Dal Segno

A contrived example showing DS al FINE.  Play  Use of Dal Segno prevents 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 low-C. The MIDI file plays in the order: G A B B C A B C low-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 low-C

In music notation, Dal segno (/ˌdæl ˈseɪnjoʊ/ or /ˈsɛɡnoʊ/; Italian pronunciation: [dal ˈseɲɲo]), often abbreviated D.S., is used as a navigation marker. From Italian for "from the sign," 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]

Two common variants:

• 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.

Al segno indicates that the player should go to the sign.

In operas of the 18th century, da segno arias were a common alternative to da capo arias which began with an opening ritornello, which was then omitted in the repeat (the sign being placed after the ritornello).

Encoding

The Segno sign is encoded in the Musical Symbols block of Unicode as U+1D10B MUSICAL SYMBOL SEGNO:^[2] 𝄋

• Coda
• Repeat sign
• Da capo

References

1. Percy Scholes (1970) The Oxford Companion to Music, 10th edition, Oxford University Press, p. 273.
2. PDF of Musical Symbols block from the unicode consortium