Note value
Parts_of_a_note.gif
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.
A rest indicates a silence of an equivalent duration.
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Note value names and symbols
A note value does not stand for any absolute duration, but can only be understood in relation to other note values. In the table below, each symbol is exactly twice as long in duration as the symbol below it.
| Note | Rest | American name | British name |
|---|---|---|---|
| Missing image Longa.gif Image:longa.gif | Missing image Longa_rest.gif Image:longa_rest.gif | longa | longa |
| Missing image Breve.gif Image:breve.gif | Missing image Breve_rest.gif Image:breve_rest.gif | breve (or double whole note) | breve |
| Missing image Whole_note.gif Image:whole_note.gif | Missing image Whole_rest.gif Image:whole_rest.gif | whole note | semibreve |
| Missing image Half_note.gif Image:half_note.gif | Missing image Half_rest.gif Image:half_rest.gif | half note | minim |
| Missing image Quarter_note.gif Image:quarter_note.gif | Missing image Quarter_rest.gif Image:quarter_rest.gif | quarter note | crotchet |
| Missing image Eighth_note.gif Image:eighth_note.gif | Missing image Eighth_rest.gif Image:eighth_rest.gif | eighth note | quaver |
| Missing image Sixteenth_note.gif Image:sixteenth_note.gif | Missing image Sixteenth_rest.gif Image:sixteenth_rest.gif | sixteenth note | semiquaver |
| Missing image 32nd_note.gif Image:32nd_note.gif | Missing image 32nd_rest.gif Image:32nd_rest.gif | thirty-second note | demisemiquaver |
| Missing image 64th_note.gif Image:64th_note.gif | Missing image 64th_rest.gif Image:64th_rest.gif | sixty-fourth note | hemidemisemiquaver |
| Missing image 128th_note.gif Image:128th_note.gif | Missing image 128th_rest.gif Image:128th_rest.gif | hundred-twenty-eighth note | quasihemidemisemiquaver |
The earliest use the hundred-twenty-eighth note is in the first movement of Beethoven's Sonata "Pathetique" Op. 13.
Variations
Breve_notation.png
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.gif
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 to note values
A note value may be augmented by adding a dot after it. This dot adds the next lower note value, making it 1.5 times its original duration. Two dots add two lower note values, making a total of 1.75 times its original duration. The rare three dots make 1.875 the duration, and so on.
To divide a note value into three equal parts, or some other value than two, tuplets may be used. However, see swung note and notes inégales.
History of note values
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. Here's an example from 1692, by Marc-Antoine Charpentier:
Missing image
Weisskopf-charpentier-baerenreiter.png
Anachronistic use of white mensual notation in Te Deum by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)
| Musical notation | edit |
| Staff : Clef | Key signature | Time signature | Leger line | Barline | |
| Notes : Note value | Dotted note | Accidental | Rest | |
| Expression marks: Tempo | Dynamics | Articulation | 8va | |