Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
fermata

fermata

1 9.9
A mark in music that tells you to hold a note, chord, or rest longer than usual
  • noun
  • /fərˈmɑːtə/
  • Specialized
: fermata
  • The conductor signaled for a fermata to extend the note's duration during the performance.
  • fermata interpretation
  • experience a fermata

Examples

  • During the rehearsal, the pianist added a fermata to the final chord to emphasize its importance.

  • Get ready, now—we're coming up to the fermata...

    Fiction book (1999)

  • We're coming up to the fermata.

    Music of the Heart (1999)

  • OK, so let's us, let's have us now and put a fermata over this.

  • The second time, place a fermata on the second inhalation.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Vary the tempo and add fermatas to different pitches.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Approaching the cadence, she slows the tempo a bit and then holds the fermata a long time, with the volume decreasing gradually to niente.

    Academic text (2001)

  • In the sheet music, there is a fermata indicating a brief pause for the musicians.

Surface Forms

fermata singular
fermate plural

Etymology

The word fermata comes from the Italian verb fermare meaning 'to stop', from a Latin root meaning 'firm' or 'fixed' that you can also find in the English word firm. So a fermata tells musicians to 'hold' a note and keep it steady, like making the sound 'firm'.