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<rest>

The <rest> element occupies one beat on which the instrument plays nothing new.

Thai instruments have no notated sustain. A <rest> means only that no note is struck, plucked, or bowed on that beat. Whatever the instrument was already sounding carries on according to its own physical decay: a ฆ้อง keeps ringing, a ระนาด damps quickly. The notation does not distinguish the two, and neither does this element.

<measure> or <group>

A <measure> in a lyric part takes <rest> too, where it means no new syllable begins. The vowel already being sung carries on, which is เอื้อน, and it is the same reading as above: no new attack, not silence. See <syllable>.

Attribute Required Type Description
id No token Optional identifier, unique among all <rest> elements in the document. Exists for a foreign-namespace extension to reference; ThaiMusicXML itself does not use it.
<rest/>
  • id, when present, must be unique among all <rest> elements in the document.
  • Self-closing element, with an optional id.
  • Each <rest/> occupies one beat, the same as a <note> in the same position. Inside a <group> it takes an equal share of the group’s single beat.
  • A rest prints as a hyphen, though some notation styles leave it blank in a part that is not carrying the melody. See Inside a measure.