Table of Contents

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Table of Contents Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation by Elaine Gould TABLE OF CONTENTS Section I: General Conventions 7 Tuplets The tuning mechanism Stave allocation for woodwind and brass Definition Note-spelling Stave allocation for percussion 1 Ground Rules The tuplet numeral Pedal settings Divided string section layout The stave The tuplet bracket Playing style of chords Playing score Clefs Placing tuplet indications Glissandos WIND AND BRASS BAND: SCORE LAYOUT Noteheads Rhythmic alignment Tremolos and bisbigliando AND PART EXTRACTION Stems Note-value of the tuplet Damping and laissez vibrer Wind band Tails Stating the tuplet ratio in full Harmonics Brass band Beams Degree of note division within tuplets Plucking ORCHESTRAL REDUCTION Ledger Lines Rests within a tuplet Scordatura Layout Octave signs Tuplet beaming Percussive sounds on body of instrument Materials to include Using ledger lines or octave signs Tuplets within tuplets Indicating instrumentation Rest symbols Tuplet repetition 13 Classical Guitar Enharmonic spellings Barlines General notation Rhythmic spacing 8 Repeat Signs String designation 18 Part Preparation Spacing symbols TREMOLOS Right-hand fingering Preparation Principles of repeated-note abbreviation Left-hand fingering Labelling the part 2 Chords – Dotted notes – Ties Tremolo definition Left-hand tenchniques Page-turns CHORDS Single-note tremolos Right-hand tenchniques Clefs, ocatve signs and time signatures Single-stemmed chords Two-note tremolos Area of the string on which to play Multiple rests Adjacent-note chords REPEAT-BEAT AND REPEAT-BAR Sustaining and damping Providing cues Chords with single-stemmed unison notes ABBREVIATIONS Harmonics Cue notation Double-stemmed writing REPEATED SECTIONS Scordatura Cue stave Da Capo and Dal Segno layouts Repeated bars DOTTED NOTED 14 Strings Tacet Double stems Clefs Accidentals Dotted unisons Section II: General Conventions String designation Combined-instrument parts 9 Woodwind and Brass TIES Open strings Percussion GENERAL TOPICS Tie design Fingering Articulation Tie direction for single notes Double-stopping 19 Electroacoustic Music Microtones Tie direction on single-stemmed chords Triple- and quadruple-stopping Introduction Glissandos Tie direction in double-stemmed writing Use of two staves Equipment Special techniques Tied unisons Bowing definitions Amount and type of notation for the score Transposition Tie direction for single-stemmed moving Bowing techniques Notation and co-ordination chords WOODWIND Area of the string on which to bow Layout of the electronic component Open ties Clefs Pizzicato Dynamics for electronic sounds Techniques Left-hand finger work Co-ordination with pre-recorded material 3 Accidentals and Key Signatures Percussive sounds (mixed media) ACCIDENTALS BRASS Harmonics Sampled sounds Design Clefs, transposition and key signatures Scordatura Delay lines Placing Mutes Technical instructions Program changes Using accidentals Techniques Divided string ensemble Continuous controllers Use of accidentals in an atonal context Arranging accidentals for chords 10 Percussion 15 Vocal Music 20 Freedom and Choice Accidentals in double-stemmed writing Allocating instruments to players Clefs RHYTHMIC INDEPENDENCE AND Player number allocation Placing dynamics, expression marks and SYNCHROMISATION KEY SIGNATURES Listing instruments and specifications technical instructions Barlines and time signatures Placing and order of accidentals Labelling Beaming Cadenzas and solo ad libitum passages Spacing Tuned percussion Syllabic slurs Unmeasured bars (Music without metre) Key changes Instruments of indefinite pitch Phrasing and breathing points Independent parts within an ensemble Key signatures in non-tonal or polytonal Layout of instruments of definite and Placing tuplets Indicating synchronization (Unmeasured music indefinite pitch for one player Enharmonic spelling bars and independent ensemble) Two players on one stave Text Independent repetition MICROTONES Note duration Word division Placing material freely within a defined Quarter-tones Damping Extenders time-span Other microtones Sticks, beaters and mallets Hyphens Proportional spacing (time-space notation) Cancelling microtonal alteration Tremolos, rolls and trills Alternative text underlay Notation options Beating spots (striking points) Qualifying text sounds Score layout 4 Dynamics and Articulation Timpani Falsetto Defining time-units DYNAMICS Drum notation Speech notation Cues in instrumental parts ARTICULATION Cymbals Voiced and unvoiced sounds OPTIONS TO SHOW APPROXIMATE PITCH Slurs Symbols to express special techniques Vocal sounds from instrumentalists On the stave Articulation marks CHORAL WRITING On a line or grid 11 Keyboard Two-stave SATB layout ALTERNATIVES (CHOICES) 5 Grace Notes, Arpeggiated Chords, Trills, GENERAL TOPICS Layout with characters (Stage works) Performance conditions Glissandos and Vibrato The system and clefs CHORAL REDUCTION Layout principles Grace notes Distributing notes between the hands Alternative material Arpeggiated chords Voice-leading between staves Alternative sequences of events Trills Section III: Layout and Presentation Unisons Defining limits of choice Glissandos Ties between staves 16 Preparaing Materials Optional additional material Vibrato Fingering Introduction Inserts Part-writing Page sizes and formats 6 Metre Common beam for both hands Stave sizes Introduction Single-line passage-work Pagination Time signatures Placing tuplet indications Bar numbers Beaming according to the metre Placing slurs Rehearsal marks Grouping inner beams Placing dynamics Indentation and layout between movements Horizontal position of rests Octave signs Casting off Grouping rests according to the metre Glissandos Vertical alignment Beaming across rests Note clusters Performance instructions Sustaining notes across beats Stave layouts Use of ‘solo’ and ‘soli’ Beaming to reflect musical structure PIANO NOTATION Optional cuts Syncopation Pedalling The ossia Cross rhythm Silently depressed keys Interchanging simple- & compound-time Effects produced inside the piano 17 Score Layout metres The prepared piano What is included in a full score Polymetre ORGAN NOTATION Score transposition Metres of variable stress Page format Instrument labelling Mixed metres (Alternating time signatures) System layout Score order of instruments Denominator as any division of the Manuals Score brackets and barlines semibreve Registration Enlarging time-signature symbols Denominator as notehead Pedal markings Placing tempo and rehearsal marks Tempo indications Keys held down with wedges or weights Page layout Tempo equations Minimizing vertical space requirements Pauses 12 Harp Stave sharing Silent bars (G.P.) General notation.
Recommended publications
  • Music Notation As a MEI Feasibility Test
    Music Notation as a MEI Feasibility Test Baron Schwartz University of Virginia 268 Colonnades Drive, #2 Charlottesville, Virginia 22903 USA [email protected] Abstract something more general than either notation or performance, but does not leave important domains, such as notation, up to This project demonstrated that enough information the implementer. The MEI format’s design also allows a pro- can be retrieved from MEI, an XML format for mu- cessing application to ignore information it does not need and sical information representation, to transform it into extract the information of interest. For example, the format in- music notation with good fidelity. The process in- cludes information about page layout, but a program for musical volved writing an XSLT script to transform files into analysis can simply ignore it. Mup, an intermediate format, then processing the Generating printed music notation is a revealing test of MEI’s Mup into PostScript, the de facto page description capabilities because notation requires more information about language for high-quality printing. The results show the music than do other domains. Successfully creating notation that the MEI format represents musical information also confirms that the XML represents the information that one such that it may be retrieved simply, with good recall expects it to represent. Because there is a relationship between and precision. the information encoded in both the MEI and Mup files and the printed notation, the notation serves as a good indication that the XML really does represent the same music as the notation. 1 Introduction Most uses of musical information require storage and retrieval, 2 Methods usually in files.
    [Show full text]
  • Automated Analysis and Transcription of Rhythm Data and Their Use for Composition
    Automated Analysis and Transcription of Rhythm Data and their Use for Composition submitted by Georg Boenn for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Bath Department of Computer Science February 2011 COPYRIGHT Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with its author. This copy of the thesis has been supplied on the condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author. This thesis may not be consulted, photocopied or lent to other libraries without the permission of the author for 3 years from the date of acceptance of the thesis. Signature of Author . .................................. Georg Boenn To Daiva, the love of my life. 1 Contents 1 Introduction 17 1.1 Musical Time and the Problem of Musical Form . 17 1.2 Context of Research and Research Questions . 18 1.3 Previous Publications . 24 1.4 Contributions..................................... 25 1.5 Outline of the Thesis . 27 2 Background and Related Work 28 2.1 Introduction...................................... 28 2.2 Representations of Musical Rhythm . 29 2.2.1 Notation of Rhythm and Metre . 29 2.2.2 The Piano-Roll Notation . 33 2.2.3 Necklace Notation of Rhythm and Metre . 34 2.2.4 Adjacent Interval Spectrum . 36 2.3 Onset Detection . 36 2.3.1 ManualTapping ............................... 36 The times Opcode in Csound . 38 2.3.2 MIDI ..................................... 38 MIDIFiles .................................. 38 MIDIinReal-Time.............................. 40 2.3.3 Onset Data extracted from Audio Signals . 40 2.3.4 Is it sufficient just to know about the onset times? . 41 2.4 Temporal Perception .
    [Show full text]
  • Interpreting Tempo and Rubato in Chopin's Music
    Interpreting tempo and rubato in Chopin’s music: A matter of tradition or individual style? Li-San Ting A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of New South Wales School of the Arts and Media Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences June 2013 ABSTRACT The main goal of this thesis is to gain a greater understanding of Chopin performance and interpretation, particularly in relation to tempo and rubato. This thesis is a comparative study between pianists who are associated with the Chopin tradition, primarily the Polish pianists of the early twentieth century, along with French pianists who are connected to Chopin via pedagogical lineage, and several modern pianists playing on period instruments. Through a detailed analysis of tempo and rubato in selected recordings, this thesis will explore the notions of tradition and individuality in Chopin playing, based on principles of pianism and pedagogy that emerge in Chopin’s writings, his composition, and his students’ accounts. Many pianists and teachers assume that a tradition in playing Chopin exists but the basis for this notion is often not made clear. Certain pianists are considered part of the Chopin tradition because of their indirect pedagogical connection to Chopin. I will investigate claims about tradition in Chopin playing in relation to tempo and rubato and highlight similarities and differences in the playing of pianists of the same or different nationality, pedagogical line or era. I will reveal how the literature on Chopin’s principles regarding tempo and rubato relates to any common or unique traits found in selected recordings.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 1 "The Elements of Rhythm: Sound, Symbol, and Time"
    This is “The Elements of Rhythm: Sound, Symbol, and Time”, chapter 1 from the book Music Theory (index.html) (v. 1.0). This book is licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/ 3.0/) license. See the license for more details, but that basically means you can share this book as long as you credit the author (but see below), don't make money from it, and do make it available to everyone else under the same terms. This content was accessible as of December 29, 2012, and it was downloaded then by Andy Schmitz (http://lardbucket.org) in an effort to preserve the availability of this book. Normally, the author and publisher would be credited here. However, the publisher has asked for the customary Creative Commons attribution to the original publisher, authors, title, and book URI to be removed. Additionally, per the publisher's request, their name has been removed in some passages. More information is available on this project's attribution page (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/attribution.html?utm_source=header). For more information on the source of this book, or why it is available for free, please see the project's home page (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/). You can browse or download additional books there. i Chapter 1 The Elements of Rhythm: Sound, Symbol, and Time Introduction The first musical stimulus anyone reacts to is rhythm. Initially, we perceive how music is organized in time, and how musical elements are organized rhythmically in relation to each other. Early Western music, centering upon the chant traditions for liturgical use, was arhythmic to a great extent: the flow of the Latin text was the principal determinant as to how the melody progressed through time.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Fleeing Franco’s Spain: Carlos Surinach and Leonardo Balada in the United States (1950–75) Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5rk9m7wb Author Wahl, Robert Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Fleeing Franco’s Spain: Carlos Surinach and Leonardo Balada in the United States (1950–75) A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music by Robert J. Wahl August 2016 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Walter A. Clark, Chairperson Dr. Byron Adams Dr. Leonora Saavedra Copyright by Robert J. Wahl 2016 The Dissertation of Robert J. Wahl is approved: __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements I would like to thank the music faculty at the University of California, Riverside, for sharing their expertise in Ibero-American and twentieth-century music with me throughout my studies and the dissertation writing process. I am particularly grateful for Byron Adams and Leonora Saavedra generously giving their time and insight to help me contextualize my work within the broader landscape of twentieth-century music. I would also like to thank Walter Clark, my advisor and dissertation chair, whose encouragement, breadth of knowledge, and attention to detail helped to shape this dissertation into what it is. He is a true role model. This dissertation would not have been possible without the generous financial support of several sources. The Manolito Pinazo Memorial Award helped to fund my archival research in New York and Pittsburgh, and the Maxwell H.
    [Show full text]
  • Feathered Beams in Cross-Staff Notation 3 Luke Dahn Step 1: on the Bottom Staff, Insert One 32Nd Rest; Trying to Fix This
    ® Feathered Beams in Cross-Staff Notation 3 Luke Dahn Step 1: On the bottom staff, insert one 32nd rest; Trying to fix this. then enter notes 2 through 8 as a tuplet: seven quarter notes in the space of seven 32nds. (Hide number œ and bracket on tuplet.) 4 #œ #œ œ & 4 Œ Ó œ 4 œ #œ œ œ & 4 bœ œ #œ Œ Ó ®bœ œ #œ Œ Ó Step 3: On the other staff (top here), insert the first note Step 2: Apply cross-staff and stem direction change to following by any random on the staff. (This note will be notes as appropriate. hidden, so a note off the staff will produce ledger lines.) #œ œ œ #œ œ œ #œ ‰ Œ Ó & œ & ®bœ œ #œ œ Œ Ó ®bœ œ #œ œ Œ Ó Step 4: Now hide the rests within beat 1 in top staff, and drag the second note to the place in the measure where the final note of the grouplet rests (the D here). Step 5: Feather and place the beaming as appropriate. * See note below. #œ #œ œ œ #œ #œ œ œ & œ Œ Ó œ Œ Ó ®bœ œ #œ œ Œ Ó ®bœ œ #œ œ Œ Ó & Step 7: Using the stem length tool, drag the stems of the quarter-note tuplets to the feathered beam as appropriate. The final note of the tuplet may need horizontal adjustment Step 6: Once the randomly inserted note is placed (step 4), to align with the end of the beam.
    [Show full text]
  • Guide to Programming with Music Blocks Music Blocks Is a Programming Environment for Children Interested in Music and Graphics
    Guide to Programming with Music Blocks Music Blocks is a programming environment for children interested in music and graphics. It expands upon Turtle Blocks by adding a collection of features relating to pitch and rhythm. The Turtle Blocks guide is a good place to start learning about the basics. In this guide, we illustrate the musical features by walking the reader through numerous examples. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Getting Started 2 Making a Sound 2.1 Note Value Blocks 2.2 Pitch Blocks 2.3 Chords 2.4 Rests 2.5 Drums 3 Programming with Music 3.1 Chunks 3.2 Musical Transformations 3.2.1 Step Pitch Block 3.2.2 Sharps and Flats 3.2.3 Adjust-Transposition Block 3.2.4 Dotted Notes 3.2.5 Speeding Up and Slowing Down Notes via Mathematical Operations 3.2.6 Repeating Notes 3.2.7 Swinging Notes and Tied Notes 3.2.8 Set Volume, Crescendo, Staccato, and Slur Blocks 3.2.9 Intervals and Articulation 3.2.10 Absolute Intervals 3.2.11 Inversion 3.2.12 Backwards 3.2.13 Setting Voice and Keys 3.2.14 Vibrato 3.3 Voices 3.4 Graphics 3.5 Interactions 4 Widgets 4.1 Monitoring status 4.2 Generating chunks of notes 4.2.1 Pitch-Time Matrix 4.2.2 The Rhythm Block 4.2.3 Creating Tuplets 4.2.4 What is a Tuplet? 4.2.5 Using Individual Notes in the Matrix 4.3 Generating rhythms 4.4 Musical Modes 4.5 The Pitch-Drum Matrix 4.6 Exploring musical proportions 4.7 Generating arbitrary pitches 4.8 Changing tempo 5 Beyond Music Blocks Many of the examples given in the guide have links to code you can run.
    [Show full text]
  • Non-Isochronous Meter: a Study of Cross-Cultural Practices, Analytic Technique, and Implications for Jazz Pedagogy
    NON-ISOCHRONOUS METER: A STUDY OF CROSS-CULTURAL PRACTICES, ANALYTIC TECHNIQUE, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR JAZZ PEDAGOGY JORDAN P. SAULL A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MUSIC YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO December 2014 © Jordan Saull, 2014 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the use of non-isochronous (NI) meters in jazz compositional and performative practices (meters as comprised of cycles of a prime number [e.g., 5, 7, 11] or uneven divisions of non-prime cycles [e.g., 9 divided as 2+2+2+3]). The explorative meter practices of jazz, while constituting a central role in the construction of its own identity, remains curiously absent from jazz scholarship. The conjunct research broadly examines NI meters and the various processes/strategies and systems utilized in historical and current jazz composition and performance practices. While a considerable amount of NI meter composers have advertantly drawn from the metric practices of non-Western music traditions, the potential for utilizing insights gleaned from contemporary music-theoretical discussions of meter have yet to fully emerge as a complimentary and/or organizational schemata within jazz pedagogy and discourse. This paper seeks to address this divide, but not before an accurate picture of historical meter practice is assessed, largely as a means for contextualizing developments within historical and contemporary practice and discourse. The dissertation presents a chronology of explorative meter developments in jazz, firstly, by tracing compositional output, and secondly, by establishing the relevant sources within conjunct periods of development i.e., scholarly works, relative academic developments, and tractable world music sources.
    [Show full text]
  • Metricsplit– Automated Notation of Rhythms, Adequate to a Metric Structure TECHNICAL REPORT
    metricSplit{ Automated Notation of Rhythms, Adequate to a Metric Structure TECHNICAL REPORT Markus Lepper semantics GmbH Baltasar Tranc´ony Widemann Programmiersprachen und Compilertechnik Technische Universit¨at Ilmenau 2017-03-31 urn:nbn:de:gbv:ilm1-2017200259 Zusammenfassung In der traditionellen Westeurop¨aischen Standard-Notation\ der Musik " ( Common Western Notation\, CWN) kann jeder als Folge von Dauernwerten " gegebener musikalischer Rhythmus mittels der grundlegenden Mittel der Dau- ernbeschreibung (Notensymbole, Verl¨angerungspunkte, Proportionalklammern, Halteb¨ogen) auf unendlich viele Weisen dargestellt werden. Ein musikalisches Metrum ist eine hierarchische Gliederung der Dauer eines Taktes in Unterintervalle. Ein Metrum schr¨ankt die Anzahl der m¨oglichen Notationen deutlich ein auf die ihm ad¨aquaten. Dies bedeutet: ergonomisch zweckm¨aßig fur¨ leichte Erfassbarkeit der ryhthmischen Gestalt als solcher und ihrer Stellung relativ in der Hierarchie des Metrums. Im Falle automatisch generierter Dauernfolgen, z.B. durch algorithmische Komposition oder computergestutzte¨ Analyse, erhebt sich das Problem der automatischen Berechnung solch ad¨aquater Darstellungen. Dies erledigt der Algorithmus metricSplit, der in dieser Schrift spezifiziert wird. Als vollst¨andige Funktion uber¨ alle m¨oglichen Eingaben ist er ohne ver¨offentlichte Vorl¨aufer. Die zu seiner Konstruktion und Beschreibung notwendigen Formalisierungen sollen auch beitragen zur allgemeinen Diskussion uber¨ Rollen und Eigenschaften von mathematischen Modellen in ¨asthetischen
    [Show full text]
  • A Beat-Oriented System of Rhythm Pedagogy
    Takadimi: A Beat-Oriented System of Rhythm Pedagogy Richard Hoffman, William Pelto, and John W. White tudents entering college in the 1990s are less well prepared in S many areas of fundamentals than were students of previous generations. This situation is not surprising given reductions in public school music education, a shift away from music making as a leisure time activity, and changing musical values. As a result, there are increasing numbers of students with the interest and tal- ent to study music at the college level who lack the requisite skills. Further, the teaching of these students is influenced by an emerg- ing egalitarian approach to higher education in which it is expected that all students, regardless of background, will be given every op- portunity to succeed. Students, administrators, and the circum- stances themselves demand pedagogic techniques that not only evaluate and hone basic skills, but effectively teach those skills to novices as well. These conditions present a particular challenge to music teach- ers in their efforts to teach rhythm skills. While most students be- gin college needing remediation or basic instruction, the level of rhythmic complexity at which they are expected to function contin- ues to increase. Teachers, therefore, need pedagogic techniques that address elementary skills and complex rhythmic concepts in order to provide a strong foundation for musicians who will practice their art well into the twenty-first century. Goals of Effective Rhythm Pedagogy In order to address these concerns, we propose the following goals for an effective rhythm pedagogy: Reprinted from Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, vol 10 (1996) 7 – 30.
    [Show full text]
  • Uses for the Tuplets Over Barlines Plug-In in Sibelius Robin Walker February 5, 2020
    Uses for the Tuplets Over Barlines plug-in in Sibelius Robin Walker February 5, 2020 Practical uses for Tuplet Over Barlines (all examples provided by Robin Walker) Here are some practical applications for this plug-in. Mensural Notation In September 2017, Alexander Plötz published an article on the Scoring Notes blog, entitled: Use Dorico’s tuplets-over-barline feature for proper mensural notation In that article, Alexander explained how the ability to engrave tuplets over a barline enabled the engraver to reproduce the original period notation whereby the sounding duration of a note extended over a (sometimes hypothetical) barline, instead of using ties over a barline in the modern fashion. The article is well worth reading for an explanation of the technique. That technique is now available in Sibelius, using Tuplet Over Barlines. In the example attached, the locations where the plug-in has been used are highlit in yellow. In five cases, the plug-in has been used to engrave a dotted full note over a barline, so that the first full-note’s worth occurs before the barline, and the remaining half-note occurs at the beginning of the next bar: but only one dotted full note has been engraved. This is achieved by positioning a note or rest selection at the desired starting point of the dotted whole note, and asking the plug-in to create a tuplet of ratio 1:1 with unit length of a 1 dotted whole note. Note how the spacing of the second bar is correctly managed, so that blank space is maintained for the residual half-note, before the next note appears.
    [Show full text]
  • HORIZONTAL STRUCTURE One Way in Which Most Styles of Music Strive
    CHAPTER XI HORIZONTAL STRUCTURE One way in which most styles of music strive to satisfy the listener is to present repeating patterns which are easily recognized by the listener. Certainly this represents a connection between music and mathematics, although the mathematics involved here is not deep for the mostpart. Duration of Notes Time durations in music are often measured in beats, which are the temporal units by which music is notated. Frequently one beat represents the time interval by which one is prone to “count off” the passing of time while the music is performed, although this is not always the case. The most basic notational unit, of course, is the note, and the duration of the note is indicated by such things as note stems, dots, and tuplet designations. The durational names of notes in Western music is based on the whole note, which has a duration in beats (often four) dictated by the time signature (discussed below). Notes whose duration has proportion 1/2n,n∈ Z+ with the duration of the whole note are named according to that proportion. Thus, if the whole note has a certain duration in beats, then the half note has half that duration, the quarternotehas one fourth that duration, etc. In the situation where a whole note gets four beats, then a half note gets two beats and the sixty-fourth note represents one eighth of a beat. We will use the term durational note to mean a note distinguished by its duration, such as half note, quarter note, independent of its associated pitch.
    [Show full text]