Maxima is the longest, although the term was not as common as the others. A note with four stems is a dragon.
Note that the value of the longa and breve have to do with the time signature. One of the few notes in modern notation that retains this distinction is the whole rest. dt At 12:20 PM 1/2/2010, you wrote: >According to Apel's "Notation of polyphonic music" in white mensural >notation the longest note is a Maxima, followed by a Longa, Brevis, >Semibrevis, Minima, Semiminima, Fusa and Semifusa. > >As music speeded up the longer note value were discarded and smaller >note values came into use... > >Monica > > >----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> >Cc: <[email protected]> >Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 5:47 PM >Subject: [LUTE] Re: Finale tab question > > >> In a message dated 1/2/10 7:47:39 AM, [email protected] writes: >> >> Historical tablature used headless notes, but this made it difficult >> when >> music required notes of longer duration than semibreve. >> >> I have always loved the delicious irony that the note with the longest >> value in modern notation, usually termed a "whole" note in the USA, >> should be known as a semibreve. Literally "half a short." >> In earlier notation there was obviously a longer note value, a breve, >> that could be so subdivided. And if there was a "short" (brevis), there >> was clearly a "long" (longa) of even greater value. >> All this goes to show how music of the Middle Ages began to be >> embellished, and musicians needed to devise shorter and shorter values >> in order to notate such passages. Eventually, even the minim couldn't >> do the job. Hemidemisemiquavers anyone? >> Peter Danner >> -- >> >> >>To get on or off this list see list information at >>http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
