Note value

Note value
Parts of a note

In music notation, a note value indicates the relative duration of a note, using the color or shape of the note head, the presence or absence of a stem, and the presence or absence of flags/beams/hooks/tails.

A rest indicates a silence of an equivalent duration.

Note Rest American name British name
Longa.gif Longa rest.svg longa longa
Breve.gif Breve rest.svg double whole note breve
Whole note.gif Whole rest.svg whole note semibreve
Half note.gif Half rest.svg half note minim
Quarter note.gif Crotchet rest alt plain-svg.svg or Crotchet rest plain-svg.svg quarter note crotchet
Eighth note.gif Eighth rest.svg eighth note quaver
Sixteenth note.gif 16th rest.svg sixteenth note semiquaver
32nd note.gif 32nd rest.svg thirty-second note demisemiquaver
64th note.gif 64th rest.svg sixty-fourth note hemidemisemiquaver
128th note.gif 128th rest.svg hundred twenty-eighth note Quasihemidemisemiquaver /

Semihemidemisemiquaver

Contents

Variations

Variants of the breve

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.

Beamed notes

When two or more notes which would normally have flags (eighth notes or shorter) appear successively, the flags may be replaced by beams, as shown at right. Notes are typically beamed only if they appear in the same beat within the bar.

Modifiers

A note value may be augmented by adding a dot after it. This dot adds the next lower note value, making it one and a half times its original duration. A number of dots (n) lengthen the note value by \tfrac{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 eights the duration, and so on.

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 inégales.

History

Gregorian chant

Although note heads of various shapes, and notes with and without stems appear in early Gregorian chant manuscripts, most 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

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

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


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • note value — noun (music) the relative duration of a musical note • Syn: ↑value, ↑time value • Topics: ↑music • Hypernyms: ↑duration, ↑continuance …   Useful english dictionary

  • note value — noun A musical notation that indicates the relative duration of a note, using the color or shape of the note head, the presence or absence of a stem, and the presence of flags …   Wiktionary

  • Note — This article is about the musical term. For other uses, see Note (disambiguation). In music, the term note has two primary meanings: A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound; A pitched sound itself.… …   Wikipedia

  • Note head — Parts of the note In music, a note head is the elliptical part of a note. Noteheads may be coloured completely black or white, indicating the note value (i.e., rhythmic duration). In a whole note, the note head is the only component of the note.… …   Wikipedia

  • Value — Val ue, n. [OF. value, fr. valoir, p. p. valu, to be worth, fr. L. valere to be strong, to be worth. See {Valiant}.] 1. The property or aggregate properties of a thing by which it is rendered useful or desirable, or the degree of such property or …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Value received — Value Val ue, n. [OF. value, fr. valoir, p. p. valu, to be worth, fr. L. valere to be strong, to be worth. See {Valiant}.] 1. The property or aggregate properties of a thing by which it is rendered useful or desirable, or the degree of such… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Value at risk — (VaR) is a maximum tolerable loss that could occur with a given probability within a given period of time. VaR is a widely applied concept to measure and manage many types of risk, although it is most commonly used to measure and manage the… …   Wikipedia

  • Value of information — (VoI) in decision analysis is the amount a decision maker would be willing to pay for information prior to making a decision. imilar termsVoI is sometimes distinguished into value of perfect information, also called value of clairvoyance (VoC),… …   Wikipedia

  • Value averaging — Value averaging, also known as dollar value averaging (DVA), is a technique of adding to an investment portfolio to provide greater return than similar methods such as dollar cost averaging and random investment. It was developed by former… …   Wikipedia

  • Note to God — Single by Charice from the album Charice Released May 15, 2009 …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”