Double whole note Double whole note In music, a double whole note (American), breve (international), or double note (; ) is a note lasting two times as long as a whole note (or "semibreve"). It is the second-longest note value still in use in modern music notation (; ). In medieval mensural notation, the "brevis" was one of the shortest note lengths in use —hence its name, which is the Latin etymon of "brief". In "perfect" rhythmic mode, the brevis was a third of a "longa", or in "imperfect" mode, half a "longa" . In modern notation, a breve is commonly represented in
Quarter note the hook used on the note in black notation. However, because the hook appeared on the eighth note (or quaver) in the later white notation, the modern French term refers to an eighth note. The quarter note is played for half the length of a half note and twice that of an eighth note. It is one beat in a bar of . The term "quarter note" is a calque (loan translation) of the German term . The names of this note (and rest) in many other languages are calqued from the same source; Romance languages usually use a term