What does tacet mean in music?

Ensemble & rehearsal

Tacet

Latin, "it is silent"

Tacet is a marking in an orchestral part indicating that the instrument does not play for an entire movement or section, so no bars of rest are printed.

It saves paper and page turns: rather than printing four hundred bars of rest, the part says "II. Andante, tacet". The player sits out the movement, and the marking is a reminder to count movements rather than bars.

Tacet al fine means silent for the remainder of the piece. Encountering it in a part is a small warning to check the programme order, because a movement off is also a movement in which it is easy to lose track of where the orchestra has got to.

It is distinct from a multi-bar rest, which is printed with a number and does need counting.

Score and parts: A score shows every instrument’s music stacked on aligned staves, while a part shows one instrument’s line alone, the conductor reads the score, the players read parts.
Measure: A measure, called a bar in British usage, is the span of music between two barlines, containing the number of beats set by the time signature.
Rehearsal mark: A rehearsal mark is a boxed letter or number placed at structural points in a score and in every part, so a conductor can restart the whole ensemble at the same place.
Tutti: Tutti indicates that the whole ensemble or the whole section plays, and in a concerto part it marks the orchestral passages where the soloist rests.

Every term in this glossary is taught in context somewhere in Arco's curricula, on the staff, on the keyboard, and on your own fingerboard at the same time.

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