Breath mark

A comma for music

As in language, a comma also structures in music: it does not set a full stop, but it separates two parts of a phrase. The symbol library describes the breath mark as a comma above the staff: a short breath or small caesura, without lengthening the bar. It is written above the staff between two notes.

What matters is that the time for the breath does not arise additionally. It is taken from the preceding note, the pulse goes on. Anyone who reads a breath mark therefore plays or sings the note before somewhat shorter, instead of stretching the bar.

Telling it from caesura and fermata

Three signs are readily confused because they all have to do with a brief interruption. The caesura, two slanting strokes, stops the music, after which it goes on in tempo. The fermata stretches a note or rest. The breath mark, on the other hand, leaves the bar untouched. It is the quietest of the three interruptions.

An example from the choir

The sign is especially widespread in singing: there the breath decides how long a phrase can be. A choral setting shows what the sign looks like in the score.

Choral setting

• Gladsome Light Choral setting SATB with chords for guitar, Александр Копылов (1854–1911) · 2 pages

  The piece is headed “Не очень медленно” (not very slowly), is in 4/4 with one flat and alternates between 4/4, 6/4 and 3/4. In bar 9 there is a comma above the staff, after the dotted half note and before the last quarter note, in both staves at the same place. The voices therefore break off together without the bar becoming longer.

Breathing without a breath mark

Even if none is notated, a melody needs its incisions. The page Cadences calls the half cadence a breath mark in the middle of the sentence that makes you expect an answer. The place where an ending leaves the phrase open is therefore often also the place where you breathe or start a bow anew. Strings do it with the bow change, wind players and singers with the breath, pianists with a slight lifting of the hand.