In music notation, a
note value indicates the relative
durationDuration is an amount of time or a particular time interval. In sounds and music, aduration is a property of a tone that becomes one of the bases of rhythm.-Sound and music:A tone may be sustained for varying lengths of time...
of a note, using the color or shape of the
note headIn music, a note head is the elliptical part of a note. Noteheads may be coloured completely black or white, indicating the note value . In a whole note, the note head is the only component of the note. Shorter note values attach a stem to the note head, and possibly beams or flags...
, the presence or absence of a
stem-Notation:Stems are the lines which extend from the notehead. Stems may point up or down. Different-facing stems indicate the voice for polyphonic music written on the same staff. For single-note melodies, the stems usually point down for notes on the middle line or higher, and up for those below...
, and the presence or absence of
flags/beamsA beam in musical notation is a thick line frequently used to connect multiple consecutive eighth notes , or notes of shorter value , and occasionally rests...
.
A
restA rest is an interval of silence in a piece of music, marked by a sign indicating the length of the pause. Each rest symbol corresponds with a particular note value:*long *double whole rest / breve rest*whole rest / semibreve rest...
indicates a silence of an equivalent duration.
The breve appears in several different versions, as shown at right.
Sometimes the longa is used to indicate a very long note of indefinite duration, as at the end of a piece.
When a stem is present, it can go either up (from the right side of the note head) or down (from the left side, except in the case of the
longa).
In music notation, a
note value indicates the relative
durationDuration is an amount of time or a particular time interval. In sounds and music, aduration is a property of a tone that becomes one of the bases of rhythm.-Sound and music:A tone may be sustained for varying lengths of time...
of a note, using the color or shape of the
note headIn music, a note head is the elliptical part of a note. Noteheads may be coloured completely black or white, indicating the note value . In a whole note, the note head is the only component of the note. Shorter note values attach a stem to the note head, and possibly beams or flags...
, the presence or absence of a
stem-Notation:Stems are the lines which extend from the notehead. Stems may point up or down. Different-facing stems indicate the voice for polyphonic music written on the same staff. For single-note melodies, the stems usually point down for notes on the middle line or higher, and up for those below...
, and the presence or absence of
flags/beamsA beam in musical notation is a thick line frequently used to connect multiple consecutive eighth notes , or notes of shorter value , and occasionally rests...
.
A
restA rest is an interval of silence in a piece of music, marked by a sign indicating the length of the pause. Each rest symbol corresponds with a particular note value:*long *double whole rest / breve rest*whole rest / semibreve rest...
indicates a silence of an equivalent duration.
| Note |
Rest |
American name |
British name |
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longa A longa is a musical note twice as long as a breve, four times as long as a semibreve/whole note, that appears in early music. It is equal to sixteen quarter notes, or four measures in common time. It is no longer used in modern music notation, although the sign for the equivalent rest is sometimes...
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longa |
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breve In music, a double whole note or breve is a note lasting twice as long as a whole note...
(or double whole note) |
breve |
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whole note thumb|right|250px|Figure 1. A whole note and a whole rest.In music, a whole note or semibreve is a note represented by a hollow oval note head, like a half note , and no note stem . Its length is typically equal to four beats in 4/4 time...
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semibreve |
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half noteIn music, a half note or minim is a note played for half the duration of a whole note and twice the duration of a quarter note...
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minim |
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quarter noteA quarter note or crotchet is a note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note . Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless stem. The stem usually points upwards if it is below the middle line of the stave or downwards if it is on or above the...
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crotchet |
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eighth notethumb|180px|right|Figure 1. An eighth note with stem facing up, an eighth note with stem facing down, and an eighth rest.thumb|right|180px|Figure 2. Four eighth notes linked together....
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quaver |
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sixteenth note thumb|right|Figure 1. A sixteenth note with stem facing up, a sixteenth note with stem facing down, and a sixteenth rest.thumb|right|Figure 2. Four Sixteenth notes beamed together....
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semiquaver |
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thirty-second note In music, a thirty-second note or demisemiquaver is a note played for 1/32 of the duration of a whole note...
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demisemiquaver |
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sixty-fourth note In music notation, a sixty-fourth note or hemidemisemiquaver is a note played for 1/64 of the duration of a whole note . It lasts half as long as a thirty-second note ....
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hemidemisemiquaver |
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hundred twenty-eighth note In music, a hundred twenty-eighth note or semihemidemisemiquaver or quasihemidemisemiquaver is a note played for 1/128 of the duration of a whole note . It lasts half as long as a sixty-fourth note . It has a total of five flags or beams.Notes this short are very rare in printed music, but not...
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Quasihemidemisemiquaver / Semihemidemisemiquaver |
Variations
The breve appears in several different versions, as shown at right.
Sometimes the longa is used to indicate a very long note of indefinite duration, as at the end of a piece.
When a stem is present, it can go either up (from the right side of the note head) or down (from the left side, except in the case of the
longa). In most cases, the stem goes down if the notehead is on the center line or above, and up otherwise. Any flags always go to the right of the stem.
When two or more notes which would normally have flags (
eighth notethumb|180px|right|Figure 1. An eighth note with stem facing up, an eighth note with stem facing down, and an eighth rest.thumb|right|180px|Figure 2. Four eighth notes linked together....
s or shorter) appear successively, the flags may be replaced by
beamsA beam in musical notation is a thick line frequently used to connect multiple consecutive eighth notes , or notes of shorter value , and occasionally rests...
, as shown at right. Notes are typically beamed only if they appear in the same beat within the
barIn musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined as a given number of beats of a given duration. The word measure is heard more frequently in the U.S., while bar is used in other English-speaking countries, although musicians generally understand both usages...
. Beams also imply that the notes should be slightly more connected than non-beamed notes.
Modifiers
A note value may be
augmentedIn music and music theory augmentation is the lengthening or widening of rhythms, melodies, intervals or chords. The opposite is diminution .A melody or series of notes is augmented if the lengths of the notes are prolonged...
by adding a dot after it. This
dotIn Western musical notation, a dotted note is a note with a small dot written after it. The dot increases the duration of the basic note by half of its original value. If the basic note lasts 2 beats, the corresponding dotted note lasts 3 beats...
adds the next lower note value, making it one and a half times its original duration.
Two dotsIn Western musical notation, a dotted note is a note with a small dot written after it. The dot increases the duration of the basic note by half of its original value. If the basic note lasts 2 beats, the corresponding dotted note lasts 3 beats...
add two lower note values, making a total of one and three quarters times its original duration. The rare
three dotsIn Western musical notation, a dotted note is a note with a small dot written after it. The dot increases the duration of the basic note by half of its original value. If the basic note lasts 2 beats, the corresponding dotted note lasts 3 beats...
make it one and seven eights the duration, and so on.
To divide a note value into three equal parts, or some other value than two,
tupletIn music a tuplet is "any rhythm that involves dividing the beat into a different number of equal subdivisions from that usually permitted by the time-signature "...
s may be used. However, see
swung noteIn music, a swung note or shuffle note is a performance practice, mainly in jazz-influenced music, in which some notes with equal written time values are performed with unequal durations, usually as alternating long and short. It follows similar principles to notes inégales of the Baroque and...
and
notes inégalesIn music, notes inégales refers to a performance practice, mainly from the Baroque and Classical music eras, in which some notes with equal written time values are performed with unequal durations, usually as alternating long and short...
.
Gregorian chant
Although note heads of various shapes, and notes with and without stems appear in early
Gregorian chantGregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical chant in Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...
manuscripts, most scholars agree that these symbols do not indicate different durations, although the dot is used for augmentation. See
neumeA neume is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation...
.
In the 13th century, chant was sometimes performed according to rhythmic modes, roughly equivalent to
metersMeter or metre is a term that music has inherited from the rhythmic element of poetry, where it means the number of lines in a verse, the number of syllables in each line and the arrangement of those syllables as long or short, accented or unaccented...
; however, the note shapes still did not indicate duration in the same way as modern note values.
Mensural notation
Around 1250,
Franco of CologneFranco of Cologne was a German music theorist and possibly composer. He was one of the most influential theorists of the late Medieval era, and was the first to propose an idea which was to transform musical notation permanently: that the duration of any note should be determined by its...
invented different symbols for different durations, although the relation between different note values could vary; three was the most common ratio.
Philippe de VitryPhilippe de Vitry was a French composer, music theorist and poet. He was an accomplished, innovative, and influential composer, and may also have been the author of the Ars Nova treatise....
's treatise Ars nova (1320) described a system in which the ratios of different note values could be 2:1 or 3:1, with a system of mensural
time signatureThe time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
s to distinguish between them.
This black
mensural notationMensural notation is the musical notation system which was used in European music from the later part of the 13th century until about 1600."Mensural" refers to the ability of this system to notate complex rhythms with great exactness and flexibility...
gave way to
white mensural notation around 1450, in which all note values were written with white (outline) noteheads. In white notation the use of
tripletsIn music a tuplet is "any rhythm that involves dividing the beat into a different number of equal subdivisions from that usually permitted by the time-signature "...
was indicated by
coloration, i.e. filling in the noteheads to make them black (or sometimes red). Both black and white notation periodically made use of
ligaturesIn music notation, a ligature is a graphic symbol that represents two or more notes that are written and sung in a single gesture, and on a single syllable, primarily in use ca. 800-1650 AD...
, a holdover from the
clivis and
porrectus neumeA neume is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation...
s used in
chantGregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical chant in Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...
.
Around 1600 the modern notational system was generally adopted, along with barlines and the practice of writing multipart music in scores rather than only individual parts. In the 17th century, however, old usages came up occasionally.
Origins of the names
The British names go back at least to English renaissance music, and the terms of Latin origin had international currency at that time. Obviously,
longa means 'long', and the rest mostly indicate relative shortness.
Breve is from Latin
brevis, 'short',
minim is from
minimus, 'very small', and
quaver refers to the quivering effect of very fast notes. The elements
semi-,
demi- and
hemi- mean 'half' in Latin, French and Greek respectively, while
quasi- means 'almost'. The chain semantic shift whereby notes which were originally perceived as short came progressively to be long notes is interesting both linguistically and musically. However, the
crotchet is named after the shape of the note, from the Old French for a 'little hook', and it is possible to argue that the same is true of the
minim, since the word is also used in palaeography to mean a vertical stroke in mediaeval handwriting.
The American names are loan translations of the German terms: when American orchestras were first established in the 19th century they were populated to a significant degree by German emigrants.
External links