Sign that indicates the relative duration of a note
In
music notation
, a
note value
indicates the relative
duration
of a
note
, using the texture or shape of the
notehead
, the presence or absence of a
stem
, and the presence or absence of
flags/
beams
/hooks/tails
. Unmodified note values are fractional powers of two, for example one, one-half, one fourth, etc.
A
rest
indicates a silence of an equivalent duration.
List
[
edit
]
Note
|
Rest
|
American name
|
British name
|
Relative value
|
Dotted value
|
Double dotted value
|
Triple dotted value
|
|
|
large, duplex longa, or
maxima
[1]
[2]
(occasionally
octuple note
,
[3]
octuple whole note
,
[4]
or
octuple entire musical note
)
[5]
|
8
|
8 + 4
= 12
|
8 + 4 + 2
= 14
|
8 + 4 + 2 + 1
= 15
|
|
|
long
[2]
[6]
[7]
or
longa
[8]
(occasionally
quadruple note
[9]
or
quadruple whole note
)
[4]
|
4
|
4 + 2
= 6
|
4 + 2 + 1
= 7
|
4 + 2 + 1 +
1
/
2
=
7
+
1
/
2
|
|
|
double whole note
,
[10]
double note
[11]
[12]
[13]
|
breve
|
2
|
2 + 1
= 3
|
2 + 1 +
1
/
2
=
3
+
1
/
2
|
2 + 1 +
1
/
2
+
1
/
4
=
3
+
3
/
4
|
|
|
whole note
|
semibreve
|
1
|
1 +
1
/
2
=
1
+
1
/
2
|
1 +
1
/
2
+
1
/
4
=
1
+
3
/
4
|
1 +
1
/
2
+
1
/
4
+
1
/
8
=
1
+
7
/
8
|
|
|
half note
|
minim
|
1
/
2
|
1
/
2
+
1
/
4
=
3
/
4
|
1
/
2
+
1
/
4
+
1
/
8
=
7
/
8
|
1
/
2
+
1
/
4
+
1
/
8
+
1
/
16
=
15
/
16
|
|
or
|
quarter note
|
crotchet
|
1
/
4
|
1
/
4
+
1
/
8
=
3
/
8
|
1
/
4
+
1
/
8
+
1
/
16
=
7
/
16
|
1
/
4
+
1
/
8
+
1
/
16
+
1
/
32
=
15
/
32
|
|
|
eighth note
|
quaver
|
1
/
8
|
1
/
8
+
1
/
16
=
3
/
16
|
1
/
8
+
1
/
16
+
1
/
32
=
7
/
32
|
1
/
8
+
1
/
16
+
1
/
32
+
1
/
64
=
15
/
64
|
|
|
sixteenth note
|
semiquaver
|
1
/
16
|
1
/
16
+
1
/
32
=
3
/
32
|
1
/
16
+
1
/
32
+
1
/
64
=
7
/
64
|
1
/
16
+
1
/
32
+
1
/
64
+
1
/
128
=
15
/
128
|
|
|
thirty-second note
|
demisemiquaver
|
1
/
32
|
1
/
32
+
1
/
64
=
3
/
64
|
1
/
32
+
1
/
64
+
1
/
128
=
7
/
128
|
1
/
32
+
1
/
64
+
1
/
128
+
1
/
256
=
15
/
256
|
|
|
sixty-fourth note
|
hemidemisemiquaver
|
1
/
64
|
1
/
64
+
1
/
128
=
3
/
128
|
1
/
64
+
1
/
128
+
1
/
256
=
7
/
256
|
1
/
64
+
1
/
128
+
1
/
256
+
1
/
512
=
15
/
512
|
|
|
hundred twenty-eighth note
|
semihemidemisemiquaver
[14]
[15]
(rare)
|
1
/
128
|
1
/
128
+
1
/
256
=
3
/
256
|
1
/
128
+
1
/
256
+
1
/
512
=
7
/
512
|
1
/
128
+
1
/
256
+
1
/
512
+
1
/
1024
=
15
/
1024
|
|
|
two hundred fifty-sixth note
|
demisemihemidemisemiquaver
[4]
(rare)
|
1
/
256
|
1
/
256
+
1
/
512
=
3
/
512
|
1
/
256
+
1
/
512
+
1
/
1024
=
7
/
1024
|
1
/
256
+
1
/
512
+
1
/
1024
+
1
/
2048
=
15
/
2048
|
Shorter notes can be created theoretically
ad infinitum
by adding further flags, but are very rare.
Variations
[
edit
]
The breve appears in several different versions, as shown at right. The first two are commonly used; the third is a stylistic alternative.
Sometimes the longa or breve is used to indicate a very long note of indefinite duration, as at the end of a piece (e.g. at the end of Mozart's Mass KV 192).
A single eighth note, or any faster note, is always stemmed with flags, while two or more are usually beamed in groups.
[16]
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 cases of the
longa
or
maxima
which are nearly always written with downward stems. 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.
Modifiers
[
edit
]
A note value may be
augmented
by adding a dot after it. This
dot
adds the next briefer note value, making it one and a half times its original duration. A number of dots (
n
) lengthen the note value by
2
n
? 1
/
2
n
its value, so
two dots
add two lower note values, making a total of one and three quarters times its original duration. The rare
three dots
make it one and seven eighths the duration, and so on.
The double dot was first used in 1752 by
J. J. Quantz
;
[17]
in music of the 18th century and earlier the amount by which the dot augmented the note varied: it could be more or less than the modern interpretation, to fit into the context.
[17]
To divide a note value to three equal parts, or some other value than two,
tuplets
may be used. However, see
swung note
and
notes inegales
.
History
[
edit
]
Gregorian chant
[
edit
]
Although note heads of various shapes, and notes with and without stems appear in early
Gregorian chant
manuscripts, many scholars agree that these symbols do not indicate different durations, although the dot is used for augmentation. See
neume
.
In the 13th century, chant was sometimes performed according to
rhythmic modes
, roughly equivalent to
meters
; however, the note shapes still did not indicate duration in the same way as modern note values.
Mensural notation
[
edit
]
Around 1250,
Franco of Cologne
invented different symbols for different durations, although the relation between different note values could vary; three was the most common ratio.
Philippe de Vitry
'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 signatures
to distinguish between them.
This black
mensural notation
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
triplets
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
ligatures
, a holdover from the
clivis
and
porrectus
neumes
used in
chant
.
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
[
edit
]
The British names go back at least to English renaissance music, and the terms of Latin origin had international currency at that time.
Longa
means 'long', and many of the rest indicate relative shortness.
Breve
is from Latin
brevis
, 'short',
minim
is from
minimus
, 'very small', and
quaver
refers to the quavering effect of very fast notes. The elements
semi-
,
demi-
and
hemi-
mean 'half' in Latin, French and Greek respectively. 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.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
William Smythe, Babcock Mathews, and Emil Liebling, "Large",
Pronouncing and Defining Dictionary of Music
(Cincinnati, New York, London: J. Church and Company, 1896).
- ^
a
b
Theodore Baker
,
A Dictionary of Musical Terms: Containing Upwards of 9,000 English, French, German, Italian, Latin, and Greek Words and Phrases
, third edition, revised and enlarged (New York: G. Schirmer, 1897): 131.
- ^
Ray M. Owen "
Glossary of Film Terms: Normal v ? Noth
". SoundsOfNewMexico.com, 2012.
Archived
13 August 2016 at the
Wayback Machine
MC Peko, "
bpm calc 2.2 // for calculating and visualizing bpm and related values // help // change-log // open source: zip js
". Focus Studios, 2015.
- ^
a
b
c
Kartik Asooja, Sindhu Kiranmai, and Paul Buitelaar "
UNLP at the C@merata Task: Question Answering on Musical Scores ACM
"
- ^
Anonymous, "
My Ambient Sounds?Sleeping Music & Ambient Soundscape Mixer to Help You Sleep Better Now
" (10 February 2016) Main Facts.biz (accessed 18 June 2016).
- ^
Music Dictionary (Do?Dq)
Dolmetsch.com (accessed 4 February 2015).
- ^
William Smythe, Babcock Mathews, and Emil Liebling, "Double Note",
Pronouncing and Defining Dictionary of Music
(Cincinnati, New York, London: J. Church and Company, 1896).
- ^
John Morehen and Richard Rastall, "Note values"",
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
, second edition, edited by
Stanley Sadie
and
John Tyrrell
(London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
- ^
John Freckleton Burrowes
,
Burrowes' Piano-forte Primer: Containing the Rudiments of Music Adapted for Either Private Tuition Or Teaching in Classes Together with a Guide to Practice
, new edition, revised and modernized, with important additions,m by L.H. Southard (Boston and New York: Oliver Ditson, 1874): 41. Hendrik Van der Werf,..
The Oldest Extant Part Music and the Origin of Western Polyphony
, 2 vols (Rochester, New York: H. van der Werf, 1993:. 1:97.
- ^
John Morehen and Richard Rastall, "Breve" and "Note values",
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
, second edition (2001).
- ^
"Double Note",
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
(C. & G. Merriam Co., 1913).
- ^
"
Music Dictionary (Do?Dq)
" Dolmetsch.com (accessed 4 February 2015).
- ^
Lowell Mason,
Manual of the Boston Academy of Music
(Boston, 1843): 67.
- ^
Robert J. Miller (2015).
Contemporary Orchestration: A Practical Guide to Instruments, Ensembles, and Musicians
. London: Routledge. p. 38.
ISBN
978-0-415-74190-3
.
- ^
David Haas (2011). "Shostakovich's Second Piano Sonata: A Composition Recital in Three Styles". In Pauline Fairclough; David Fanning (eds.).
The Cambridge Companion to Shostakovich
.
Cambridge Companions to Music
. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 95?114.
doi
:
10.1017/CCOL9780521842204.006
.
ISBN
978-1-139-00195-3
.
The listener is right to suspect a Baroque reference when a double-dotted rhythmic gesture and semihemidemisemiquaver triplets appear to ornament the theme.
(p. 112)
- ^
Gerou, Tom (1996).
Essential Dictionary of Music Notation
, p.211. Alfred.
ISBN
0-88284-730-9
- ^
a
b
Willi Apel
, "Dotted Notes",
Harvard Dictionary of Music
, second edition, revised and enlarged (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1972)
ISBN
978-0-674-37501-7
.