View source for Hundred twenty-eighth note

{{Short description|Musical note duration}}
[[File:1-128th note.svg|thumb|400px|right|[[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]] used hundred twenty-eighth notes in the first movement of his [[Piano Sonata No. 8 (Beethoven)|''Pathétique'' Sonata (Op. 13)]] [[File:Beethoven Op. 8 1-128th note.mid|thumb|left]]]]
[[File:Hundred twenty-eighth notes and rest.png|thumb|A hundred twenty-eighth note with stem pointing up, a hundred twenty-eighth note with stem pointing down, and a hundred twenty-eighth rest.]]
[[File:Hundred twenty-eighth note run.png|thumb|Hundred twenty-eighth notes beamed together.]]

In [[music]], a '''hundred twenty-eighth note''' ([[North American English|North American]]) or '''semihemidemisemiquaver'''<ref>[[Gardner Read|Read, Gardner]] (1979). ''Music Notation'', p.65. 2nd edition. Crescendo Taplinger. {{ISBN|0-8008-5453-5}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = The Cambridge Companion to Shostakovich|series = [[Cambridge Companions to Music]]|authorlink=David Haas|last = Haas|first = David|location=Cambridge and New York|publisher = Cambridge University Press|isbn = 978-1-139-00195-3 |doi = 10.1017/CCOL9780521842204.006|editor-last = Fairclough|editor-first = Pauline|editor-last2 = Fanning|editor-first2 = David|quote = The listener is right to suspect a Baroque reference when a double-dotted rhythmic gesture and semihemidemisemiquaver triplets appear to ornament the theme.|chapter = Shostakovich's Second Piano Sonata: A Composition Recital in Three Styles|date = 2011|page=112}}){{Full citation needed|date=December 2016}}<!--Inclusive page numbers of Haas's article are needed, in addition to the page citation.--></ref> or '''quasihemidemisemiquaver'''<ref>{{cite book|first=RJ|last=Miller|title=Contemporary Orchestration: A Practical Guide to Instruments, Ensembles, and Musicians|publisher=Routledge|date=2015|isbn=978-0-415-74190-3|page=38<!-- I believe Miller gives both terms on p. 38; see https://www.google.com.au/search?q=quasihemidemisemiquaver+semihemidemisemiquaver+Miller+Contemporary+Orchestration&tbm=bks [mb] -->}}</ref> ([[British English|British]]) is a [[Musical note|note]] played for {{frac|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 [[Beam (music)|beam]]s.

A single 128th note is always stemmed with flags, while two or more are usually beamed in groups.<ref>Gerou, Tom (1996). ''Essential Dictionary of Music Notation'', p.211. Alfred. {{ISBN|0-88284-730-9}}</ref> Notes this short are very rare in printed music, but not unknown. One reason that notes with many beams are rare is that, for instance, a thirty-second note at {{music|quarter}} = 50 lasts the same amount of time as a sixteenth note at {{music|quarter}} = 100; every note in a piece may be notated as twice as long but last the same amount of time if the tempo is also doubled. They are principally used for brief, rapid sections in slow [[movement (music)|movement]]s. For example, they occur in the first movement of [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'s [[Piano Sonata No. 8 (Beethoven)|''Pathétique'' Piano Sonata (Op. 13)]], to notate rapid [[musical scale|scales]]. Another example is in Mozart's Variations on ''Je suis Lindor'', where many of them are used in the slow twelfth variation.<ref>Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. ''12 Variations on 'Je suis Lindor''', K.354. p. 10, fourth system, last bar. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts Werke, Serie 21. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1877-1910. Plate W.A.M. 354. [http://imslp.org/wiki/12_Variations_on_'Je_suis_Lindor',_K.354_(Mozart,_Wolfgang_Amadeus)]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mail-archive.com/lilypond-devel@gnu.org/msg14425.html|title=Re: GPD: official shortest note in lilypond|author=Thomas Bushnell BSG|date=8 November 2007|work=mail-archive.com}}</ref>  Likewise, 128th notes are used in the explicitly notated ornamental runs in the opening ''Adagio'' of [[Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (Bach)|Bach's g minor Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin]] (BWV 1001).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bach's works for solo violin : style, structure, performance|last=Joel.|first=Lester|date=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0195120973|location=New York|oclc=39739608}}</ref>

These five-beamed notes also appear occasionally where a passage is to be performed rapidly, but where the actual [[tempo]] is at the discretion of the performer rather than being a strict division of the [[beat (music)|beat]]. In such cases, the aggregate time of the notes may not add up exactly to a full measure, and the phrase may be marked with an odd time division to indicate this. Sometimes such notation is made using smaller notes, sized like grace notes. One rare instance where such five-beamed notes occur as [[acciaccatura]]s occurs in the final measures of No. 2 of [[Charles-Valentin Alkan]]'s ''[[Trois grandes études]]'', Op. 76.

'''Hundred twenty-eighth [[rest (music)|rests]]''' are also rare, but again not unknown. One is used in [[Piano Sonata No. 13 (Beethoven)|Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 13 "Quasi una fantasia"]] (bar 24 in the adagio movement) where it is followed by an ascending run of 128th notes,<ref>{{IMSLP|work=Piano Sonata No.13, Op.27 No.1 (Beethoven, Ludwig van)|cname=Piano Sonata No. 13, Op. 27, No. 1 (Beethoven)}}</ref> as well as in the finale of [[Charles-Valentin Alkan]]'s [[Grande sonate 'Les quatre âges']].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Grande Sonate 'Les Quatre Ages', Op.33 (Alkan, Charles-Valentin) - IMSLP |url=https://imslp.org/wiki/Grande_Sonate_'Les_Quatre_Ages',_Op.33_(Alkan,_Charles-Valentin) |access-date=2024-09-21 |website=imslp.org}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[List of musical symbols]]

==References==
<references />

{{Musical note values}}

[[Category:Note values]]