Crossword clues for fermata
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1876, musical term indicating a pause or hold, Italian, literally "a stop, a pause," from fermare "to fasten, to stop," from fermo "strong, fastened," from Latin firmus (see firm (adj.)).
Wiktionary
n. (context music English) The holding of a note or rest for longer than its usual duration; also the notation of such a prolongation, usually represented as a dot with a semi-circle above it, written above the prolonged note or rest.
Usage examples of "fermata".
A rest with a fermata is the moral opposite of the fast-food restaurant with express lane.
One, frail fermata in that dissonant strain: Van Cliburn wins the Tschaikovsky competition, making him the most popular Texan in Georgia.
It would be supremely selfish to pull Ana from her fermata of endless sleep, if the universe that he had to offer was so alien that pleasure and happiness were impossible.
He played it out for a long time like some sweet fermata of a song only he knew.
The writer must put in the last full stop, which may be as brutal as the suicide of the hero, a solution often considered in the notebooks, or indefinitely suspended like an organ fermata, prolonging the sublime note of reconciliation into the future.
It is a place of time signatures, fermatas, ledger lines, grace notes, and demisemiquavers that, are the common tongue and heritage of musicians all over the world.
At the same time I sang several of the modern fermatas, which rush up and down and hum like a well-spun peg-top, striking a few villainous chords by way of accompaniment.