Scribd
Upload
13 views2 pages

Quarter Note

A quarter note, known as a crotchet in British terminology, represents one quarter of a whole note's duration and is notated with a filled oval note head and a straight stem. It is equivalent to the semiminima in mensural notation and typically signifies one beat in a 4/4 time signature. The term 'crotchet' is derived from Old French, and various languages have their own names for the note, often relating to the concept of 'quarter'.

Uploaded by

Daniel Carlos de Almeida
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
13 views2 pages

Quarter Note

A quarter note, known as a crotchet in British terminology, represents one quarter of a whole note's duration and is notated with a filled oval note head and a straight stem. It is equivalent to the semiminima in mensural notation and typically signifies one beat in a 4/4 time signature. The term 'crotchet' is derived from Old French, and various languages have their own names for the note, often relating to the concept of 'quarter'.

Uploaded by

Daniel Carlos de Almeida
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Quarter note

A quarter note (American) or crotchet (/ˈkrɒtʃɪt/


KROTCH-it) (British) is a musical note played for one
quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve).
Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note
head and a straight, flagless stem. The stem usually
points upwards if it is below the middle line of the
A quarter note (crotchet) with stem pointing up, a
staff, and downwards if it is on or above the middle
quarter note with stem pointing down, and a quarter
line. An upward stem is placed on the right side of the
rest
notehead, a downward stem is placed on the left (see
image). The Unicode symbol is U+2669 (♩).

A quarter rest (or crotchet rest) denotes a silence of


the same duration as a quarter note. It typically appears
as the symbol , or occasionally, as the older symbol
.[a][1]

History Four quarter notes

The note equates to the semiminima ('half minim') of


mensural notation. The word "crotchet" comes from Old French
crochet, meaning 'little hook', diminutive of croc, 'hook', because of
the hook used on the note in black notation of the medieval period.

As the name implies, a quarter note's duration is one quarter that of


a whole note, half the length of a half note, and twice that of an
eighth note. It represents one beat in a bar of 4 4 time. The term
"quarter note" is a calque (loan-translation) of the German term Comparison of duple note values:
= 2× , etc.
Viertelnote.

In Romance languages, the name of this note and its equivalent Drum pattern, s on bass and snare,
rest is usually derived from the Latin negra meaning 'black'—the accompanied by ride patterns of various
Catalan, French, Galician, and Spanish names for the note (all of duple lengths from to 128th (all at =60)
which mean 'black') derive from the fact that the semiminima
was the longest note to be colored in mensural white notation.
This is still true of the note's modern form. The Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Japanese, Korean,
Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Serbian and Slovak names mean "quarter" (for the note) and "quarter's pause"
(for the rest).

See also
List of musical symbols

Notes
a. Examples of the older symbol are found in English music up to the late 19th century, e.g. W.
A. Mozart Requiem Mass, vocal score ed. W. T. Best, pub. London: Novello & Co. Ltd. 1879.

References
1. Rudiments and Theory of Music Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London
1958. I,33 and III,25. The former section shows both forms without distinction, the latter the
"old" form only. The book was the Official ABRSM theory manual in the UK up until at least
1975. The "old" form was taught as a manuscript variant of the printed form.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quarter_note&oldid=1214429409"

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy