Info Catalog music-glossary: note names music-glossary: Musical terms A-Z music-glossary: octavation

music-glossary: note value

 
 1.217 note value
 ================
 
 ES: valor, duración, I: valore, durata, F: durée, valeur (d’une note),
 D: Notenwert, NL: nootwaarde, DK nodeværdi, S: notvärde, FI: nuotin
 aika-arvo.
 
    Note values (durations) are measured as fractions—in modern usage,
 one-half—of the next higher note value.  The longest duration in current
 use is the breve (equal to two whole notes), but sometimes (especially
 in music dating from the Baroque era or earlier) the longa (four whole
 notes) or maxima (eight whole notes) may be found.
 
    As used in mensural notation, this fraction was more flexible: it
 could also be one-third the higher note value.  Composers indicated
 which proportions to use with various signs—two of which survive to the
 present day: the C-shaped sign for common time, and the slashed C for
 alla breve or cut time.
 
      [image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music"]
 
      [image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music"]
 
    An augmentation dot after a note increases its duration by half; a
 second dot increases it by half of the first addition (that is, by a
 fourth of the original duration).  More dots can be used to add further
 halved fractions of the original note value (1/8, 1/16, etc.), but they
 are not frequently encountered.
 
      [image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music"]
 
    Alternatively note values may be subdivided by other ratios.  Most
 common is subdivision by 3 (_triplets_) and 5 (_quintuplets_).
 Subdivisions by 2 (_duplets_) or 4 (_quadruplets_) of dotted notes are
 also frequently used.
 
      [image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music"]
 
      [image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music"]
 
 
 See also
 ........
 
    common time.
 

Info Catalog music-glossary: note names music-glossary: Musical terms A-Z music-glossary: octavation