These glyphs are for use in octave markings, sometimes called *ottava
lines*.

*8* (**ottava**), *15* (**quindicesima**), and *22* (**ventiduesima**) may
be used to indicate the raising or lowering of pitch by one, two, or three
octaves respectively; the position of these glyphs relative to a dashed
line with hook, and the placement relative to the staff (above to raise,
below to lower), indicates whether or not the pitch is raised or
lowered.

To more explicitly indicate raising the pitch by one, two, or three
octaves, the glyphs with superscript suffixes — *8va* (**ottavaAlta**),
*15ma* (**quindicesimaAlta**), *22ma* (**ventiduesimaAlta**) — may be used.

To explicitly indicate lowering the pitch by one, two, or three octaves,
the glyphs with baseline suffixes — *8va* (**ottavaBassaBase**), *15ma*
(**quindicesimaBassaBase**), *22ma* (**ventiduesimaBassaBase**) — may be used,
optionally with the additional indication *bassa* (**octaveBassa**).

In the case where an octave marking applies to only some of the notes on
a given staff, the indication *loco* (**octaveLoco**), meaning “with the
octave”, is sometimes also used. (This glyph is found in the **Octaves
supplement** range.)

When an octave line crosses a system or page break, the octave marking
is repeated at the start of the new system, and may optionally be
enclosed within parentheses, which are provided as **octaveParensLeft** and
**octaveParensRight**.

The *8vb* (**ottavaBassaVb**), *15mb* (**quindicesimaBassaMb**) and *22mb*
(**ventiduesimaBassaMb**) glyphs are included because they are sometimes
used, but they are corruptions of the more correct forms *8va bassa*,
*15ma bassa*, and *22ma bassa*. *8va* is short for “ottava”, *15ma* is
short for “quindicesima”, and *22ma* is short for “ventiduesima”; as
such, it is nonsensical to replace the suffix *va* with *vb*, or *ma*
with *mb*. The recommended abbreviation for *8va bassa* is *8ba*
(**ottavaBassaBa**), which is included.
