Caesura

The caesura, indicated by parallel diagonal slashes (//) above the staff (sometimes called ‘railroad tracks’), instructs all performers to pause briefly before continuing. The duration is short — typically a moment of silence rather than a long held breath — but the pause should be perceptible.

The caesura is a structural marking. It signals a momentary break in the flow of music, often between sections or before a particularly important arrival. Unlike a fermata (which holds a note or rest), the caesura is a pure silence — all sound stops, briefly, and then resumes.

In ensembles, the caesura requires coordination. All players stop together at the marking and resume together after the brief pause. The conductor’s gesture (or section leader’s breath) signals both the stop and the resumption.

Latin, ‘a cutting’, from caedere (‘to cut’). The musical sense is borrowed from poetic terminology, where caesura denotes a break within a poetic line.

Stop together, breathe, resume together. The caesura is a brief silence, not an indefinite pause — the music must pick up cleanly after a moment’s break.