Abbreviation
A shorthand sign that simplifies recurring figures.
What it means
An abbreviation is a shorthand in the notated text: a sign that stands for a written-out succession of notes which the player supplies from a fixed rule. It saves space and writing, above all with figures that repeat unchanged or only slightly altered. The benefit is twofold — the page stays clear, and the eye grasps at a glance that nothing new is happening here, but that something familiar is being continued.
In the notation
The most common forms are slashes through or above the stem: one slash means to repeat the written value in eighths, two slashes in sixteenths, three in thirty-seconds. A slash in the space of an empty bar stands for the repetition of the preceding bar; a figure above it indicates how many bars are meant. In a tremolo between two notes the slashes stand between the two noteheads. The repetition of whole sections by a double bar with dots also belongs here in a broader sense, as do markings such as simile, which carry on a manner of playing once shown.
Musical use
Abbreviations are at home above all in accompanying parts and orchestral parts, where long passages consist of the same figure: repeated eighths in the violas, broken triads in the piano texture, drum rolls in the percussion. In scores they are used more sparingly than in individual parts, because the conductor should see the actual course of events. Historically the practice reaches far back; its extent and meaning vary with time and region, which is why in old editions the editor’s report should be consulted in cases of doubt.
Performance practice
With bar-repeat signs be sure to count along and, if need be, write the number of bars in the margin — miscounting over long repeat stretches is the most common entry error in the orchestra. Check also whether nothing really changes under the slashes: accidentals, dynamics and articulation still apply, and a change of accidental in the following bar does not cancel the repetition but alters it. When practising, it is worth writing out a difficult abbreviated passage once; after that it reads effortlessly in the shorthand form.