In an encore (/ˈɒŋkɔːr/, also US /ˈɒnkɔːr/), “the performers return to the stage to give an additional performance — sometimes of the same piece ... [but sometimes] ... of another”. Multiple encores are not uncommon, and they originated spontaneously, when audiences would continue to applaud and demand additional performance from the artist(s). The word comes from the French encore [ɑ̃kɔʁ], which means ‘again, some more’; however, it is not used this way in French, nor is ancora in Italian.French speakers commonly use instead either une autre (‘another’), un rappel (‘a return, curtain call’) or the Latin bis (‘second time’) in the same circumstances. Italians use bis, too, and, formerly, da capo (‘from the beginning’). In England, [un']altra volta (Italian for ‘another time’) was used in the early nineteenth century, but such usage had been completely supplanted by 1900.
At the end of a concert, if there is prolonged applause, one more relatively short piece may be performed as an encore. In some modern circumstances, encores have come to be expected, and artists often plan their encores. Traditionally, in a concert that has a printed set list for the audience, encores are not listed, even when they are planned. A well-known example is the performance of the Radetzky March and The Blue Danube at the end of the Vienna New Year's Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; neither piece is ever listed in the official program, but they are traditionally played every year.