David Runnion replies to me replying to him:

>>... It depends: for example, the famous pause
>>between the first two movements of Mahler's 2nd - "Hier folgt eine Pause
>>von mindestens 5 Minuten" (here follows a pause of at least 5 minutes).
>
>Ah, but that's not a rest!  A rest is a musical notation, with a rhythmic
>value.  This is a pause, a written stage direction, if you will.  And, I
>might add, a fairly exact one.

Actually, a rest is not only a musical notation, as the German word, Pause,
makes clear.  Mahler could have put in a whole rest with the notation
quarter = v.m.  0.8.  It means exactly the same thing as his less clumsy
written note.  I don't think we should confuse the sign for the music.

Steve Schwartz