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Scan 111
The New Encyclopedia Of Music And Musicians, 1929
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1At first all notes were quadrate or square in form and all had solid black bodies. In the 15th century for various reasons they were often made open or 'white,' and from the 16th they began to tend toward the modern oval shape. In modern usage, the oval body (that is, the note proper) is called the head, the vertical stroke attached the stem or tail and the oblique strokes pennants, flags or hooks. When notes bearing pennants are grouped together, they are usually joined by connecting-bars (pennant-bars), thus:
3The whole modern note-system assumes that the normal subdivision of time-units is duplet and so in the above table every note is held to be equal to two of the next note below, unless there is a special mark to the contrary. The unit of reckoning is the semibreve or whole-note. But a triple subdivision may be effected by adding a dot to any note (increasing its value by one half), making it equal to three of the next species; and any note may be replaced by a triplet of the next species.
5The medieval system was different in that it assumed that the normal subdivision was triple, so that in the above table every note was held to be equal to three of the next note below, unless there was a special mark to the contrary. The unit of reckoning was either the maxima or the longa. But a duplet subdivision was provided for at each step in the series as a concession, being called imperfect or minor in distinction from triple, which was perfect or major. The whole subject was made needlessly involved by a cumbrous nomenclature, in which the subdivision of a maxima or longa was called modus, that of a brevis tempus and that of a semibreve prolatio, with certain signs indicating varieties in each case; but there was the further complication that more or less irregular methods of subdivision were made to apply to a whole piece in advance (by means of a sign at the outset) and then that notes under certain conditions might become regular 'by position' in spite of the sign. The probability is that in practice there was not so much difference between the old and the new ways; but the old naming and signs seem extremely complicated now. Of the signs it is enough to give those for tempus perfectum, O (■ = 3 ♪) and for tempus imperfectum, C (■ = 2 ♪), since from the latter comes the modern sign for 'common time.'
7In both the medieval and the modern system signs placed at the head of a piece or passage indicate the general rhythm and its subdivisions. This is now usually called the rhythmic or time-signature. For a table of the modern signs, see under Rhythm.
9The recognition of regular time-units necessitated the use of signs for pauses or silences, the length of which must be made commensurate with that of tones. Those now in use are directly derived from medieval forms; they are now called rests, as follows:
11breve-rest
12semibreve- or whole-rest
13minim- or half-rest
14crotchet- or quarter-rest
15quaver- or eighth-rest
16sixteenth-rest
17thirty-second-rest
18sixty-fourth-rest
20The time-value of a note may be lengthened by placing over or under it the sign called a hold, pause or fermata, which signifies that the rhythm is temporarily suspended and the notes marked are to be continued at the player's discretion. On the other hand, the time-value of a note may be shortened by placing over or under it a staccato-mark (either a dot or a pointed stroke, according as the shortening is to be moderate or extreme), but in this case the balance of the time-value is filled by a rest, so that the actual tone and the silence after it are together equal to the original note-value.
22In modern music there are many cases in which two notes succeeding each other on the same degree are united by a tie or bind, which means that the time-value of the second note is to be added to that of the first without repeating. This sign is not to be confused with the slur, which unites notes on different degrees and signifies connectedness of execution and, in vocal music, the carrying over of a syllable from one note to the other.
24In old music little effort was made to mark the divisions of rhythm called measures. The ends of phrases were often marked by a check or similar mark, sometimes by a vertical bar across the staff. But from the 16th century the custom established itself of marking off the staff into regular measure-lengths by means of such bars. In this practice it was assumed that the measure begins with a stress or accent, so that the bar always means that the note or notes following are under the primary accent. The total time-value of the notes or rests in each part within each measure should equal that indicated by the time-signature. Meanwhile in all kinds of music at the end of sections and in hymn-tunes at the end of lines the old use of the phrase-bar was kept up, but such bars are now usually twice as heavy as measure-bars and are often double. (In England it is common to apply the term bar to measures.)
26Just as was said about the pitch-significance of the staff-degrees, so it should be said here that the shape or species of notes indicates nothing about absolute duration. Their value is relative to that of each other in a given case and to the tempo or pace adopted. Yet in some sorts of music it is customary to use the 'longer' varieties of notes for slower pieces and vice versa. This is, however, offset by other traditional practices (such as the English habit of writing hymn-tunes and anthems as far as possible in breves, semibreves and minims).
28Without attempting to enumerate many special signs used for different purposes, it is enough here to mention some that are in frequent usage. The scope of a phrase is often shown by a sweeping curve about it called a phrase-mark. In vocal music small checks serve as breath-marks in a slightly analogous way. When a section is to be repeated, a repeat-mark can be used at the point where the performer is to turn back— The beginning of the repeat may be marked similarly— or with the sign , called a presa or segno. The signs for crescendo and diminuendo are and , and there are various marks for sharp accents. All embellishments have special signs; those for the mordent, turn and trill are and
30The original name for a note was mutus, a point; from this came the term contrapunctum or counterpoint, which is the art of fitting 'note against note.' An old English word for note was prick; hence prick-song was music that was noted down and also descant or counterpoint (because it needed to be noted).
32The use of note for tone has already been mentioned. The colloquial use of note for key is less defensible.
34Note-Group. In general, a small set of notes intended to be performed as a unit, in vocal music to a single syllable; it usually fills the time of only a single beat of other principal subdivision of a measure. Specifically, such a set of notes embodying a rhythmic subdivision different from that which is normal to the piece or passage as a whole, so as to offer an isolated point of rhythmic contrast to the general move-
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