imported>Jos Haring: /* Modifiers */

2025-01-25T13:39:32Z

Modifiers

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{{short description|Sign that indicates the relative duration of a note}}
[[File:parts of a note.svg|right|150px|thumb|Parts of a note [[symbol]]]]

In [[music notation]], a '''note value''' indicates the relative [[duration (music)|duration]] of a [[note (music)|note]], using the texture or shape of the ''[[notehead]]'', the presence or absence of a ''[[stem (music)|stem]]'', and the presence or absence of ''flags/[[beam (music)|beams]]/hooks/tails''. Unmodified note values are fractional powers of two, for example one, one-half, one fourth, etc.

A [[rest (music)|rest]] indicates a silence of an equivalent duration.

==List==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!class="unsortable"|Note
!class="unsortable"|Rest
!American name
!British name
!Relative value
!class="unsortable"|[[Dotted note|Dotted value]]
!class="unsortable"|[[Dotted note#Double dotting|Double dotted value]]
!class="unsortable"|[[Dotted note#Triple dotting|Triple dotted value]]
|-
||[[File:Music-octwholenote.svg|70px]] ||[[File:Maxima rest.svg|x50px]] || colspan="2" |large, duplex longa, or [[maxima (music)|maxima]]<ref>William Smythe, Babcock Mathews, and Emil Liebling, "Large", ''Pronouncing and Defining Dictionary of Music'' (Cincinnati, New York, London: J. Church and Company, 1896).</ref><ref name="Baker131" >[[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.</ref> (occasionally ''octuple note'',<ref>Ray M. Owen "[http://soundsofnewmexico.com/B1_glossary_of_terms-N06.html Glossary of Film Terms: Normal v — Noth]". SoundsOfNewMexico.com, 2012. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160813030819/http://soundsofnewmexico.com/B1_glossary_of_terms-N06.html |date=13 August 2016 }}

MC Peko, "[http://flamencopeko.net/help/bpm_calc_help.php bpm calc 2.2 // for calculating and visualizing bpm and related values // help // change-log // open source: zip js]". Focus Studios, 2015.</ref> ''octuple whole note'',<ref name=256th/> or ''octuple entire musical note'')<ref>Anonymous, "[http://mainfact.biz/2016/02/10/my-ambient-sounds-sleeping-music-38-ambient-soundscape/ My Ambient Sounds—Sleeping Music & Ambient Soundscape Mixer to Help You Sleep Better Now]" (10 February 2016) Main Facts.biz (accessed 18 June 2016).</ref> || 8 || 8 + 4 = 12 || 8 + 4 + 2 = 14 || 8 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 15
|-
|[[File:longa.gif]] || [[File:longa rest.svg]] || colspan="2" |long<ref name="Baker131" /><ref>[http://www.dolmetsch.com/defsd2.htm Music Dictionary (Do–Dq)] Dolmetsch.com (accessed 4 February 2015).</ref><ref>William Smythe, Babcock Mathews, and Emil Liebling, "Double Note", ''Pronouncing and Defining Dictionary of Music'' (Cincinnati, New York, London: J. Church and Company, 1896).</ref> or [[longa (music)|longa]]<ref>John Morehen and Richard Rastall, "Note values"", ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (musicologist)|John Tyrrell]] (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).</ref> (occasionally ''quadruple note''<ref>[[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,.. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=oGb0AAAAMAAJ&q=%22quadruple+note%22 The Oldest Extant Part Music and the Origin of Western Polyphony]'', 2 vols (Rochester, New York: H. van der Werf, 1993:. 1:97.</ref> or ''quadruple whole note'')<ref name=256th/> || 4 || 4 + 2 = 6 || 4 + 2 + 1 = 7 || 4 + 2 + 1 + {{sfrac|1|2}} = {{sfrac|7|1|2}}
|-
|[[File:Double whole note.svg|x20px]] || [[File:breve rest.svg]] || [[double whole note]],<ref>John Morehen and Richard Rastall, "Breve" and "Note values", ''[[New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', second edition (2001).</ref> double note<ref>"Double Note", ''Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary'' (C. & G. Merriam Co., 1913).</ref><ref>"[http://www.dolmetsch.com/defsd2.htm Music Dictionary (Do–Dq)]" Dolmetsch.com (accessed 4 February 2015).</ref><ref>Lowell Mason, ''Manual of the Boston Academy of Music'' (Boston, 1843): 67.</ref> || breve || 2 || 2 + 1 = 3 || 2 + 1 + {{sfrac|1|2}} = {{sfrac|3|1|2}} || 2 + 1 + {{sfrac|1|2}} + {{sfrac|1|4}} = {{sfrac|3|3|4}}
|-
|[[File:Semibreve.svg|x15px]] || [[File:whole rest.svg|x70px]] || [[whole note]] || semibreve || 1 || 1 + {{sfrac|1|2}} = {{sfrac|1|1|2}} || 1 + {{sfrac|1|2}} + {{sfrac|1|4}} = {{sfrac|1|3|4}} || 1 + {{sfrac|1|2}} + {{sfrac|1|4}} + {{sfrac|1|8}} = {{sfrac|1|7|8}}
|-
|[[File:Half note with upwards stem.svg|x70px]] || [[File:half rest.svg|x70px]] || [[half note]] || minim || {{sfrac|1|2}} || {{sfrac|1|2}} + {{sfrac|1|4}} = {{sfrac|3|4}} || {{sfrac|1|2}} + {{sfrac|1|4}} + {{sfrac|1|8}} = {{sfrac|7|8}} || {{sfrac|1|2}} + {{sfrac|1|4}} + {{sfrac|1|8}} + {{sfrac|1|16}} = {{sfrac|15|16}}
|-
|[[File:Quarter note with upwards stem.svg|x70px]] || [[File:crotchet rest alt plain-svg.svg|x24px]] or [[File:crotchet rest plain-svg.svg|x16px]]
|| [[quarter note]] || crotchet; semiminim || {{sfrac|1|4}} || {{sfrac|1|4}} + {{sfrac|1|8}} = {{sfrac|3|8}} || {{sfrac|1|4}} + {{sfrac|1|8}} + {{sfrac|1|16}} = {{sfrac|7|16}} || {{sfrac|1|4}} + {{sfrac|1|8}} + {{sfrac|1|16}} + {{sfrac|1|32}} = {{sfrac|15|32}}
|-
|[[File:8thNote.svg|x70px]] || [[File:eighth rest.svg|x30px]] || [[eighth note]] || quaver || {{sfrac|1|8}} || {{sfrac|1|8}} + {{sfrac|1|16}} = {{sfrac|3|16}} || {{sfrac|1|8}} + {{sfrac|1|16}} + {{sfrac|1|32}} = {{sfrac|7|32}} || {{sfrac|1|8}} + {{sfrac|1|16}} + {{sfrac|1|32}} + {{sfrac|1|64}} = {{sfrac|15|64}}
|-
|[[File:Sixteenth note with upwards stem.svg|x70px]] || [[File:16th rest.svg|x50px]] || [[sixteenth note]] || semiquaver || {{sfrac|1|16}} || {{sfrac|1|16}} + {{sfrac|1|32}} = {{sfrac|3|32}} || {{sfrac|1|16}} + {{sfrac|1|32}} + {{sfrac|1|64}} = {{sfrac|7|64}} || {{sfrac|1|16}} + {{sfrac|1|32}} + {{sfrac|1|64}} + {{sfrac|1|128}} = {{sfrac|15|128}}
|-
|[[File:32nd note.svg|x70px]] || [[File:32nd rest.svg|x70px]] || [[thirty-second note]] || demisemiquaver || {{sfrac|1|32}} || {{sfrac|1|32}} + {{sfrac|1|64}} = {{sfrac|3|64}} || {{sfrac|1|32}} + {{sfrac|1|64}} + {{sfrac|1|128}} = {{sfrac|7|128}} || {{sfrac|1|32}} + {{sfrac|1|64}} + {{sfrac|1|128}} + {{sfrac|1|256}} = {{sfrac|15|256}}
|-
|[[File:64th note.svg|x70px]] || [[File:64th rest.svg|x70px]] || [[sixty-fourth note]] || hemidemisemiquaver || {{sfrac|1|64}} || {{sfrac|1|64}} + {{sfrac|1|128}} = {{sfrac|3|128}} || {{sfrac|1|64}} + {{sfrac|1|128}} + {{sfrac|1|256}} = {{sfrac|7|256}} || {{sfrac|1|64}} + {{sfrac|1|128}} + {{sfrac|1|256}} + {{sfrac|1|512}} = {{sfrac|15|512}}
|-
|[[File:Quintuple-croche tête en bas.svg|x70px]] || [[File:128th rest.svg|x70px]] || [[hundred twenty-eighth note]] || semihemidemisemiquaver<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert J. Miller|title=Contemporary Orchestration: A Practical Guide to Instruments, Ensembles, and Musicians|location=London|publisher=Routledge|date=2015|isbn=978-0-415-74190-3|page=38}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = The Cambridge Companion to Shostakovich| series = [[Cambridge Companions to Music]]|author = David Haas|publisher = Cambridge University Press|isbn = 978-1-139-00195-3|location = Cambridge and New York |pages = 95–114 |doi = 10.1017/CCOL9780521842204.006|editor = Pauline Fairclough|editor2 = David Fanning|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}}(p. 112)</ref> (rare) || {{sfrac|1|128}} || {{sfrac|1|128}} + {{sfrac|1|256}} = {{sfrac|3|256}} || {{sfrac|1|128}} + {{sfrac|1|256}} + {{sfrac|1|512}} = {{sfrac|7|512}} || {{sfrac|1|128}} + {{sfrac|1|256}} + {{sfrac|1|512}} + {{sfrac|1|1024}} = {{sfrac|15|1024}}
|-
|[[File:Semigarrapatea.svg|x70px]] || [[File:Silencio de semigarrapatea.svg|x70px]] || [[two hundred fifty-sixth note]] || demisemihemidemisemiquaver<ref name=256th>Kartik Asooja, Sindhu Kiranmai, and Paul Buitelaar "[http://csee.essex.ac.uk/camerata/unlp_asooja_long_14.pdf UNLP at the C@merata Task: Question Answering on Musical Scores ACM]"</ref> (rare) || {{sfrac|1|256}} || {{sfrac|1|256}} + {{sfrac|1|512}} = {{sfrac|3|512}} || {{sfrac|1|256}} + {{sfrac|1|512}} + {{sfrac|1|1024}} = {{sfrac|7|1024}} || {{sfrac|1|256}} + {{sfrac|1|512}} + {{sfrac|1|1024}} + {{sfrac|1|2048}} = {{sfrac|15|2048}}
|}

Shorter notes can be created theoretically ''ad infinitum'' by adding further flags, but are very rare.

==Variations==
[[File:Breve notation.svg|thumb|Variants of the breve. The first two are commonly used; the third is a stylistic alternative.]]
The breve appears in several different versions.

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.<ref>Gerou, Tom (1996). ''Essential Dictionary of Music Notation'', p.211. Alfred. {{ISBN|0-88284-730-9}}</ref> 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.

[[File:beamed notes.svg|right|frame|Beamed notes]]

==Modifiers==
A note value may be [[augmentation (music)|augmented]] by adding a dot after it. This [[Dotted note|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 {{sfrac|2''n'' − 1|2''n''}} its value, so [[Dotted note|two dots]] add two lower note values, making a total of one and three quarters times its original duration. The rare [[Dotted note|three dots]] make it one and seven eighths the duration, and so on.

The double dot was first used in 1752 by [[Johann Joachim Quantz|J. J. Quantz]];<ref name=":0">[[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}}.</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" />

The ''vertical'' double dot was introduced by Willi Apel and is commonly used in modern transcriptions of medieval and renaissance music. It lengthens an already dotted note by half: a dotted half note (minim) consisting of 6 quarter notes becomes 9 quarters when vertically double-dotted. This greatly simplifies modern notation (which otherwise would require a dotted half note tied to a dotted quarter note).

To divide a note value to three equal parts, or some other value than two, [[tuplet]]s 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, 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 [[Metre (music)|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 (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 signature]]s 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 [[tuplet|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 [[Ligature (music)|ligatures]], a holdover from the ''clivis'' and ''porrectus'' [[neume]]s used in [[Gregorian chant|chant]].

Around 1600 the modern notational system was generally adopted, along with [[bar (music)|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. ''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==
{{reflist}}

{{Musical notation}}
{{Musical note values}}
{{Rhythm and meter}}

[[Category:Note values| ]]

Note value - Revision history

imported>Jos Haring: /* Modifiers */