Abbreviation (music)

On bowed instruments the rapid reiteration of a single note is easy, but in piano music an octave or chord becomes necessary to produce a tremolo, the manner of writing and performing of which is seen below.

In this case the word simili or segue is added, to show that the order of notes in the first group (which must be written out in full) is to be repeated, and to prevent the possibility of mistaking the effect intended for the repetition of the chord as a whole.

A more usual method of abbreviating the repetition of a passage of the length of the above is to write over it the word bis (twice), or in some cases ter (three times), or to enclose it between the dots of an ordinary repeat sign.

All these alterations (which can scarcely be considered abbreviations except that they spare the use of ledger lines) are counteracted, and the passage restored to its usual position, by the ending of the enclosing bracket, the word loco, or in clarinet music clarinette.

An abbreviation which is often very troublesome to the conductor occurs in manuscript scores, when a considerable part of the composition is repeated without alteration, and the corresponding number of bars are left vacant, with the remark come sopra (as above).

Gottfried Weber represents an interval by a number with one or two dots before it to express minor or diminished, and one or two after it for major or augmented.

[clarification needed][citation needed] Johann Anton André makes use of a right triangle to express a triad, and a square, for a seventh chord, the inversions being indicated by one, two, or three small vertical lines across their base, and the classification into major, minor, diminished, or augmented by the numbers 1, 2, 3, or 4, placed in the centre.

Root position triads of the C major scale indicated using Roman numeral analysis . [ 1 ] Play