Octaves (U+E510–U+E51F)
| Glyph | Description | Glyph | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| | U+E510 ottava Ottava | | U+E511 (and U+1D136) ottavaAlta Ottava alta |
| | U+E512 (and U+1D137) ottavaBassa Ottava bassa | | U+E513 ottavaBassaBa Ottava bassa (ba) |
| | U+E514 quindicesima Quindicesima | | U+E515 quindicesimaAlta Quindicesima alta |
| | U+E516 (and U+1D139) quindicesimaBassa Quindicesima bassa | | U+E517 ventiduesima Ventiduesima |
| | U+E518 ventiduesimaAlta Ventiduesima alta | | U+E519 ventiduesimaBassa Ventiduesima bassa |
| | U+E51A octaveParensLeft Left parenthesis for octave signs | | U+E51B octaveParensRight Right parenthesis for octave signs |
| | U+E51C ottavaBassaVb Ottava bassa (8vb) | | U+E51D quindicesimaBassaMb Quindicesima bassa (mb) |
| | U+E51E ventiduesimaBassaMb Ventiduesima bassa (mb) | | U+E51F octaveBassa Bassa |
Recommended stylistic alternates
| Glyph | Description | Glyph | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| | uniE514.salt01 sedicesima Sedicesima (16) | | uniE515.salt01 sedicesimaAlta Sedicesima (16) alta |
| | uniE516.salt01 sedicesimaBassa Sedicesima (16) bassa | | uniE517.salt01 ventiquattresima Ventiquattresima (24) |
| | uniE518.salt01 ventiquattresimaAlta Ventiquattresima (24) alta | | uniE519.salt01 ventiquattresimaBassa Ventiquattresima (24) bassa |
| | uniE51D.salt01 sedicesimaBassaMb Sedicesima (16) bassa (mb) | | uniE51E.salt01 ventiquattresimaBassaMb Ventiquattresima (24) bassa (mb) |
Supplementary Groups
Implementation notes
These glyphs are for use in octave markings, sometimes called ottava lines.
8 (ottava), 15 (quindicesima), and 22 (ventiduesima) may be used to indicate the raising or lowering of pitch by one, two, or three octaves respectively; the position of these glyphs relative to a dashed line with hook, and the placement relative to the staff (above to raise, below to lower), indicates whether or not the pitch is raised or lowered.
To more explicitly indicate raising the pitch by one, two, or three octaves, the glyphs with superscript suffixes — 8va (ottavaAlta), 15ma (quindicesimaAlta), 22ma (ventiduesimaAlta) — may be used.
To explicitly indicate lowering the pitch by one, two, or three octaves, the glyphs with baseline suffixes — 8va (ottavaBassaBase), 15ma (quindicesimaBassaBase), 22ma (ventiduesimaBassaBase) — may be used, optionally with the additional indication bassa (octaveBassa).
In the case where an octave marking applies to only some of the notes on a given staff, the indication loco (octaveLoco), meaning “with the octave”, is sometimes also used. (This glyph is found in the Octaves supplement range.)
When an octave line crosses a system or page break, the octave marking is repeated at the start of the new system, and may optionally be enclosed within parentheses, which are provided as octaveParensLeft and octaveParensRight.
The 8vb (ottavaBassaVb), 15mb (quindicesimaBassaMb) and 22mb (ventiduesimaBassaMb) glyphs are included because they are sometimes used, but they are corruptions of the more correct forms 8va bassa, 15ma bassa, and 22ma bassa. 8va is short for “ottava”, 15ma is short for “quindicesima”, and 22ma is short for “ventiduesima”; as such, it is nonsensical to replace the suffix va with vb, or ma with mb. The recommended abbreviation for 8va bassa is 8ba (ottavaBassaBa), which is included.