multi-bar rest

A consolidation of multiple adjacent empty bars into a smaller unit, typically shown as a single bar with the total number of bars' rest written above the staff. A multi-bar rest normally shows an H-bar symbol, which is a thick horizontal line with vertical lines at each end. In some older published scores, a multi-bar rest of up to nine bars in length is shown using a combination of double whole and whole rests. Also known as a “multirest”.