭ an octave above.


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