Fermata
Hold sign above a note ⌒.
What it means
The fermata holds a sound. The note or rest above which it stands is sustained beyond the written value, the duration not being fixed: it follows from character, tempo, and place in the piece. During the fermata the metrical order rests; only with the moving on does counting resume. Corona is an older designation for the same sign.
In the notation
The sign consists of a flat arc with a dot beneath it and stands above the note, in low parts and lower voices also mirrored below. It can appear over a note, a rest, or a bar line; over the bar line it separates two sections without stretching a sound. The addition lunga asks for a particularly long stretching. The fermata is to be distinguished from the caesura, which interrupts the flow instead of prolonging it, and from the breath mark, which takes the necessary time from the preceding note value and leaves the beat untouched.
Musical use
Three uses are particularly familiar. At the end of a piece or section the fermata gives weight to the closing sonority and lets it ring out. In the chorale it stands regularly at the end of each line and there indicates above all the articulation; how strongly it is actually stretched is a matter of tradition at the respective place. In concerto movements a fermata — often over a six-four chord before the dominant (V) — announces the solo cadenza: the orchestra pauses, the soloist plays freely, and afterwards the metrical order takes over the continuation again. Within a movement it can also build up tension before a decisive change.
Other names
It is met in older prints and in Italian-language literature.
Performance practice
Decide the length from the context and settle it in the ensemble beforehand; release and re-entry need a clear shared sign. Keep the sound active instead of merely letting it stand — a fermata that loses tension seems longer than it is. Resume the tempo afterwards without hesitation, unless something else is asked for. With fermatas over rests, count in anew after the entry instead of counting on inwardly.