Below, you can see how the American fraction-based system works and compare the music note names to the British Latin-based names! Eventually, this also influenced the American system. They standardized new terminology for their cultures, including music and its naming systems – many of these new naming systems were based on fractions. These Protestant countries pushed for their own languages to have more importance in religion and government. After this Latin fell out of style in newly Protestant countries like Germany. Then the Protestant Reformation happened. Eventually shorter notes emerged in the 1300s, like the semibreve (whole note) and then the minim (half note), which was considered to be the shortest music note at the time! We know now that the notes can get much shorter. These notes have all fallen out of use in most modern music. Some of the different notes that existed first were the maxima (large or octuple whole note), the longa (long or quadruple whole note), and the breve (brief or double whole note). Masses and prayers were largely sung in Latin, and even if someone couldn’t speak Latin themselves, they could learn to sing along.Īround 1250, a German music theorist named Franco of Cologne created a new system of notation that used squares and diamonds to indicate note durations. Some of the earliest Western Classical composers were monks and nuns (shout out to Hildegard von Bingen!). Most of Europe at the time was Roman Catholic, and the Roman Catholic Church used Latin.

This makes sense considering that in the early days of modern musical notation (around 1000-1200 AD/CE), music was very important to religion. Music terminology from the United Kingdom, such as breve, crotchet, quaver, minim, has its roots in Latin. If you’re a student somewhere else, you might think that this music note makes a different sound than “ti”, but did you know that in some places the eighth note has a different name too? If you’re from the United Kingdom, you probably call this music note a “quaver!” Different countries have different musical terminology, which makes sense when different languages are spoken, but why are there TWO systems for English-speaking countries? Beyond the Quaver: Where (and When) Music Terms Came From If you study music in the United States, then you know that we call this an “eighth note”, and as a Hoffman Academy student, you know that it makes the sound “ti”. The abbreviations employed in music are of two kinds, namely, the abridgment of terms relating to musical expression, and the true musical abbreviations by the help of which certain passages, chords, etc., may be written in a curtailed form, to the greater convenience of both composer and performer.Ībbreviations of the first kind need receive no special consideration here they consist for the most part of the initial letter or first syllable of the word employed-as for instance, p.What is a quaver in music? Learn about quavers and discover other music note names below for drums (timpani) and their meaning is everywhere sufficiently obvious. Those of musical passages are indicated by signs, as follows. The continued repetition of a note or chord is expressed by a stroke or strokes across the stem, or above or below the note if it be a semi-breve (Ex. On bowed instruments the rapid reiteration of a single note is easy, but in pianoforte music an octave or chord becomes necessary to produce a tremolo, the manner of writing and performing which is 1), the number of strokes denoting the subdivision of the written note into quavers, semiquavers, etc., unless the word tremolo or tremolando is added, in which case the repetition is as rapid as possible, without regard to the exact number of notes played.

Quaver music definition