Dal segno

This article is about the musical term. For the Loona yyxy song, see Beauty & the Beat (EP). For the National Health album, see D.S. Al Coda.

In music notation, dal segno (UK: /dæl ˈsɛnjoʊ/, US: /dɑːl ˈseɪnjoʊ/, Italian: [dal ˈseɲɲo]), often abbreviated as D.S., is used as a navigation marker. Defined as "from the sign" in Italian, D.S. appears in sheet music and instructs a musician to repeat a passage starting from the sign shown at right, sometimes called the segno in English.^[1]

Segno

A contrived example showing DS al FINE. Play^ⓘ Use of Dal Segno eliminates the need to write out extra measures, often many more than in this example. The notes are to be played in this order: G A B B C' A B B C' C. The MIDI file plays in the order: G A B B C' A B C' C.

A similar example showing DS al CODA. Play^ⓘ The notes are to be played in this order: G A B B C' A B C

Variants

The two main common variants are:^{[citation needed]}

• D.S. al coda instructs the musician to go back to the sign, and when Al coda or To coda is reached jump to the coda symbol.
• D.S. al fine instructs the musician to go back to the sign, and end the piece at the measure marked fine.

The Sibelius 5 Reference manual had the following description:

The Italian term 'dal segno' literally means 'from the sign.' In most music you will see either D.S. al Fine (which means 'go back to the 𝄋 sign and play the music again until you come to the bar marked Fine, then stop') or D.S. al Coda (which means 'go back to the 𝄋 sign and play the music again until you come to the bar marked To Coda, then jump to the coda'). ...You may also see simply...D.S. in the final bar of a score, which means to repeat from...the 𝄋 sign...then stop at the end. In music, these instructions always appear at the end of the bar from which you have to jump back (either to the 𝄋 sign or to the start of the piece).^[2]

Al segno indicates that the player should go to the sign: Da capo al segno (D.C. al Segno), "From the beginning to the sign (𝄋)."^[3]

In operas of the 18th century, a dal segno aria was a common alternative to a da capo aria, which began with an opening ritornello, and which was then omitted in the repeat (the sign being placed after the ritornello).^{[citation needed]}

Encoding

The segno sign is encoded in the Musical Symbols block of Unicode as U+1D10B 𝄋 MUSICAL SYMBOL SEGNO.^[4]

See also

• Coda
• Da capo
• Fermata
• Repeat sign