Octave Signs
| Ottava The 8va sign is placed above the staff (as shown) to indicate the passage is to be played one octave higher. (An 8vb sign is placed below the staff to indicate the passage is to be played one octave lower. |
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| Quindicesima The 15ma sign is placed above the staff (as shown) to indicate the passage is to be played two octaves higher. (A 15mb sign is placed below the staff to indicate the passage is to be played two octaves lower.) |
8va and 15ma are sometimes abbreviated further to 8 and 15. When they appear below the staff, the word bassa is sometimes added.
Read more about this topic: List Of Musical Symbols
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“The whole visible universe is but a storehouse of images and signs to which the imagination will give a relative place and value; it is a sort of pasture which the imagination must digest and transform.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)