Notation & reading
Da capo
Da capo, abbreviated D.C., instructs the player to return to the beginning of the piece; dal segno, D.S., instructs a return to the segno sign, and both are usually followed by an instruction about where to stop.
D.C. al fine means go back to the start and play until the word fine. D.S. al coda means go back to the sign, play until the coda mark, then jump to the section marked Coda. These navigation instructions let a publisher print a repeated section once instead of twice, and they are the most common cause of an ensemble falling apart on a first read.
The safe habit is to trace the route before playing: find the sign, find the coda jump, find fine, and mark them clearly. In a part with several repeats and a D.S. al coda, the actual order of bars can be surprising.
The da capo aria of the Baroque period takes its name from the instruction: an A section, a contrasting B section, then A again, with the repeat ornamented rather than played identically.
Related terms
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